A Japanese Vet Clinic

So let's see since the last time I wrote, I had a presentation on bridges on Japanese, which went quite well considering I had one day to memorize it all. Then we had the final for the Japanese tech class the next day, which went good enough. That was my least favorite class because we had readings in Japanese and I always felt stupid cause I didn't know half the words they used because most of the words were more technical words that you wouldn't encounter in normal Japanese text books. So whew, that class is over.

Now the projects will start. We have to make two bridges with a Japanese partner. My partner is awesome, and she has about the same amount of caring as I do into making bridges (close to none). Neither of us really care about how we do in the competition because are majors are in more technical fields, so we talk about more important stuff instead. She's talked about how to make Japanese dishes because she likes cooking, and she's given me random vocab words like おりたたみがさ which is the word for a collapsible umbrella that folds up. And words for intense and hard with a tiring connotation in it as well - しどい。I like Japanese periods。 Aren't they fun？ I think all Japanese punctuation is cool、but I don't have the patience to change back and forth anymore. Sorry.

Yesterday, we had a "party" with the college of wind and air (or something like that). That's all we knew going into it, and so we were expecting to see more college kids that we would be suspected to speak Japanese with. There was food and drinks of course (even beer - which I thought was weird since it was noon), but I think the beer was meant for the students of that college. It ended up that almost all the students were middle aged or older, and their teacher was an American woman, and they had set this up so they could practice their English with us. We had 2-way conversations in that they would speak English to us and we would speak Japanese back to them.

It's getting to the point where after a little bit of time, I don't realize whether I was listening to people in English or Japanese. We we were paired up with 2 ladies first, and we showed them where we lived and some points of interest on a map of the country. We needed something to talk about so one of the ladies suggested we talk about our families. It was quite ironic because the first lady had 3 daughters, all about the same age as me and my sisters. The second lady's husband was a vet and one of her daughters was studying to be a vet.

It was so ironic all the similarities I had with these two women's families. It was also ironic, because out of all of our families, there were no sons or brothers. It was crazy. Well, I found out that the one lady's husband ran a pet hospital, so I decided I should ask to see it because my mom is a vet and my sister is studying to be one. I just couldn't pass up this opportunity. We decided that we would walk their afterwards, but then they had a rotating time where we changed partners.

It seemed Robyn and I were very popular with the rotation. At first we had 3 other poeple with us, and 2 other people joined in. I don't know why. Robyn is quiet and I don't think we are all that entertaining. So we talked with these people a while and answered their questions and such. They had a "photographer" going around taking pictures the whole time. I guess he was someone's father and he was 84. He really liked me for some reason. He said I was his 一番すてきな人。 (favorite person) He was a funny guy.

So afterwards we expected to be walking to the clinic, but instead after I went and got my camera, they had a whole group of them ready to take us to the clinic. There were 3 ladies and 1 man besides the wife of the vet. They had 2 cars so they could take us all (only Robyn and I).

The clinic was really cute. Like all Japanese buildings, it was very small, but tall and had 3 floors. The clinic was on the first and they lived on the second and third. The clinic was very small (I think smaller than Jill's before it renovated, Mom.) They only had like 7 animals there besides the family's cats on the higher floors. One dog that was boarding, one in for a spay, 2 cats boarding and one in for ear canal cancer. Outside there was a type of a bird called a spine that I guess the recuperate and then release back into the wild, and in their garden outside they had a fairly large turtle wandering around. The turtle was really funny.

He had a room that he must see patients in that looked like it could also serve as a surgery room. A room for prepping with a sink-table thingy, and a surgery room and a reception desk. That was about it. It was really cool to see though because I've seen so many clinics in my life in America it seems so it was interesting to see one in Japan.

After walking around in the clinic, the vet said it felt awkward so we went up to their house for something to drink. We chatted up there for about 1-2 hours. They did quite a bit of comparing of veterinary medicine in Japan verses America, and I got all sorts of pamphlets and magazines that I think mom will be interested in seeing. They talked about how it is a regular surgery to declaw our cats in America and how some people cut off the tales and parts of ears in certain breeds. I've never agreed to that so I didn't know how to respond.

Then the grandmother of the family came and she showed us some of the artwork she had done. She made these shells that she got from a restaurant into beautiful peices of art. She painted them on the inside and she put cloth on the outside. I guess these shells used to be used as a game for children of the higher classes where they tried to find the match to their half of the shell. They were so beautiful. She gave us each one, so you'll have to ask to see it when we all get back to Rose.

She not only did that, but she made dolls. One of the dolls was a Japanes doll, which she changed the kimono of for the season. She made the kimono out of her old kimono. And this kimono had at least 3 layers to it, with a complete obi (belt). It was beautiful. I couldn't believe she had more than one kimono for this doll. It was crazy. Then she pulled out some bag-like things that she said were used in the tea ceremony that she had made out of her old obi.

Japanese have the highest life expectancy on the planet. It's common to see these many Japanese of this age in the home of their son's family. From this experience, I guess that they normally take up crafts and gardening of types to fill their time. They normally don't get sent to nursing homes. Instead they live with the family of their son, and the wife is expected to take care of them.

After a few hours, the other Japanese guests decided we had outstayed our welcome and it was time to go. After a picture and instructions on how to come back so I can pick up my shell (because she hadn't put the cloth on the outside yet), we headed off back to campus.

Then Robyn and I needed something to do, so we borrowed bikes and randomly rode down a road that we thought would lead to Kanazawa, but it didn't. It was a nice bit of exercise though.

Have a great fourth of July everyone. I hope your celebrations are lots of fun!

My peeps in the Haute - Have a great time at the party on Sunday! I wish I could be there!

Sorry about that really long post just about vet clinics, but I'm sure my mom and Shawna might at least be interested in it.