The X-Ray Story

Well, just got back from having a chest X-ray. Am I sick? No- fear not, dear reader, this is just an obligatory part of being employed by a school in Japan. Part of my aforementioned contract is having a signed certificate from a doctor that I am a healthy specimen. Luckily, when I told the lady I taught a class for this morning she knew a very convenient place to have this done- next door! She tells me they are a 'Communist clinic', but that this doesn't make any difference. In the morning we had the x-ray done and then met there again after lunch to talk to the doctor about it- an interview which is also compulsory.

The doctor actually spoke good English and told me about how he had helped NGO's in India and Bangladesh and then been asked to give a speech to the medical students (in a very poor clinic in Calcutta) and to Jr. High School kids in Bangladesh! The clinic was pretty small but the friendliness made it all more enjoyable, and he joked about how healthy I was and asked all the obligatory questions about abdominal pains and so on. To top it off, I was able to get a ride back to my apartment! I really can't believe just how lucky I am.
The only thing which went slightly wrong was that I had also asked for a test of my blood type. This is because in Japan everyone is always asking for your blood-type as an indication of your character. For instance, 'O' type is supposed to be a bit lackadaisical yet reliable, whilst 'A' type is the of a perfectionist-yet I always have to give the disappointing answer that I simply don't know! Somehow, they misunderstood and had done a regular blood test, but I said I still wanted to find out so they took a second sample, which seemed pretty unnecessary to me but I suppose the other one had already been sent away or something. So I am feeling just a little faint now, but not too faint to write this blog... And also am feeling very thankful for that ride home, just when I was feeling a bit light-headed.

Earlier today, in the class, I asked my students what they thought would be interesting for them in a Blog. I told them about how I had been thinking how best to communicate to people in an entertaining and inspiring way. Since they are regular students who I have known for years, I also told them about my dream. One of them had been to an orchid exhibition on Sunday and showed me pictures of the flowers on her mobile phone. I told her about the flower in the dream and that people only partly love flowers because they are beautiful- also because they display emotion. she was very intrigued by this idea.

The other girl, who works for Toyo Films in the creative research department, designing merchandise and attending previews, suggested a fantasy-story with frequent updates. There was apparently a girl who drew a cartoon of a cat every day on her Blog, which was so cute and became so popular that it became a fully-fledged comic-book. I told them about how I had tried, years ago, to have poetry published in 'the real world' and how hard it had been... But that with blogging anyone can have their voice out there. Of course, whether anyone will be listening is another story entirely... But I do have faith!