For your health
Diligence! It’s all about diligence!
Any males reading this might want to skip this next part.
I really hate getting my period. Especially the first two days, when my flow is the heaviest and my cramps are so painful they’re almost blinding. It’s gross and a little disconcerting to stand in front of a class when I’m bleeding out my naughty bits. I’m always convinced my students can see it (even though I wear black pants). Or worse, smell it. I’m paranoid during each lesson, and that can get pretty tiring after a while. Meanwhile, the pain is hard to work through. The aspirin I take isn’t strong enough to make me feel better. So for a couple of days I’m almost doubled over my desk while trying to figure out if anybody can tell I’m on my period.
The males may resume reading from here on out.
Unfortunately, my schools (along with every other school in this silly country) is deathly afraid of swine flu, so any illness is automatically assumed to be it until a doctor says otherwise. So today when one of the office ladies saw me doubled over my desk, she asked if I had influenza. I told her I didn’t. Another office lady asked if I was sick, and I told her I had “woman’s illness.” This wasn’t just subtlety on my part; I had forgotten the word for “menstruation.” But she knew what I was talking about and offered me some medicine.
I should mention here, for those who are not yet aware, that Japanese medicine is less powerful than American medicine (at least the stuff you can buy over the counter). I have to take at least four aspirin tables to mimic the effects of about two in the states. If a Japanese person who isn’t a doctor gives you medicine, it will be the recommended dosage on the box. When I’m having my “woman’s illness,” I like to pop about two or three tablets of aspirin back home. The equivalent of one just isn’t going to do it. Not by a long shot. But it looks bad if you ask for five or six. So I told her no, thank you, and continued to drink water for the rest of the day. (I read somewhere long ago that it’s better not to consume caffeine at this time, so I’m following that advice until someone can give me a convincing reason to stop.)
The staff also thinks I have influenza because I’m always cold. I keep telling them that it has to do with the weather, not any virus lurking in my system. Japanese fall weather is a lot like Phoenix winter weather. I.e., it’s cold for those who aren’t used to really cold weather. So that’s why I wear my wool coat at school. I sued to wear my suit jacket, but it’s just not thick enough. In Phoenix, it would have lasted me until at least December. Here it gave me September and the early part of October. Yes, I’m a pansy when it comes to cold weather, but I don’t care. It’s an excuse to buy cute winter clothes.
In order to prevent sickness, or at least prevent the spread of sickness, the Japanese like to don masks that cover their noses and mouths. I hate wearing these masks. When I exhale, the air goes straight up into my eyes and fogs my glasses. So I have to wear my glasses farther down the bridge of my nose. Which makes me look a little silly. This is ignoring the fact that masks are not a sure matter of prevention of disease. It helps, maybe a little, but viruses are tricky little suckers, and if they want to make you sick they’ll find a way, by god.
The Japanese are really funny when it comes to disease. The swine flu terror demonstrates it perfectly. Whole classes are shut down if at least three students in a single class get sick with it. All of the students in first year class one are gone until next week as a preventative measure. Which means these students are going to be a week behind by the time they come back. They’re not really strong enough students to catch up quickly, either. But I digress. The teachers all wear masks, as do most of the students. Everyone on the street wears a mask. There are signs encouraging citizens to wash their hands with alcohol after using soap and hot water. Gargling solution is also available to prevent catching nasty disease-causing germs. You’d think swine flu was the next plague. (And, oddly enough, this isn’t the first time the Japanese have overreacted toward a new strain of whateverthefuck.)
Here’s the part that gets me: the Japanese take all these precautionary measures and work themselves into little balls of fear. They wash their hands constantly, like OCD patients. They gargle at least three times a day. They wear masks. And yet they don’t cover their mouths when they sneeze or cough. This is one of the easiest ways to spread disease to others, and they still do it. Now, not all Japanese forgo covering their mouths, but enough of them do that it makes me wonder how they’ve managed to overlook it. They thought of everything else, after all. You would think they’d eventually get into the habit. But no. It’s just another thing about the Japanese I suppose I’ll never understand.
I really wish the schools would calm down about this swine flu business. It’s not as scary as you think, folks. It’s just as deadly as regular ol’ seasonal flu. Remember the bird flu scare? It’s the same idea. new strain, just as dangerous as the original, you’re getting a little too worked up.
But the mob never listens to the voice of reason. So I’ll just keep wearing my stupid face mask and wait. And feel very superior when the dust settles. Like you do.
~Mai
“Today’s word is: Quarantine!”
Any males reading this might want to skip this next part.
I really hate getting my period. Especially the first two days, when my flow is the heaviest and my cramps are so painful they’re almost blinding. It’s gross and a little disconcerting to stand in front of a class when I’m bleeding out my naughty bits. I’m always convinced my students can see it (even though I wear black pants). Or worse, smell it. I’m paranoid during each lesson, and that can get pretty tiring after a while. Meanwhile, the pain is hard to work through. The aspirin I take isn’t strong enough to make me feel better. So for a couple of days I’m almost doubled over my desk while trying to figure out if anybody can tell I’m on my period.
The males may resume reading from here on out.
Unfortunately, my schools (along with every other school in this silly country) is deathly afraid of swine flu, so any illness is automatically assumed to be it until a doctor says otherwise. So today when one of the office ladies saw me doubled over my desk, she asked if I had influenza. I told her I didn’t. Another office lady asked if I was sick, and I told her I had “woman’s illness.” This wasn’t just subtlety on my part; I had forgotten the word for “menstruation.” But she knew what I was talking about and offered me some medicine.
I should mention here, for those who are not yet aware, that Japanese medicine is less powerful than American medicine (at least the stuff you can buy over the counter). I have to take at least four aspirin tables to mimic the effects of about two in the states. If a Japanese person who isn’t a doctor gives you medicine, it will be the recommended dosage on the box. When I’m having my “woman’s illness,” I like to pop about two or three tablets of aspirin back home. The equivalent of one just isn’t going to do it. Not by a long shot. But it looks bad if you ask for five or six. So I told her no, thank you, and continued to drink water for the rest of the day. (I read somewhere long ago that it’s better not to consume caffeine at this time, so I’m following that advice until someone can give me a convincing reason to stop.)
The staff also thinks I have influenza because I’m always cold. I keep telling them that it has to do with the weather, not any virus lurking in my system. Japanese fall weather is a lot like Phoenix winter weather. I.e., it’s cold for those who aren’t used to really cold weather. So that’s why I wear my wool coat at school. I sued to wear my suit jacket, but it’s just not thick enough. In Phoenix, it would have lasted me until at least December. Here it gave me September and the early part of October. Yes, I’m a pansy when it comes to cold weather, but I don’t care. It’s an excuse to buy cute winter clothes.
In order to prevent sickness, or at least prevent the spread of sickness, the Japanese like to don masks that cover their noses and mouths. I hate wearing these masks. When I exhale, the air goes straight up into my eyes and fogs my glasses. So I have to wear my glasses farther down the bridge of my nose. Which makes me look a little silly. This is ignoring the fact that masks are not a sure matter of prevention of disease. It helps, maybe a little, but viruses are tricky little suckers, and if they want to make you sick they’ll find a way, by god.
The Japanese are really funny when it comes to disease. The swine flu terror demonstrates it perfectly. Whole classes are shut down if at least three students in a single class get sick with it. All of the students in first year class one are gone until next week as a preventative measure. Which means these students are going to be a week behind by the time they come back. They’re not really strong enough students to catch up quickly, either. But I digress. The teachers all wear masks, as do most of the students. Everyone on the street wears a mask. There are signs encouraging citizens to wash their hands with alcohol after using soap and hot water. Gargling solution is also available to prevent catching nasty disease-causing germs. You’d think swine flu was the next plague. (And, oddly enough, this isn’t the first time the Japanese have overreacted toward a new strain of whateverthefuck.)
Here’s the part that gets me: the Japanese take all these precautionary measures and work themselves into little balls of fear. They wash their hands constantly, like OCD patients. They gargle at least three times a day. They wear masks. And yet they don’t cover their mouths when they sneeze or cough. This is one of the easiest ways to spread disease to others, and they still do it. Now, not all Japanese forgo covering their mouths, but enough of them do that it makes me wonder how they’ve managed to overlook it. They thought of everything else, after all. You would think they’d eventually get into the habit. But no. It’s just another thing about the Japanese I suppose I’ll never understand.
I really wish the schools would calm down about this swine flu business. It’s not as scary as you think, folks. It’s just as deadly as regular ol’ seasonal flu. Remember the bird flu scare? It’s the same idea. new strain, just as dangerous as the original, you’re getting a little too worked up.
But the mob never listens to the voice of reason. So I’ll just keep wearing my stupid face mask and wait. And feel very superior when the dust settles. Like you do.
~Mai
“Today’s word is: Quarantine!”