Mud baths and opthamologists
Greetings from Beppu - city of hot springs. Yeah, and they are EVERYWHERE. When I exited the train station - the first thing I saw was a hot spring for hands. It was like a little fountain - except that the water was HOT! There are so many hot springs in this city. You can even see random plumes of smoke rising from various places in the city.
So about two days ago -I realise that I was at a start of yet another eye infection. Its a fairly regular thing for me - just part of wearing contact lenses I figured. Anyway, I was a bit panicky just b/c I wasnt too keen on trying to find an English speaking doctor in Japan - let alone from a small town like Beppu or an even smaller town like Aso. I started calling my medical insurance company to see if I could find a doctor in my next big city - Hakata (5th largest in Japan). I totally lucked out b/c I mentioned that I had an eye infection to the guy who works at the guesthouse and how I was debating whether or not to go immediately to Hakata today to look for a hospital with an English speaking doctor and hes like - theres an eye doctor next door. What? You mean, he lives next door? Or he has an office next door? Nope, theres an eye doctor next door. And sure enough, next door to my guest house is an opthamologist office. So by about 930am this morning, I have visited the opthamologist - hed given me eye drops and an ointment to put on the puffy bit below my eye and I was on my way. Not quite sure what hes given me - but Ill put my faith in the Japanese medical system.
So I spent the rest of the day visiting the various onsens (read hot springs and spas) around the city. I visited a springs loosely translated as Blue Sea Hell. These hot springs are too hot to actually go in. You just look at them and boil eggs in them. Then I visited a hot mud bath area. That was cool. And then I visited a hill side hot springs overlooking the city and had it to myself. Oh yeah, and last night, I went to another spa that was literally scalding hot. A nice Nagoya businessman started chatting me up and we went for coffee afterwards. Cool deal. He got to practice my English and I got to hang out w/ a Japanese and learn more about the country firsthand.
Anyway, I can hear English being spoken nearby so I better go check it out. Im longing to have a decent conversation in English. Laters.
So about two days ago -I realise that I was at a start of yet another eye infection. Its a fairly regular thing for me - just part of wearing contact lenses I figured. Anyway, I was a bit panicky just b/c I wasnt too keen on trying to find an English speaking doctor in Japan - let alone from a small town like Beppu or an even smaller town like Aso. I started calling my medical insurance company to see if I could find a doctor in my next big city - Hakata (5th largest in Japan). I totally lucked out b/c I mentioned that I had an eye infection to the guy who works at the guesthouse and how I was debating whether or not to go immediately to Hakata today to look for a hospital with an English speaking doctor and hes like - theres an eye doctor next door. What? You mean, he lives next door? Or he has an office next door? Nope, theres an eye doctor next door. And sure enough, next door to my guest house is an opthamologist office. So by about 930am this morning, I have visited the opthamologist - hed given me eye drops and an ointment to put on the puffy bit below my eye and I was on my way. Not quite sure what hes given me - but Ill put my faith in the Japanese medical system.
So I spent the rest of the day visiting the various onsens (read hot springs and spas) around the city. I visited a springs loosely translated as Blue Sea Hell. These hot springs are too hot to actually go in. You just look at them and boil eggs in them. Then I visited a hot mud bath area. That was cool. And then I visited a hill side hot springs overlooking the city and had it to myself. Oh yeah, and last night, I went to another spa that was literally scalding hot. A nice Nagoya businessman started chatting me up and we went for coffee afterwards. Cool deal. He got to practice my English and I got to hang out w/ a Japanese and learn more about the country firsthand.
Anyway, I can hear English being spoken nearby so I better go check it out. Im longing to have a decent conversation in English. Laters.
posted by John A @ 2:14 AM
1 Comments:
At 5:14 AM,
Anonymous said…
Hey hey!
In regards to your contacts. Are you abusing them? What kind of contacts do you wear?? If they're not daily disposables, what kind of cleaning solution do you use??
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