March 8- 14, 2010
This week had a bit of a tough start, but it was quickly remedied :) First thing Monday we saw the oral surgeon at the university hospital in Hirosaki (I think I could drive there blindfolded now, but I promise not to try). The visit to the hospital was very interesting. I was able to get accurate directions and decipher all of the Japanese for once, so we made it quite easily and on time. I was quite proud! They only take new appointments in the morning so we were there when they opened, with all of the other confused sick people as well, which made for one crowded hospital. Fortunately we were immediately greeted by a very friendly employee who approached us and said, "Can I help you" in perfect English, in my head there were bells and chimes and hallelujah chorus but all we actually said was "Yes, please!" Then shortly after that another man approached him to offer his services to Eric as well, this man was the hospital director. We felt quite welcome and confident that we could get what we needed:) I'm glad they pointed us in the right direction as to where to start because the whole process was quite complicated.
Step 1: register Eric as a patient, check
Step 2: Turn in referral letter from Dentist and get approved to see Surgeon, check
Step 3: Go to the back corner of the top floor and wait to see Oral Surgeon, check
Step 4: Consult Oral Surgeon, who spoke decent English too :), check
Step 5: Go to the first floor and get an x-ray, check
Step 6: Go back to the top floor and see Surgeon again, check
Step 7: Surgeon says X-ray doesn't show enough to determine if the invasive surgery will fix the headaches, must schedule CT scan Surgeon puts it in the computer, check
Step 8: Go to first floor to pay, they say we have to confirm the appointment we just made, go to basement and show them the paper, they say we need to go the other radiology department in the other basement, so finally find it and they check one box in a piece of paper we were holding the whole time, check
Step 9: Go to first floor and turn in paperwork, check
Step 10: wait for your number to come up on the screen then pay through an automated machine, Check
phew, success! Lots of running around and lots of conversing in Japanese and 6 hours later, we left with one x-ray that wasn't good enough and 2 appointments to come back and do it again = not happy campers.
Then, we had to go to the dermatologist for a quick 5 minute visit, which is exactly what it was. The dermatologist and her staff are all so friendly and organized, it's actually not too bad to see them :)
Because the oral surgeon isn't sure that the surgery will even help, and it's such a big nasty ordeal, Eric is going to try some other remedies to nix the headaches in the mean time. Starting with electric shock massage therapy next week! Hopefully that will help.
Eric had told his supervisor that he thought he would be back to work by 11am or so, he called Eric at noon to tell him that the principle gave him the entire day off as sick leave since the appointment was taking forever, so he didn't have to go back to work. BUT, Eric is a hard worker and didn't want to take advantage of sick time, so we hurried back home and Eric went straight to work! On our hurry back home we FINALLY saw a snow monkey!! This was the quick remedy I mentioned earlier! Eric was sleeping in the car and I saw the monkey and I grabbed Eric's leg and shouted "ERIC LOOK", poor guy sat straight up so startled, but he was happy to see it. We tried to stop and get a photo but it was a failed attempt, I took a picture of his tracks though so that I will know how to follow them in the future :)
On Tuesday we started to have little flurries of snow after a snow free week! I got very excited because I'm not ready for winter to be over yet!! I've been praying hard for snow, I mean really hard, so we'll just have to see!!
Wednesday was an answer to my prayers!! We had a HUGE blizzard!!! There was virtually no snow on the ground anywhere in town (only up higher on the mountain) and today town looked like this :)
As soon as Eric got home from work we started on our first official snow man! It was so much fun!! I've never made a snow man properly, rolling it in the snow until the ball gets huge, - I have since learned that some of my fellow desert friends didn't even know you should do it that way :) Anyway, this is our snowman! 
Our Japanese friends and neighbors told us they knew we were the people who made it because it is an American Style snowman with 3 pieces, in Japan they only have 2! Who knew!
He has a carrot nose and coke bottle caps for lips and diet coke bottle caps for eyes!
I also made a snow angel in the empty parking space in our lot! I think I could lay in the falling snow all day (when I am in my warm/dry snow gear anyway!) I absolutely love it!
After all of that snow we were a little nervous that our dinner tonight would be a bust! For the past month we have been planning on having our Eikaiwa class over for dinner for Mexican Food! I was afraid that people wouldn't be able to make it through the roads (some of them drive quite far) but EVERY single person came :)
This is our class in our house right after dinner :) Eric and I successfully hosted 10 Japanese friends of varying English abilities for dinner! We had to teach them how to make Tacos since most of them hadn't ever seen them before. One poor guy missed the taco building demonstration and when he sat down he had 1 hard shell filled with diced tomatoes and 1 soft tortilla filled with taco meat. He was alternating bites between the two and then he looked at me and politely said that he didn't like it. I looked at how he had made them and then I showed him the right way, then he loved it and even had seconds! We had chips and salsa and guacamole (which they really loved), and I made beans (whole, i though re-fried might be a bit much), Mexican rice (that they couldn't believe I made in the rice cooker) and soft and hard tacos! Our friends brought over lots of drinks and desserts to share, it turned into quite a feast!!With all of this craziness this week it's a very good thing that Eric has a quiet week at work! The school year just ended so they are technically on a break; however, during school breaks the teachers still have the top 1/3rd of the students attend classes for further study. It seems a little silly to me to give extra education to the already really smart kids, but it works for them.
Friday morning was one of the best days in Japan for me :) I was being good and studying really hard and I could have sworn that I heard monkey noises outside so I had to get up and check. I couldn't believe what I saw!!!
Two monkeys, a mama and baby on the roof next door! They were running around and eating apples and playing like crazy!! I grabbed my camera and started snapping, hoping to get just 1 picture in before I scared them away. But I didn't seem to bother them at all. In fact, I got on skype to see who I could show and Eric's parents were online so I made a video call to them from the balcony and showed them the monkeys too!
The monkeys ran out of apples so they started to leave, fortunately I was quick on my feet and I grabbed a banana and tossed it off the balcony to see if they would come back, and they did. 
They ate the banana right up! Then since they were still here I ran outside and hid beside my neighbors garage. I fed the monkeys carrots and I got tons of photo and video. They hung around for almost an hour. I even had time to tell some of the neighbors who were totally unimpressed that there were wild snow monkeys in the neighborhood, I took it as a good sign that it wasn't the first or the last time they will be around.
I was sad Eric wasn't home to share in my joy with me, but I captured the moment the best I could on Camera and boy was he surprised when he came home for lunch!!Friday night I went out for ladies night!! Two of my friends had planned a small, surprise birthday bash for their Japanese friend, who ended up sick and unable to make it. So they called me to see if I could join on short notice, and of course with my overly busy unemployed life, I was able to make it! We had a delicious pot luck dinner, champagne, onsen, painted our toes, read gossip magazines, etc. It was definitely a ladies night!! Katie and Allison made a dessert pizza, I don't think they expected me to even know what it was but it brought back some of my favorite childhood memories. Back in elementary school (ok probably high school too) when the parents would bring in goodies for their kids birthday, my parents ALWAYS brought me fruit pizza to share with the class. Instead of pizza dough you use sugar cookie dough, and instead of tomato sauce you use vanilla frosting (or cool whip) and you top it with fruit. It's fantastic and full of sugar and I love every bite! It was quite a special treat for me! We were silly and decorated it like a face! Then we covered it with fruit and ate it! I can practically smell one just thinking about it.
Saturday was a nice quiet day at home :) We needed it after this week! The weather was really gross, grim and rainy so it was a good day to stay home.
On Sunday we headed to Goshogowara to the foreign foods store. My mom mailed some necessary ingredients for Green Chili Burros so we went to get the remaining things. We ventured into a fresh market across the way as well. Look at what we found!
Sharks head anyone?? They are only 200 Yen ($2)!
Look VERY closely at the top of the label, it's "A FOUR LEGGED BLACK DISH",but I'm pretty sure there are only 3 legs :)
And this Cantaloupe is 3150 yen, that's $34.75!!!Notice, it's not much larger than the oranges.
Melons are VERY expensive in Japan.
Eric and I also took a little drive on the Fukaura Sunset Coast, it's our favorite place to drive! Along the way we saw this garden (still frozen from winter) that is full of Japanese Garden Gnomes, I couldn't resist taking a photo from my friend Jenny who loves gnomes.
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