MY BIRTHDAY - SURPRISINGLY, I wasn't too hungover this morning. Don't quite know how I managed to get to the hospital for 8am but I managed it. I arrived and Dr Ito was working, woopa! This day was going to be fun! Another doctor I hadn't met before was working too and he was equally fun! His english was very good and he was very keen to get me doing things. He made me read ECGs, Xrays and explain CT scans to him which was good practice as it's so difficult to remember the correct ways to present them. The rest of the day was pretty standard! More interesting than usual which was good. Had soba noodles for lunch. You literally just dip a bunch of cold noodles into this cold soup sauce. I had it before but it still feels weird. Japanese people absolutely love slurping their food and it does take some getting used to. If you did that in the UK someone would probs knife you.
I always find it so interesting to watch Japanese TV after lunch! It literally just talks about food, food and more food. A typical TV show will show clips of celebrities going to about 5 different restaurants and eating all kinds of food. These clips are shown to other celebrities who sit in a bright sparkly studio and react to them eating the food and they are shown in a kind of picture in picture and the top left of the screen. Everyone just takes a bite of the food and then goes NUTS for it, saying how delicious it is. So cray.
The rest of the afternoon was much the same! I managed to convince Dr Ito and my new doctor friend as well as Will to go out for dinner and drinks after work for my Bday! They also invited some other resident friends of theirs. I got away early at 5pm to go get ready! I picked up some beers for Will and I to get us started for the evening and then I took him back to the ER Staffroom to wait for them to finish! We watched more TV with yet more food TV shows. We headed off to the other hospital building to fetch two very beautiful young female doctors and they were both lovely with pretty good English. We had just finished discussing the wages of doctors in Japan -me being told the wages were rubbish- before grabbing 2 taxis up the road to the restaurant. We ended up in this really nice traditional restaurant with SO many salarymen (businessmen). It was like a sea of white shirts!
We sat down and we ordered 6 beers! 4 big ones for the boys and 2 small ones for the girls. We had a big birthday Kampai (cheers) and I challenged Dr Ito to our "Drink Fight" that we planned to have. They ordered literally so much food and it was all delicious and so well presented. They asked if I'd tried ?natto before, and I remember one of the consultants telling me I had to try it because it was traditional Japanese food. I heard it smelled like cheesey feet so was a bit reluctant i'll admit. It arrived and I wanted to hurl. It was like beans but it was in this weird goo that honestly I can only describe as similar to semen. I tasted it and I wanted to spit it out (something I NEVER do- cos I like everything) but it tasted like feet. I washed it down with some beer and all was well. They ordered us like a big bottle of sake essentially. It was extremely strong stuff. I could not stomach to shot it all in one and had to sip away at it.
They just kept ordering more and more food until our table could not fit any more plates and my stomach could not fit anymore in it. The bill came and as I got my wallet out the doctors signalled to me that they were paying. I say doctors and I mean DOCTOR. It is normal in Japan for the highest ranking doctor to foot the bill! I didn't see how much it was but it must have been pretty expensive. Nuts, I was so thankful! We jumped in two more taxis and headed to this traditional bar restaurant up the road. When we arrived, our shoes were off and in the lockers and we had to go under this really tiny door (maybe 4ft tall). Apparently it was so you bowed on your way in as a mark of respect. So cool. Yet one more thing that wouldn't happen in the UK. If they made everyone limbo under a 4ft door some arsehole would end up falling over and cracking their head open hahaha.
So cool to walk in socks over the shiny wooden floors! The 6 of us were sat at this private room with a big round table! Yet again a whole round of drinks were bought and the cigarettes were out. Dr Ito even bought me a whole new pack of menthols when mine ran out. People be so friendly up in here! Yet more drunken chat continued before the girls left and left the 4 men there to talk about manly things. I revealed a bit too much about my personal life and I didn't remember until 5pm the next day. So embarrassing. It was getting very late and some of us had to work the next day! Dr Ito jumped in a cab home after I challenged him to a fight. And the 3 of us walked home together! Such a good birthday!
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