Travel Horror Stories: Epsiode 2

Episode 1 was riding on the back of a motorcycle. You probably weren't scared, but god damn it I was.

Anyway, the moment at hand. There's a bit of background involved, so bear with me. This last week I have been unlucky enough to end up with a bizarre medical problem. I got a cold while working on the play in Kochi, and circumstances lead yeast to grow in my mouth. That sounds gross, and it is gross. It looks like a B-movie monster. It also took me a couple of days to figure out what the gross white stuff taking over my hard palate was.

The day I realized it was there, I had just arrived in Tokyo with Aya. She thought it looked like strep. I was a little bit skeptical because it didn't hurt, but I got some hardcore cold medication from a random pharmacy. That night, we met up with Paul and Renee in Shibuya for dinner and beer.

As we were about to leave the restaurant, I went to the washroom. I happened to look into my mouth. The B-movie monster was growing. It was freaking me out. I decided to take another packet of cold medication. This should fix my possibly-strep, right?

(I have to interject here for a moment to mention that Japanese cold medication is hardcore, and the medication I bought is extra hardcore. It is a cocktail of ibuprofen, some kind of ephedrine, some things that are too hard to read in katakana, and codiene. And remember, I took this when I had just had a beer. I swear, I didn't know what was in there at the time.)

So we all left the restaurant, planning to go to a karaoke box somewhere or maybe to explore Shinjuku nichome. We boarded a nice crowded JR train to Shinjuku. I was being polite and wearing a sicko-mask, because maybe I had strep. I started to feel a bit hot. Then we got off the train. It was crowded, and I think I tripped or something, because Paul and Renee grabbed my arms.

Good thing too, because just at that moment, surrounded by the river of people pouring out of the train against the current of the river of people pouring into it, I proceeded to faint in the middle of Shinjuku station. Apparently the expressions on the faces of the suits around us were pretty priceless, but unfortunately I missed out, because I didn't return to the present until my head hit the pavement. (Don't worry, I didn't even get a bruise.)

Anyway, Paul and Renee escorted Aya and I back to our hotel instead of out on the town. The next day I found an English-speaking doctor, who told me that the stuff in my mouth was probably herpes simplex but maybe not, and then the next next day I talked to my mother, who suggested it was more likely yeast, which is what it is acting like, so I'm going with that. Half a bottle of iodine rinse later, it seems to be going away. Of course, the yeast really has nothing to do with my incident in Shinjuku--it just made me worried enough to take medication when I shouldn't have.

The real lesson here is: don't mix beer, codiene, and subways.

Best Engrish So Far

Spotted April 29 in Ino-cho, Kochi-ken.

Stuff I Did in Kochi

I'm in Tokyo right now, with Aya on the way to visit her grandmother. I'll be with them in Gunma until the 21st, and then take off for Korea.

But since I've been remiss (busy and away from internet connections, really), an update on the last couple of weeks is in order. Here's an incomplete list of what I did in Kochi, in no particular order:

- went to awesome caves
- ate sea snake
- directed a play (The Face of Jizo,　two locations)
- helped to re-paper rice paper walls
- got naked in public several times (onsen!)
- ate whale (tasty!)
- asked a lot of stupid questions
- saw another mukade and killed it
- saw Polysics and didn't kill them
- saw some local punk bands and really enjoyed it
- sang karaoke
- walked around outside in a typhoon (not as exciting as it sounds, just a serious rainstorm)
- went fly fishing, and broke the rod after about 10 minutes (it was a very old rod)
- got a job in Kochi, so I'll be going back there to do more rad stuff from June forwards!

Mukade!

Last night I got a scary surprise. It was about 12:30 and I was just about to drift off to sleep. I heard a scratching kind of noise near my head, and thought perhaps a spider was crawling onto the futon or something, so I got up and turned on a light. To my shock and horror, there was no friendly palm-sized spider creeping around on the floor, or a geji-geji, which I had seen before... there was a mukade, a giant centipede, on my pillow, crawling around just where my head had been only a moment before!

Unfortunately I didn't quite have the presence of mind to take a photo, so the one you see here is from the web. This morning I learned that those things BITE, so I'm glad I ran away to sleep somewhere else instead of sticking around to observe the beast.

And now, heading back to my regularly scheduled giant insect safari...

Taiwan -- Last Shot

Two Ways

It's the 26th now and I'm in Kochi, Japan. But looking back for a moment, on the 21st I had an interesting conversation with Victor about values. In Taiwan, he said, it's considered more important to be practical and efficient than to look good. Inky's apartment is a good example. From the street, you enter a battered metal door. You walk up four flights of old stone stairs. The paint is flaking off the walls and it doesn't look particularly clean. But once you reach the apartment door, inside everything is very nice. The walls are freshly and tastefully papered, the floor is recently tiled, the bathroom is nicer than most in Canada. From the outside, you would never know. Restaurants are often the same way. They don't look so hot... but the food is really good. So in some ways, Taipei city doesn't look good. But as Victor says, it is still a very nice city--very convenient. Everything is cheap, and often of good quality under the surface grime. Practical concerns are more important than appearances.

In Japan, appearance is valued more--and I have to guess that it outweighs practicality, based on the waiter I saw sweeping the sidewalk in front of his establishment in Tokyo. Partly it means everything takes a lot more effort, and partly it means everything is a lot more expensive.

Victor's perception of Western countries is that we succeed in taking care of both practicalities and appearances, and wondered how that works. My response was that it's essential to maintain appearances. It's impossible to attract customers without looking good, so businesses are forced to do so. But Canada appears to still maintain balance in terms of effort and cost.

I'm not sure--do we really do both in Canada? How/why?

Calla Lilies in bloom

We drove through the village of Juhzihu last Friday, in the middle of calla lily season. The area was full of calla lily farms, often u-pick-em style, and we had lunch in a tiny restaurant decorated with dozens of lilies.

See also: tonnes of new photos on my flickr page.