Week 7: Postcrossing

This post is going to be a short one. I know, I know, I’m ridiculously behind. I’m still writing about posts from mid March, when we’re nearing the end of April. But that’s why this one is going to be short. If I make them all slightly shorter, especially the ones that aren’t really worth writing 3 pages of text about. So here it goes.

Once upon a time I realized that I liked getting postcards. Like, a lot.  So much, in fact, that I would scour stores for postcards whenever I travelled anywhere in the hopes that if I sent it to one of my friends, they would be nice enough to send a postcard back.

Through this method, my postcard collection slowly grew larger and larger over the last year or so. This is what it looked like when I first started decorating my apartment in Kuriyama:

And this is what it looks like now:

This, however, is hardly something new. Big deal, right?

No, the new thing is my discovery of the coolest website in recent history, www.postcrossing.com. On this website, you sign up for a profile and you are given random addresses and names of people who would like to receive real life postcards from you. In return, once they have registered a postcard you’ve sent them, your address is put out there, and you will receive one from someone random in return.

The idea is simple and brilliant. You can track where your postcards go, where they are from, and even do direct swaps via the site. It is all very exciting. So with that in mind, I figured my new thing of the week would be to send and receive postcards to and from COMPLETE STRANGERS.

So I did. And it was awesome.

I made an account, wrote a little blurb about myself, then asked for 5 addresses to send postcards to. I ended up with explicit instructions to send 2 postcards to Russia, 1 to Belarus, 1 to Poland and 1 to Germany. I wrote out my postcards, super excited, and went to the post office to mail them.

The lady at the post office seemed a little confused as to why I was sending these postcards to all these crazy places, but since I visit the Kuriyama post office at least once a week to send things to strange places, I think she was used to me by now. I just walked in, and she said “Canada ni okuru?” (do you want to send this to Canada?)


I was like “Nope! ALL OF THESE CRAZY PLACE INSTEAD!” and her mind was blown.

After I sent the 5 postcards, I waited and waited. So far, I have only gotten one postcard back, but I’m hoping to get more soon. I got this one from a lovely girl in China! Isn’t it cute?

Later on today, I’m going to head to the post office to send some more postcards. I’m looking forward to hearing that they’ve been received and hopefully getting more in return! I think this is one adventure I’m going to be sticking with!

If anyone is interested in postcrossing, let me know! Also if anyone would like a postcard or to send me one, also let me know!


Update: Just got home. Received a lovely postcard from Moscow in the mail! Check it out!

Week 6: Stay in a Japanese Hotel

We Play Songs We Like are awesome. So awesome, in fact, that we decided that we needed to reward our awesomeness with a weekend away. An awesome weekend away.

A few weeks beforehand, I had been idly researching things to do in Hokkaido, when I came across a small onsen town called Jozankei, nestled snug in the mountains just south of Sapporo. It was beautiful, tiny, and it gave me the opportunity to get naked and sit in hot water looking at the stars. I was immediately interested.

I called up Jess and Tracy, asking if they would be interested in heading down for a night or two for a girls weekend. They said yes, and it just so happened that the only night we were all free was the weekend after the HAJET show, so we decided to make it a CELEBRATION!

I researched hotels and booked us in a Japanese room at the Jozankei View Hotel. It seemed to be one of the biggest hotels, but it was reasonably cheap (7000 yen for the night, including both breakfast and dinner buffets and entrance to the onsen on the top floor). Oh, and did I mention that our hotel HAD A WATER PARK IN THE BASEMENT? No? Well, our hotel had a water park in the basement!

So one fine Friday afternoon, we got off work early, picked up our bags and set out on a road trip to remember. I had decided not to bring my smartphone with me so I could be fully immersed in the moment and get away from my addiction to technology for a bit. This was much to the annoyance of Jessica, who had been counting on using my GPS to get there.

“Don’t worry!” I said confidently, “We’ll totally be able to get there following these instructions i haphazardly wrote down on a little piece of pink paper without any maps or anything!”

Jessica was not convinced, but I was bound, set and determined, so we hopped in the car GPS-less to pick up Tracy.

“Okay, don’t worry, I know the turn is here somewhere... Have we gone 4.52 kilometres yet?!” I asked, my own judgement starting to falter as we got to the outskirts of Sapporo.

“I don’t know, you were supposed to have this covered! I think we have!” Jessica said, starting to get testy. Getting lost in city traffic is not her favourite pastime, and I can’t say I blame her. Seriously Jess, thanks for putting up with my crazy. :D

Eventually, after I finally got us back on track, which I am quite proud of myself for, we ended up at Jozankei. It’s a tiny tiny town with only one main road, so even without a map, it wasn’t hard to figure out which hotel was ours. It was the giant-ass hotel at the end of the road, smack in the middle of the town.

The town itself was absolutely gorgeous, cradled in snow-capped mountains and trees, with nothing to spoil the sight whatsoever. Even the big hotel didn’t seem to look out of place, it converged with the nature somewhat.

Anyway, so we checked in and brought all our stuff up to our rooms, where we were confronted with the beautiful sight of a traditional Japanese room.

As I mentioned that this was the one new thing I did all week, I will focus on it for a bit. Japanese hotel rooms are slightly different than normal hotel rooms. They are almost always tatami rooms, and they do not have beds. Instead, there is just a small table and a place for tea, where you sit seiza and drink your tea and do other Japanese things (I don’t presume to know what Japanese people do in the comfort of their own hotel rooms). Later on, the hotel/ryokan employees come in and lay out your futon for you so you return after dinner to your room all set up for sleep. These are on the floor, and they are harder than hotel beds normally are (obviously), but they are still quite comfortable. 

So yes. We set our stuff down, and then immediately changed into our bathing suits to head downstairs to go to the WATER PARK IN THE BASEMENT. Yes. That necessitates caps lock. Every single time.

The water park was relatively unexciting as far as water parks go, but we were so happy because it was free and it was A WATER PARK IN THE BASEMENT. We spent our time switching between hot and cold pools, waiting for the wave pool to turn on, going down the tiny water slides, and watching young Japanese guys do flips off the pool, trying to impress us. We even gave them scores. They were super amused. I think. I don’t think their girlfriends were though.

After that, we went upstairs clad in our wonderful hotel yukatas, and changed out of our bathing suits in time to go to the buffet dinner. It was varied, but surprisingly delicious. The ballroom was giant, like something out of a film. I felt like it was way too classy for the people in it, who were mostly Japanese families clad only in their robes.

“See?” Jessica said to me as we got our food, “I told you it was okay to wear your yukata to dinner!”


So I was wrong. Oh well. We made up for it by having a lovely meal, then returning to our rooms to get ready to go to the one main attraction of the hotel, the rooftop onsen. We put our yukatas back on and walked to the gorgeously decorated elevators, taking them all the way to the top floor. 

We undressed, and all of a sudden we were soaking our body in 45 degree water, looking out on the night scene of Jozankei through full glass windows. I’m sure it would have been more stunning during the day, because all we could see were a few lights, but it was pretty nonetheless. As it turned out, it was the girls turn to use the rooftop pool, so we went up and out, and got to see the stars in a way I never had before. It was definitely an experience to remember.

After THAT (I know, right could it possibly get any better?), we wanted to sing karaoke in our yukatas, but the only karaoke bar in the hotel had mandatory nomihoudai, so since we weren’t willing to fork up 4,000 yen, we passed.

Instead, we came across the tiny arcade in the hotel (seriously, this place was gigantic), so we took some purikura photos instead. I’m trying to figure out how to scan them, but I’m having trouble so I might just take a picture of them instead. Trust me, they were adorable.

Photos in hand, we went back up to our hotel room, bought beer from a vending machine and proceeded to serenade ourselves with Tracy’s guitar and give each other massages on our futons. Sexy times, I tell you.

We fell asleep content and woke up in time for the morning breakfast buffet, which was similar to the evening buffet except it had a few more breakfast foods and it wasn’t dark outside. We then checked out of our hotel, and spent some time enjoying the town. We soaked our feet in a natural foot bath, found a frozen waterfall, and slid down a hill on our butts and lived to tell the tale.

We drove back the next day with our hearts content and our minds full of fond memories. If you ever have the chance to go to Jozankei, I highly recommend it. The place was fairly cheap, and really well-located. We definitely got our money’s worth. :D

Week 5 Part 2: Jeri Learns To Snowboard

Alright, guys. So you already know that Week 5 was a double whammy. Assuming that you all love me and have read the posts before this, we shall pick up where we left off.


A short recap for all of those who are not cool enough to read EVERYTHING I write:


One fine day in Furano, I went up in a hot air balloon for the first time. And it was awesome. And then I decided to learn how to snowboard the same day because apparently 1 first wasn’t enough.


Okay, you caught up? Good.


So I returned to my hotel room after ballooning to take a short nap. I hadn’t actually planned on snowboarding that day, and I was really tired because during all the pre-balloon anticipation, I kind of... umm... forgot to sleep.So yeah. naptime. I settled down into my bed in the cheap hotel, got all snug and cozy, when I was jolted back to reality by the violent buzzing of my cell phone. Seriously, whoever says that vibrate = silent is a liar. But I digress. I had received a phone call from none other than my friend Cian, who you will all remember from the morning.


“I just walked up to the ski hill to check on rental prices and it’s only 3500 yen for the boots and board, you down?”


“Hngh... grumble grumble call you in a few.”


And then I dropped the phone and promptly went back to sleep. Not too much later, I was once again roused, this time by my roommate Andromeda, who had returned from whatever she was doing. At this point, I gave up on sleep, and replaced it with conversation.


“Hey, how’s it going? What are you up to today?”


“Oh, I have no real plans, what about you? What are you up to?”


“I think I might go snowboarding with Cian. Wanna come?”


“Can you snowboard?”


“Nope.”


“Me neither! Sure, I’m down!”


That story is not entirely accurate. It took a bit more persuading to get Andromeda to come with, since she didn’t want to spend money on equipment rental, but eventually we wore her down. Because we’re awesome like that.


With the decision to go ahead and learn to snowboard having been made, the three of us trudged up the hill to the rental place and got fitted for boards. Look how awesome Andromeda and my boards look! We’re pretty much pros already, guys.

Unfortunately, Andromeda lacked the proper clothing and was too cheap to rent it, so Cian gallantly lent her his jacket, claiming that it was warm enough to teach us in just a t-shirt. We will call question to this theory later. Andromeda and I were both only in jeans as well. SUPER PREPARED for this, obviously.

We then grabbed our boards, quickly scarfed down our conbini lunches and hit the slopes! (Is that the correct terminology? Snowboarding pros, help me out). We started by strapping one foot to the board and walking around like that for a bit, getting a feel for how it felt under us. It was relatively unexciting. We kept seeing people we knew from the meeting flying down the hill and stopping just short of us at the bottom to say hi. I know they were just enjoying themselves, but I’m pretty sure they were subconsciously rubbing it in our faces that we were babies. :)

Eventually, Cian, still clad only in a t-shirt and his snowpants, decided it was time for us to walk up the hill a little, strap both feet to the board and fall down the hill. We walked up, sat down, got our butts wet, and strapped ourselves into our boards. It took me a little while to figure out how the straps worked, but once I got it I was super ready. Cian then took turns guiding us down the hill, helping us to work out how to control the board. Because of this, we didn’t actually fall for the first little bit!
It was only after Cian decided that we were ready to try to go down the hill on our own that things started to fall apart. “Alright!” he said. “Now just push yourselves in and dig in with your heels!” We did as told, and promptly ended up with our butts back in the snow. We did this painstakingly over and over again until we reached the bottom. At that point, we were really cold so we went in for some hot chocolate to warm up. We were joined by a couple of other ALTs and spent an hour or so getting warm and dry.

Eventually, we headed back into the cold, but before we did that, we managed to convince Cian to go down and get a jacket and gloves. He was pretty cold. He came back clad in a beautiful purple number and we resumed our lesson. At this point, he just told us to go up and down and he’d watch us and try to help out.

We climbed the hill together, and I set off like a bird! I gained speed, I lost speed, I leaned back like he told me to, and this time it actually worked! I was controlling the board! I was on my feet! All of a sudden, I had reached the bottom of the hill, and I hadn’t fallen once!


I was elated!


“Come on Andromeda come on come on I want to to do it again this is awesome!!!!” I called, before running back up the hill to do it again. I managed to make it up and down the hill a few times without falling too much, and I knew I was hooked. The time passed quickly and before I knew it, we were going up the hill for the last time.


We’d decided to go up a little further and make the last time a good one, so we climbed and climbed until my legs were sore. We then strapped on our boards for the last time of the day, and headed down the hill. I was confident, and I decided that I could go a little faster. I gained more and more speed, until I couldn’t slow down anymore and then I did a bit of a flip and landed right on my butt. Hard. Really hard. It hurt. But it’s okay, because Andromeda and Cian were already at the bottom so no one saw. I got up, and continued back down the hill more slowly, with both my pride and my rear end newly wounded.

Cian wearing my hat. :D

That said, I was still elated!


All things considered, it was a great new experience. I can’t wait to try it again when I’m back in Canada! Also, mad props to Cian who not only gave up a day of actual snowboarding to teach two beginners how to do it, but he also gave up his jacket and gloves for Andromeda, then ended up spending his own money on replacements when he got too cold. What a gentleman.


After snowboarding, my band gave its first performance together, but that’s a story for another time. Maybe on my other blog, http://jeriandjapan.blogspot.com/. Go check it out, then wait anxiously by your computer until I write about next week’s exciting thing!

Week 5: DOUBLE TIME part 1: Jeri Goes in a Hot Air Balloon

So I accidentally did 2 new things this week, so instead of choosing one to write about, since they are equally awesome, I decided to write about BOTH of them. Not only that, but I will be doing this every 5th week, so there will be not 1 but 3 DOUBLE TIMES!!!!! I know. You're about as excited about this as something that's not very excited. I have a superiority complex, thinking you want to read about this. BUT hey, I've lived with my head in the clouds for long enough, so now is no time to stop. Without further ado, I present "Jeri goes up in a hot air balloon and learns to snowboard".

Once upon a time, on a weekend a few weeks ago, I went to Furano for the HAJET winter meeting. This basically means that a bunch of ALTs have an excuse to rent hotel rooms and get drunk together. As much as I love that kind of gathering, I had heard that you could go up in a hot air balloon in Furano, and I was super excited to check it out for myself. I booked the trip well in advance, and then set upon the daunting task of asking everybody I knew if they'd be willing to part ways with $150 to spend 20 minutes floating high above the air in a tiny little wicker basket held up by a giant torch and some fabric. Needless to say, it was hard to find any takers. I was at my wit's end, when finally my lovely friend Cian told me that he was so down. GREAT!

I waited and waited, and the morning finally came. The not so exciting part of this adventure is that the flight was scheduled for 7:30 am, with the people calling me at 6:30 am to lets us know whether the weather was conducive to ballooning. I was up at 5:00 am, because I was so excited. I paced around my hotel room, back and forth, back and forth, trying in vain to not wake up Andromeda. It didn't work, but she was understanding about it, and sat up with me as I waited.

Eventually, I got the call. Weather was perfect. It was time to go.

"Take a picture of me on my way to balloon! Take a picture of me! Take a picture of me!" I asked Andromeda, and she obliged as excitedly as she could in her exhausted state. The result was this gem:

Afterwards, I ran downstairs to await the van. The great thing about this company, Asobiya, is that they pick you up from your hotel and drive you straight there. Which is awesome. Because we didn't have any other way there. Cian was waiting for me in the lobby with his 7/11 breakfast and ridiculous yellow snowboarding pants. They had told us to dress warmly. Apparently it's cold up super high in the middle of winter, who'd have thought?

The man with the van showed up, and we hopped in excitedly. We made small talk with the driver for about 1 minute until the two of us had collectively run out of any Japanese we could remember at 7:00 am. Then, we sat excitedly in silence, and I snapped this picture of Cian looking super excited!

We picked up a Japanese couple, then finally made our way over to the balloon. Furano is pretty much all farmland, so we could see the balloon from a mile away, with a backdrop of beautiful, snow-covered mountains. Oh, yes. This was totally going down.

We got out of the van and walked through the snow to where 5 Japanese men were painstakingly holding the balloon down. "Well, hop in," the driver of the van said. Just like that. "Uhh... okay...", I thought, starting to falter a little. The basket was maybe 1 x 1.5 metres, and once I was inside it came up to my waist. No harnesses, no seatbelts, no anything. 

I had it better than Cian, though. At 6'2", the edge of the basket only came up to mid-thigh on him, and his head was at most a foot away from the flame. I'm pretty sure he thought he was going to die, and I can't say that I thought otherwise. My unease was only heightened when the pilot said "Alright, if you're scared, crouch down, and whatever you do, don't get in my way. Let's go!" And with that, we were steadily rising.

The balloon wobbled a little as it got off the ground, but it rose smoothly and quickly. There was no wind, so it felt a lot more serene than I had anticipated. We rose and rose and rose until all of a sudden, the van that dropped us off was no more than a dot in the expanse of white below us.

Even though I was dangling in a basket, I felt at ease, and completely comfortable. Maybe it was the fact that the balloon felt like it was barely moving, or maybe it was the fact that I was stunned by the view, but I was calm, collected, and absolutely in awe. These pictures don't do it justice at all, but it looked a little like this:

About halfway through the 20 minute ride, Cian realized that he felt safer if he stood behind me, using me as a sort of block against his inevitable downfall. I'm glad that I could help him feel at ease, but I'm not sure how I felt about his using me as a human shield. Thanks, man. Thanks.

The trip went by way to quickly, and all of a sudden, we were descending. There was a powerline in our way, and the wind wasn't working with us, so we flew a little bit longer, and amused ourselves by watching the men in the vans down below follow us around, parking where they thought we would land, only to have to move again. Eventually, we landed, and they immediately started deflating the balloon while we were still in the basket. How many Japanese men does it take to deflate a hot air balloon? Apparently, the answer is four.

We were finally let out, and I quickly snapped this photo of the deflating balloon before I headed back to the van, my heart and mind content with a completely unique experience. 

The man drove us back to the hotel, and the drive was long and solemn. The only thing I could think of to express my utter contentment was "楽しかった！" and somehow, that just didn't seem to be enough. "I had fun". That's it. We paid, and headed back to the hotel to gear up for the next adventure of the day: SNOWBOARDING!

But more on that later. Have you ever been in a hot air balloon? Would you? Let me know!

Week 4: Online Dating

When I decided to start this project, I told myself that no matter what popped into my head, I'd give it a try. I have been sticking to that, and after week 3 was highly slacking, I figured I'd better come up with something extra special to write about for all three of you who read my blog.

So I was reading an article on xojane.com the other day about someone who was dating a guy that they had met online because some algorithm had said they were meant for each other. Apparently, the site was way off, and they had nothing in common. This wasn't the point of the article I had read, but it got me thinking. What kind of people would some online dating website say were perfect for me? My curiosity was piqued, and I was really bored at work, so I decided to find out. Also, I had always held this idea that people who used online dating were somehow different than everyone else, because they couldn't start relationships the normal way. I was a bit prejudiced, and after learning about a few couples I knew that had found each other this way and were happy, I decided to put my prejudices to the test.

I set up my profile at work on okcupid on my cell phone because the website was free and they had a mobile app. I couldn't actually go to the site at school, so I answered all the questions and set up my profile. I added a photo of myself where you couldn't really tell it was me (because to be honest, I was still a little bit embarrassed that I was doing this). Eventually, I ended up with something that looked sort of like this:

Then, all I had to do was sit back and wait for the messages to start coming in. I had given myself a couple of rules for this experiment, and they were as follows:

1. Even though I set my location to Saint John, NB, I had to promise to meet at least one of the people in person when I got home. Otherwise, it wouldn't be like real online dating.

2. No matter what shitty messages I got sent, I had to reply at least once. Maybe they had a reason they sent a message that said "heyy sexy, wut u up2???". If I didn't ask, I wouldn't know!

3. I had to choose at least one or two profiles I found interesting and start conversations with them.

4. I had to hold back the attempt to be witty and sarcastic to the people mentioned in 2. I'm not doing this to make fun of the people that are, I had to keep telling myself.

Then, all of a sudden, I started receiving messages. I quickly realized that there was a problem with being a certain age and a certain type of person in a small city like Saint John. This problem was that inevitably, you realize that you already know half the people on the site. Amusingly enough, however, they didn't recognise me, and I exchanged messages with a couple of men who were treating me like they'd never met me before. Don't worry guys, your secret is safe with me, but you know who you are. :)

That being said, I also received a huge range of emails. Some looked like this:

I did give this guy a chance, but I can't say he really impressed me. After all, we were only a 55% match!

I also got messages like this, feeding my ego with the knowledge that I am "so fine". :D

And my personal favourite, this guy. I tried my best not to be sarcastic with him, but I just couldn't help it at some points. He wanted proof that I lived in Japan, he thought I was making that up so that I didn't have to have coffee with him. As if I couldn't have come up with a better excuse.

So far so good, guy! Your spelling is atrocious, but you seem nice enough. I'm glad I gave you a shot. "apposed" still gets me, though. Apposed! See? I'm being nice so far! We talked about our jobs for a while, then he asked me the dreaded question.

Oh, I've got him now!

That was pretty much how that conversation ended up crashing and burning.

That being said, for all the ridiculousness I entertained on this site, I might have met a few creepers. This guy seems to be really great, and we've been talking back and forth for the last little while! Who knows, maybe he'll be the one I meet up with for coffee once I get back to the port city!

In conclusion, online dating isn't the horrible thing I imagined it to be, and I have learned not to judge anybody for using the service. I don't think I'll be continuing it, but I could actually see myself meeting somebody this way and maybe forming a relationship with them? It's not what I'm looking for right now, but who knows what will happen in the future?

Also, I've decided that match percentages are complete and utter crap. There were people I was a 90% match with who turned me off almost immediately, and people who seemed to be nice enough that I was 99% supposed to be enemies with. 

The final thing I took from this experience is that people need to learn how to spell. Seriously.

Have you tried online dating? Has it worked for you? Do you think I should go out with any of these guys? Let me know. :)

Week 3: Jeri Gets Oral (Surgery) in Japan

I need to get my wisdom teeth taken out. Unfortunately, this is no longer an option for me, but more of a necessity. My straight teeth are slowly becoming less straight as my back molars grow in, and this is starting to bother me.

I know, I know, it’s not what you look like on the outside that matters, but who you are on the inside. Seriously, though, screw that. I want straight teeth.

So with that in mind, when I heard that one of my ALT friends had gotten all four of her teeth taken out in Japan for ONLY $100 DOLLARS, I knew that I would get it done here. It was now or never.

Also, I’m kind of a lazy person, so while it’s not something particularly exciting, it is something that I’ve never done before so I guess it kind of counts as week 3.

ANYWAY.

I had my first appointment a few weeks ago. I got my supervisor to call and get me an appointment. She spouted out a bunch of words that I didn’t understand, and let me know that I had an appointment with Dr. Saito on at Omni Dentix on Friday, February 3rd.

I don’t particularly like going to the dentist, or any medical professional for that matter, so when that Friday rolled around and Jessica drove me in for my appointment, I begged and pleaded with her to stick around until I was done.

“Stop being a little baby about it,” she said. “I’m going shopping, act like a grown up.”

She didn’t really say that, but I’m sure she would have if she wasn’t so ridiculously nice. Instead, I put on my big girl face all by myself, and told her to have fun shopping. I’d call her when I was done.

I sat down in the waiting room, filled out the forms, and waited for them to call my name. When I was finally called, I was brought into an impeccably clean, stylish room, with about 8 dental workspaces separated by chic barriers. Seriously, the most posh dentist I’ve ever been to. I was greeted by a dental hygienist who spoke no English, and when I gestured to the chair to ask whether I should sit down, she shook her head, and pointed at a tiny little stool thing.

“That’s a little weird,” I thought. “Oh well.” And I sat down on the tiny little stool. Immediately, she ran towards me, and shook her head, pointing at one of the tiny stools that was in a different dental area. It was occupied not by a human, but by a purse, scarf and jacket.

Oh. Oops.

I sheepishly climbed off the place I was supposed to put my stuff, and did things the right way. Go me.

The doctor then came in, told me I needed an x-ray, and made me take out all 7 of my earrings. One of them just wouldn’t come out, so after about 10 minutes of effort, Dr. Saito just told me that it was fine, and that it shouldn’t make that much of a difference. Great. So I go in, get my teeth x-rayed, and come out relatively unscathed. I go to put my earrings back in, and drop one on the ground. Dr. Saito comes back in and looks really confused when he sees me crawling around, muttering to myself in English with my little dental bib still on.

And we wonder why the Japanese people think foreigners are strange.

I straightened up, gave another sheepish smile (I think I’m getting quite good at it) and sat back down in the dental chair, accepting the fact that my earring was forever lost. He then went into an explanation about wisdom tooth removal, and how the roots of my bottom teeth were dangerously close to the nerve that runs across my jaw, which meant that I could end up numb for days, weeks, or possibly permanently.

“I see,” I said, trying not to openly panic. “And approximately how common is that?”

“Well, it’s happened twice and we’ve been open for over seven years,” he replied. “No need to worry. Also, your roots curve in, so we might have to saw your teeth in two to be able to take them out. And you’re only getting local anaesthetics. But don’t worry, it will be fine.”

He then left while I got my top teeth cleaned. Apparently, according to Japanese insurance policy, they are not allowed to clean all your teeth at once, so they must clean your top teeth during one appointment and your bottom teeth during another. Don’t ask, I don’t know.

Then, I grabbed my card, paid for my appointment (only $17!!) and went to meet Jessica, a new appointment made for extraction 2 weeks later.

I fretted and worried for the next two weeks, but my next appointment came way too soon.I was practically crying as Jessica drove me into Sapporo for my appointment, scared to death that something would go wrong. “BUT YOU ARE GOING TO BE THERE THE WHOLE TIME, RIGHT?” I asked Jessica. “Yes, dear. I’ll be right outside waiting for you.”

Seriously, Jessica, you rock. I can’t sing your praises enough.

Once again, they called my name, and this time led me into the room where it would all go down. The oral surgeon came in, and with surprisingly good English, told me exactly what was going to happen. I admitted that I was a little nervous, and he assured me that it was all going to be okay. I liked this guy already.

He wasted no time, putting some numbing cream on the spot, and leaving for a few minutes while it worked its magic. When it was done, he came back in with a giant scary needle, and quickly assured me that it would be over before I knew it. I opened my mouth, and he shoved the needle into my skin about 2395846 times, making sure the entire area was numb. I was holding my breath the entire time, and halfway through he had to tell me to breathe, because I was too tense for him to put the needle in again. Oops.

After the anaesthesia, he left for a little bit longer so it could become effective, then came back. He mentioned that there was going to be a bit of pressure, but if I felt any pain I should raise my left hand.

And then he put a giant set of pliers in my mouth and yanked out my tooth. I mean, not quite, but almost! He put a lot of pressure on my tooth, and I raised my left arm in pain, then he injected more anaesthesia in, and all of a sudden he was waving my tooth in front of me!

That was it! No having to cut it, no anything!

I was all excited that it didn’t even hurt and ready to have the next three teeth pulled out, when he said “Well, that’s it for today!”

“What? I thought I was going to get them all taken out?”

“No, we only do one at a time! Otherwise, you’d never be able to eat anything!”

“Oh, so I have to come back three more times?”

“Yep!”

Great.

He gave me a piece of gauze to stick in the area and keep there for 30 minutes, and with that, I was done. I paid, picked up my prescription of antibiotics and painkillers and hopped back into the car with Jessica.  On the way home, the anaesthesia started to wear off, and man did my mouth hurt. I popped 2 of the heavy-duty painkillers, and my mouth went back to it’s previously painless state.

Pretty sure the painkillers I was given were just like extra strength tylenol, but they did the trick, and I managed to get to sleep immediately when I went home.

The next day, I was feeling fine, so  I took the drugs as prescribed and went out to sing karaoke with Jessica and some other friends. We also drove all the way back into the city for a check-up, which Jessica was more than happy to do. Have I mentioned how much she rocks recently? Well, she does.

Anyway, one week later I had my stitches taken out and I made an appointment for my next one. I’m left with just a hole where the tooth used to be and no pain whatsoever!

Here’s hoping that it will be equally easy when I go to get the next 3 taken out!

Week 2: Fake Eyelashes

Alright, so fresh off of learning how to knit, I decided to switch it up and do something fundamentally girly (and Japanese) that I'd never done before. Ever since moving here, I've marvelled at just how many young Japanese women wear fake eyelashes. Seriously, that can't be comfortable. How do they put them on every day? Do they stick easily? Can you get them off? Does it seriously improve your appearance? All these questions were running in my head, and I needed to find some answers.

The decision to do this came about on a whim, when I was driving the 5 hours back from snowmobiling in Monbetsu with Andromeda. We had stopped at a Seicomart to grab some snacks and drinks for the ride home, when I noticed the fake eyelashes just hanging out in the beauty section of the conbini. I impulsively grabbed them and purchased them, running out to the car before Andromeda could notice what I'd done.

When I got home, I decided to wait until the next week to start the challenge, so wait I did. I was impatient, though, and decided to further prepare by buying more different kinds so I could see what kind of difference they made. I rounded up all my materials and ended up with a table that looked something like this:

 

The tube on the bottom is eyelash glue, which is also apparently liquid liner. I started by washing my face, and appliying this to one eye, and one eye only. I wanted to see the difference it made. Because of this, here is my before photo. (Not gonna lie, didn't take an actual before photo but here's one I just took of me wearing no makeup)

Right, so I added the eyelash glue/liquid liner to one eye very carefully, then I took one set of fake lashes and tried to press them on. They didn't stay. Big surprise there.

I pulled them off, and tried sticking them on again. It worked, but they were hardly close to my actual lashline and the liner was super messy. I decided to try to fix it by putting more real liquid liner over it, and then covering it with eyeshadow, and I guess it sort of worked. Here's one photo of me with one eye covered in fake lashes and the other eye still bare.

It's kind of a creepy picture, and I apologise, but you try to take a decent picture of yourself with only one eye done up and have it not look ridiculously strange.

ANYWAY, Then I painstakingly did the other eye as well, and ended up with something that looked sort of like this:

As I mentioned, this was my trial run, so I didn't actually go out of the house like this. I did, however, walk around the Yuki Matsuri that weekend all eyelashed up, and here's a few photos of my beautiful eyes then:

What do you think? Do I look better with fake eyelashes or without? Have you ever tried wearing them? Would you try wearing them? I'd love to hear your thoughts. :)

By the way, if you actually want to read about the snow festival, visit my Japan blog at http://jeriandjapan.blogspot.com/