So Tuesday kicked off with a 0730 start (wtf?!) and me being introduced to Hino-sensei (Tomoko) "the best English speaker in the department", she speaks bloody good English.
I actually enjoyed a day in hospital for the first time in about two years.
Saw loads of ops in the day and got taken for lunch in the fancy restaurant in the hospial, none of this school dinner nonsense.
In the afternoon, I got shown possibly the greatest thing in the world ever: AKB48. Japan's answer to the X-Factor and my goodness, they are absolutely amazing.
(All girls aged over 16)
We found out that a welcome party was being thrown for us on the Thursday night, this caused much worry and concern for the next few days, which, I am sad to say, passed rather unevenfully. Lots more ops, top Japanese banter and struggling to order food in restaurants. Thank god for Halow's.
The Welcome Party
We'd already met Mr. Fukunaga (The Dean) on Monday so we figured there would be no big cheeses appearing on Thursday night, right? Wrong. Mr. Kawasaki himself (and his interpreter) were coming, oh my.
We had a bit of a debate re: wardrobe - jeans? suit? tie? who knows.
I went for the white linen suit, blue stripey shirt and blue espadrills, teamed with aviators. I looked the shit.
So we walk into the room for this party, there are three chairs in the corner with a microphone in front of them, tables full of food line the walls and numerous bottles of Asahi (beer) can be seen. What the hell is going on.
So we sit down, and our professors and legends from our departments walk in (anaesthetics, cardiology, hepatology and a guy from orthopaedics) followed by Mr. Kawasaki, looking like an absolute legend.
A brief introduction from Otsuki-sensei and then Kawasaki-san starts his speech (in Japanese), thankfully/weirdly we had his interpreter stood behind us saying everything in English. It was like we were royalty or something.
The speech finishes, i mop the copious amount of sweat from my brow and start mingling.
The anaesthetic department:
After several beers, we were called upon to do a speech, scary times, but I think i pulled it off.
I got told I looked very handsome and that my hair looked good, that's gotta be a win, right?
Lovely Ms. Takemasa packed some food up into boxes for us to take home for breakfast/lunch/food for the next month then it was time to sink a few more beers and head back to the party pad.
Sam decided it would be a good idea to attend an evening cardiology meeting until 2100 however.
Meanwhile, Tom-san & I drank the majority of the Stoli (mixed with grape soda of course) to try and comprehend what had just happened.
Oh yeah, it turned out that Mr. Kawasaki had brought a personal supply of Shochu (a bit like gin I guess) to the shindig and had given Tom-san a fair bit to drink. Legend.
Roll on Friday!
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