Hi again! Sorry I've been losing my mood for writing in the past few days while actually I really want to. So in this post I will try to make a brief story about my first week at Shinshu University. And yeah I did go to the orientation day and met some of the staffs already on Monday. My first day started very early in the morning, which was 07:10 AM (GMT +9). Guess what it was! JOURNAL CLUB!!!! Gosh, I tried so hard not to fall asleep. They spoke in Japanese and thankfully the journal was in English.
After that I spent my whole day at the OR (Operating Room). I'm not sure what was the first case but the second one was Cubital Tunnel Syndrome et causa ganglion. The woman got a severe nerve palsy in her hand because the ganglion compressed the ulnar nerve, making it swollen. It was performed by Uchiyama sensei. He was really good in English. Worked at Mayo Clinic years ago. He asked so many things about anatomy and I was pretty much stupid about it. Damn! The doctors in hand surgery department are mostly good in speaking English. I was treated for my breakfast and lunch by the doctors. Yeay!
And the day ended really fast. I got only one day of hand surgery and four days of spine surgery. I was nervous about the next day since I got kicked by Uchiyama sensei about the anatomical things which I'm bad in it. I forgot the small muscles and tendons and stuffs. The smaller things apparently matter the most. So, I joined the English conversation at Spine surgery and turned out good. Really! I got to know the doctors and they were really happy to have me.
So, I started Wednesday with Jounal club as well and met a med student from the university. She was half Peru and half Japanese. She was really good in English so she helped me translating what the doctors were saying at the outpatient clinic. Yeah, I spent the day at the ward and outpatient clinic with Takahashi sensei as my mentor. So, it was a good day and I joined the E-cafe with the med student afterwards and went for dinner with Hikaru, Julian and Philipp.
So on Thursday, I went for the ward round in the morning with the doctors and directly went to the OR. So the case was Adolescent Idiopathic Scoliosis. I don't know why but I saw there were so many patients with this disease in Japan. They have screenings in every school. Great, eh? I'm not sure there's one in Indonesia. I observed it for 3-4 hours and then joined another OR in the afternoon.
Then, friday came and I actually only had one schedule which was ward round only but then the kind doctor, Shimizu sensei, he asked me to see how the Halo brace was applied to a C2 fracture patient. Was a good experience. I went to the library before that and joined another operation. So far it was a great week.
At around 6 pm, there was beer part for the students and everyone were just there. I drank a 3% canned drink. Peach stuff, I didn't know it contained alcohol though. Joined in for an hour with Philipp, Julian, Lisa and Yilie. I had to go to the department for a welcome party from the Spine team. So, I was actually kinda nervous. I went with Oba sensei, Shimizu sensei, Makiyama sensei and Tatsugi sensei.
We went to the restaurant near the station. They ordered so many foods and I tried all of them! Tried a sip of the Kirin beer, but yikes! I don't like beer. Just like the wine I tried in Italy before. Bitter. Why do people like it though? Had so many conversation, especially with Ikegami sensei. He's a trail runner. He runs 20 km minimally every time he trains. Damn, I have to say he's really really fast for a 38-year-old guy. Everyone was really nice to me and we finished at around 21:30. Tatsugi sensei and Shimizu sensei were drunk. They were really funny!!!! They were!!! You should see them during that time. I couldn't stop laughing. They bought me Takoyaki and it tasted really good. We went home by taxi after that ;)
And yeah on Saturday all the exchange students went with some medical students to Azumino city. We went to the Wasabi farm which wasn't like my expectations and it was raining so it was really hard to enjoy it. I bought the transparant umbrella, though. I tried the Wasabi flavored ice cream and it didn't taste bad. What I like was the crouquette ( I don't know how to spell it. Then after that we went to Chihiro Museum for awhile. It was an exhibition of Chihiro's painting. She liked to paint kids and I think I saw her paintings in a novel. Costed JPY 700 to get inside. Then, we went back home to take a rest.
I left for the downtown with Yilie after that. Visited the highlights of the city. Then met Julian and Philipp at Matsumoto Castle and went for dinner. Was a great night. On Sunday, I went to visit Tateyama Mountain with Naomi (the med student at my department) and Komatsu sensei from the hand surgery group. Should drive to Azumino and Toyama prefecture arund one hour. Then we took the transportations. I forgot what are they but I think I took the buses, several cable cars and stuffs to get to certain height. The whole trip costed JPY 9,050 per person and you know what? The sensei paid for us. I felt really bad but also relieved. Didn't have that much money!
The first stop was Kurobe dam. It was beautiful. Then I arrived at the mountain around 12 or something. I will post the picture when I get home. It was beautiful and there was snow during summer. I was kinda stupid playing around. We trekked the mountain and took pictures. I and Naomi then decided to buy the sensei a sake for him since he was I don't know, crazy about those stuffs, or perhaps it's just the Japanese. He also paid for our lunch and dinner which didn't cost cheap.
So, it was a wrapped! Great week to start in Japan. Will write more before I catch my flight back to Bali. See yaaaa!
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