My Day in a Nutshell

Well, I just discovered that my refrigerator, washing machine, 1200W heater, telephone/fax machine, and toaster oven are all on the same circuit. Though the fridge, washer, heater, and phone were all on at the same time, this wasn't a problem until 10 seconds after I turned on the microwave. Yep, that's on the same circuit, too. Fortunately, it was just the breaker I had to flip, not a fuse I had to buy, so I turned off the heater, flipped the switch, and waited for my microwave tasties to finish cooking before I turned the washer back on.

Oh, and the modem, too. And since my laptop is now recharging, I guess that was also on the same circuit. I didn't test the TV, but if we assume that it also wouldn't have worked, then every electrical outlet in my apartment is on the same switch. There are three of them, so one must have been for the lights, since they didn't go out. The third one... maybe for the water heater? I dunno.

Edit 1/28/2005: The television plugs into the same outlet as my halogen lamp, which did get cut. And the water heater is on the same circuit as everything else, as I discovered when I later tried to wash my hands. Fortunately, it heats the water as it's needed, not stored in a big tank, so getting hot water to run again was just a matter of turning the heater back on and waiting 15 seconds.


I stayed home from school today with a cold. Yesterday, Tane-sensei and I discussed the next lesson for the san-nensei (third year students). There's a dialogue in the textbook between Mark, one of the recurring characters in the New Horizon textbooks, and a doctor. He goes in complaining of a headache; she looks in his throat, decides he has a cold, and gives him some medicine. Tane and I had a long conversation discussing this lesson, which digressed severely to my middle school days. After we wrapped things up, my throat felt sore, and I thought it was cos I'd just talked so much. How funny to show symptoms of a cold immediately after discussing a doctor's visit skit.

But it didn't go away, it got worse. So I went to the hospital this morning. Tane said I should go there, rather than the town doctor, cos they speak English at the hospital. That turned out to be not-quite-true, but they were able to help me with a bilingual manual. And they had a surgeon come down and examine me, because the regular ENT doctors don't speak English. I had my insurance card, which I carry with me all the time at the advice of our Prefectural Advisors, and the bill for the hospital visit was 970 yen (~$9.50), and the medicine the doctor prescribed me was 260 yen (~$2.50). It comes in little pouches of powder, and I'm supposed to take one at each meal for three days (nine pouches all together). You tear open the pouch, and swallow the powder with some water. And I think it's supposed to make me sleepy? I'm not sure I understood the pharmacist. I took a long nap after I got home, though I hadn't taken any medicine at that point. I took some about an hour ago, and I don't feel sleepy now.

I wouldn't have even bothered with the whole hospital/doctor thing—my cold isn't that bad—but I'm pretty sure I need to have seen a doctor in order to get paid sick leave.