Tibetan Turkey
...written on 2001-02-24, @ 19:20:28
Tales of Kim's Life in Japan
Wed February 21, 2001
Shacho came into the office and asked me if I had five minutes. I think everyone should have five minutes for the president of the company, so I said, yes. I followed him to his office where he introduced me to a Russian woman who was looking for a job. She spoke Japanese and English fluently. Shacho left me alone with her for a few minutes.
I was very curious, so I asked her about a lot of things. She was a little reserved, but gave thoughtful answers to all of my questions. Just as I was about to ask her thoughts on teaching Japanese students, I got a tickle in my throat and started coughing just as Shacho walked back into the office. I couldn't stop coughing so he motioned that it was ok for me to leave. I apologized and bowed my way out. I went back to our office where my coughing fit subsided and again tackled the task of cleaning up the clutter in our office. After a while, Shacho came back and invited Yasuyo and me out to eat dinner at a new restaurant that served Japanese noodles (udon).
We sat at a table just across from a tiny room with a large window. We could see an old man working the dough for the noodles. Shacho said it would take a long time to make our dinners since the noodles were made fresh in the restaurant. "Yeah, no kidding, " I thought, "it might be a LONG while.", as I watched the man slowly use his fists to mash down the rising dough.
Soon however, we were each served a HUGE bowl of steaming noodles. Shacho and Yasuyo got theirs with some shrimp tempura on top, and I got noodles in miso soup with rice and cold water-logged cabbage leaves on the side.
As part of the dinner conversation, I told Yasuyo and Shacho that my father was going traveling to Turkey and that later he also wanted to go to Tibet and see the Himalayas. Yasuyo cocked her head and blinked at me, "Why," she asked, "are there many turkeys there?".
I had to laugh. I just had to. I explained to her that Turkey was a foreign country as well as a bird served at Thanksgiving. She then explained it to Shacho.
Shacho was not content with one HUGE bowl of steaming noodles, so he ordered a second bowl. He got big udon noodles in curry sauce and gave some to Yasuyo. I declined the offer because I couldn't even make a dent in my big bowl as it was.
Shacho asked about my impression of the Russian woman and I told him. He is thinking of hiring her, but isn't sure where the best fit might be. He said she was very intelligent, but that he couldn't read her heart very well other than that it was very lonely.
We were about two minutes from the office when I started coughing again. I tried to hold it in, but I couldn't. The tickle just wouldn't go away. Shacho let us out at the front door and parked the car. When he came in, he ordered Yasuyo to take me to the hospital.
It would have been useless to protest.
Yasuyo and I pulled into the hospital parking lot at almost 9pm. There weren't many people sitting in the dim cream colored emergency room lobby with burnt umber vinyl benches. I paced the room as Yasuyo filled out the necessary forms.
I felt dumb being there with just a silly cold, but like the last one, it was choosing to linger a little longer than I thought normal and perhaps I could get some relief from this killer cough. Why last night I thought I'd pop a blood vessel in my brain from the force I exerted in coughing.
I viewed the interview by the doctor the same way I did the time I was strip-searched in Costa Rica, as another interesting cultural experience. I had just flown in from Bogota, Colombia and was crying because I had become very attached to my traveling companion and we were going our separate ways. I was staying in Costa Rica and he was flying back to the States. I was very upset at our separation, and at the same time absolutely enthralled by the fact that the Customs officials, after searching my bags, noting my non-stop tears and whispering to each other "She just came from Bogota." pulled me out of line, took me to a curtained room with a female police officer and made me take off all my clothes (fyi: no body cavities were searched).
Come to think of it, I took off more clothes in Costa Rica for the cops than I did for this doctor in Japan. I just slipped off my coat and lifted up my shirt. He tapped on me a couple of times with his stethoscope and then through Yasuyo asked me some questions, and gave me some instructions. I got one day's worth of three kinds of pills. That was about a $20 visit. Yasuyo took me home and said she would call me in the morning to see how I was doing.