Land of the Rising Sun

Greetings one and all. I know that it has been almost a month since I last posted anything here. That is because I have been on a rather long vacation to Japan. It is hard to describe how cool Japan is unless you have been there. I have never felt more tall in my life and I am only 6 feet tall.
Even though I was only there for about 3 weeks I find that some part of me will miss things about Japan for some time to come; it is a place that makes a large impression.
My wife and I took about a million photos so I will subject you to at least a few of the cool ones (I will also place captions so that they make more sense as to just what you are looking at). Obviously I can not post all of my photos - it is not that they are not all good, there are just too many of them for this forum. If you are really interested in seeing them all I will send emails. The pictures are going to be posted at the end of this blog so that you have some incentive to read to the end, unless you just scroll down, in which case; enjoy!

As far as looking into how medicine is done in Japan I must admit I did little to none of such checking. I spent the whole time as a tourist taking pictures of everything. I did learn some things about how military medicine works, but those points are more procedural and administrative than pharmaceutical. One of the coolest things I learned was about a program that is known as 'Flight Doc' where you are part of the Air Force flight crew, but you get to practice medicine too. That sounded rather awesome to me because I could get to fly in F16 fighter planes and such, but still be a doctor. So, I am looking into that as a short-term long-term goal - can't do that forever you know.

Internship stuff plugs along nicely. Today I am going to work on making some new paper surveys for anti-bacterial medications like Penicillin, Amoxicillin, Erythromycin etc. Those are both interesting and I think that almost no one in western medicine has not used them. I plan on taking these surveys to the people who live in my apartment complex sometime later this week. That should get me some more information, and might help to shape my final analysis. Also today I need to re-read the information that was sent to me regarding the 'Page Manager Program' with www.rateadrug.com so I can ask any and all questions that come to mind. It sounds like an interesting program.
So, look to this space next week - maybe later this week - to find more information about medications as I do the 'Drug of the Week' features and get back into the swing of things.

We flew into Narita airport, which is to the East of Tokyo and stayed in a hotel there the first day. Then over the course of the next week we visited sites all over Tokyo and Kyoto. Japan is full of shrines, neat plants, and really cool architecture. They have a way of blending natural things with synthetic things that is just beautiful.
Anyway, without further ado: the awesome photos of Japan!

(This is a photo of Tokyo as seen from an Army base in the center of Tokyo)

(We just thought it was funny how many Kanji symbols it took to say, 'No Smoking')

(This is the Meiji shrine, a Shinto Shrine in the heart of Tokyo)
(This is a neat Azalea bonsai that was at the Meiji shrine. Ever since seeing all of the cool bonsai I have started growing my own from a Trident Maple)
(This is a samurai or guard house on the imperial grounds in Tokyo. I forgot the Japanese word for samurai house; you try looking up words in Japanese on google!)


(This is part of the imperial gardens. All over the place we saw beautiful gardens. When I got back to Utah I realized I really DO live in a desert)


(This is Harajuku, which is sort of like the teen fashion district of Tokyo)


(This is the kabuki theater where we watched a kabuki play. It is sort of like Japanese opera)

(This is me and my wife standing in front of a Buddhist temple in Tokyo)


(This is a picture of Mt. Fuji that I got from the bullet train going to Kyoto. The Japanese term for the bullet train is Shinkanssen)


(These last 2 are of our hotel in Kyoto. The beds are really short, about 18 inches high and really firm. The bathroom was also super small, just to the right of the sink, that is the toilet and the tub was about 3 feet square)


(Now we are at the imperial palace in Kyoto. This is a building from the 15th or 16th centuries (I forget) said to house one of the three national treasures of Japan that are presented to the emperor when he 'takes office')

(Here is an interesting item: the Jell-O soda. It is like a normal soda, only with pieces of gelatin. You have to shake it up before drinking. Sounds kind of weird, but they are addicting. We decided we like the orange flavor better)


(After many attempts to try and understand this prime example of 'Engrish' we think it means that you are not supposed to have open bottles while exploring Nijo Castle in Kyoto. This was on the machine we bought the Jell-O soda from)

(Also in Kyoto at a place known as Gion corner. That is my wife walking with two Miko - they are sort of like Geisha in training. Not the best shot becuase the Miko girls would not stop for a photograph)

(Lastly here is a picture from our hotel room the last night we were in Tokyo. It is like Blade Runner, the city just goes for miles. It is hard to appreciate in this small frame)

Ok, that is about all of the photos from the middle of Japan. At this point in the trip we drove up north to a place called Misawa, where the US Air Force base is located. I will post more pictures of the trip there and stuff we saw there in my next posting. I am sure you are getting sick of looking at pictures, and this post is getting rather long.
So, until then be good my faithful followers!