Welp, NZ is officially under National rule again. Their policies don’t sound so bad on paper, but then I remember that John Key is apparently spying on us, so… yeah. That said, I think quite a few first world countries now are being spied on by somebody or other. I haven’t lived in NZ for most of the time since National came into power, but I’m ( Read more... )

Last day on paeds already, jeez. I was only with them 3 days, but I talked to enough of them that I decided to go ahead and take a team photo with them anyway for completion’s sake. The senior doctor wanted me to send it to him so I guess it was a good thing I took it! I hung out on the wards the whole day, basically, and dropped off my usual ( Read more... )

Uwah, I’m about to hit the 1/3 mark tomorrow! This week passed pretty quickly, thanks to the fact that I had Monday off and then Wednesday out of the hospital too. I finally got to know the paeds team today, but it’s kinda late since tomorrow is my last day. I was going to skip the photo this time since I’ve literally only seen them twice this week ( Read more... )

I went to the homeless clinic today with the other students and one of the doctors from the hospital who volunteers his Wednesday mornings to the clinic. It was very interesting to see such a bare-bones clinic in the middle of Tokyo, and it was definitely a huge contrast to the hospital where everyone gets myriad diagnostic tests if they so much as ( Read more... )

First day of paediatrics! The morning was very unexciting, but the afternoon clinic was really good, mostly thanks to the senior doctor I was with who spent a long time with each patient and chatted about their life outside of their illness, which I thought was really nice if a little time-consuming. Most of the patients were childhood leukaemia ( Read more... )

Hung out with Alena again today and went to Yokohama this time. First thing that greeted us out of the station was the amazingly huge food floor of the station department store, which greatly impressed me. Buuuut we ended up getting lunch at the bakery upstairs, and although everything looked delicious it wasn’t quite so delicious once it hit my ( Read more... )

I was feeling like a day in today, but I had plans with the other exchange students so I stopped myself from lying in bed the whole morning. We went to Odaiba after lunch and walked around enjoying the sights, including from the top of the ferris wheel. Was also able to watch the sun setting over the ocean and the Rainbow Bridge, which was really ( Read more... )

Phil arrived yesterday but since I couldn’t meet him for dinner last night, I suggested having monja today for lunch. Despite telling myself that I’d totally sleep in once the weekend finally arrived, I woke up nice and early at 8am and felt fully awake, so I went to Tsukishima early on my bike and biked around for a couple of hours before meeting ( Read more... )

Ahhh, seriously had one of the best days so far today. I brought along my Australian souvenirs as usual, with a handwritten Japanese note which attracted “ohhhs” and “ahhhs” from the team for being able to write Japanese at all, and the fame of Tim Tams was again recognized. I’m surprised that it’s so well-known, so I’m glad I brought it along as ( Read more... )

Slack day at the hospital today! I did some more research work in the morning, then went off to my tute in the afternoon with the other girls. Afterwards Alena showed us around the radiology department, where one of the doctors (who’s moving to Melbourne soon to do his fellowship) overheard that I was from Australia and enthusiastically engaged me ( Read more... )