Friday, September 6, 2013

Cohi at the office

Hey-o!  Kind of boring in Nipon since I'm working and studying.  Not a lot of fun time yet but don't worry, it's coming!

First, an overview of vending coffee drinks.  There are lovely vending machines EVERYWHERE with various beverages, including coffee.  Lots of coffee.  The offerings are seasonal in that the Summer has cool coffee and the Winter has hot/warm coffee.  I think there's a temperature limit as the aluminum can would not tickle if it were, say, the temperature of the Seattle's Best Coffee that I spilled all over my hand the other day.  That was very hot and un-ticklish.

So, below I show you some of my various coffees over the last few days.  Seattle's Best is the hottest and not as bad as I remember.  That is not saying much since I've had some pretty horrific Seattle's Best in the past.  Next, there is blue can European, which has a touch of strong but is overall a tad sweet.  The ORIGINAL is very sweet.  The black European is my favorite- strong, chilled black coffee.  Finally, Emerald Mountain is somewhere between blue European and ORIGINAL in terms of sweetness.  I will upload a picture of the awesome coffee vending machine on the 5th floor of the hospital soon- I promise!

Next, my office which is where all the magic happens.  I can pretty much guarantee that this will be the nicest office of my career.  Amenities include a 5th floor, window with water view, my own bathroom(with a shower!!) and nice furniture/lots of space.  This could seriously serve as an apartment if I just ponied up the cash for a hot plate- which I might!
Welcome!   Please come in.  The bathroom is on your left!

My desk.  Clean-ish.

The view, I kid you not.

Work has been going pretty well.  This was my first week of clinic.  Exciting!  I booked a few surgeries out of clinic, which is also great.  

 My schedule is in a lot of flux over the next few weeks.  Next week, I go to the mandatory base orientation M-F.  Friday is the Japanese auto license day which is exciting since I bought a car this week from Mr. Auto.  Unfortunately, I need a car since I'm living in Ikego and I need wheels for middle-of-the-night calls during my call weeks on.  Fortunately, I got a good deal on a small, functional car which SMS cruelly pointed out is probably in a lot better shape than Bluey was.  Although this is cruel, it's true.   For one, there are no double cracks in the windshield.  

So, yes.  I have a car and no license so clearly that situation has to change.  The whole car-buying thing was a little bit of an adventure.  First, I went off-base to meet him and was waiting for him rather impatiently.  Rather than storm off and write the whole thing off as shady, I called him and politely asked him if our meeting was still on.  It was.  He just thought we were meeting at 1:30 while I thought it was 1:00.   So, eventually he showed up.  Question for you: if there was a guy named "Mr. Auto" in Japan who targeted his used car market operation to military members overseas, what type of guy would you picture?  Would you picture a morbidly obese African-American?  Yeah, me neither.  But Louis was really nice and we test-drove the car together.  He told me about his venous insufficiency, Japan and the car.  Then the ride was done.  I liked the car and the price was really reasonable but I didn't just want to pay face value for a car.  Car buying = negotiating.  But I wanted to be clever about it.  So, I asked if he offered a military discount.  I am so hilarious.  I got a small amount knocked off the price.  I paid the deposit and I'll see him in a week once I have my license and I can register the car.  The guy's been around for awhile so there is some online reviews to vouch for him so overall, I feel pretty secure in the whole transaction working out.

So, anyway, back to my schedule.  After a week of orientation, I'll see clinic the next week but have Thursday and Friday off since the 20th is my boards.  Dun dun dun.  After the boards, I'll have fun on Saturday and then head out for a week of TDY to two Southern clinics near Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Then I'll come back, see 1.5 days of clinic and then maybe, just maybe, have an extended weekend trip to see SMS in San Diego!!!!

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