finally got the process to get the medicine i was using in sweden in japan. basically i went to the only clinic for this in town that spoke english (the local government has a handy list of which clinics officially speak english, chinese, korean, etc), brought with me an unopened package of medicine, an official paper from my swedish hospital saying i "have x illness and use y medicine" (both of which weren't in english but in the end it was just fine), my health insurance card and resident permit card (which also functions as an ID card). all that stuff turned out to be necessary, though they never opened the medicine package to check it was actually what it said it was so maybe the empty box would've been fine.

the nurses don't speak ANY english, not even days of the week or hours of the clock, which is what i also experienced in iceland (but isn't true at all for sweden). as is normal in every country apparently, absolutely no english inside the hospital in general (like, no signs in english for example) nor anything actually noting on the hospital's website that the doctor can speak english. the doctor himself spoke in a mix of half-japanese and half-english, but it seemed completely unintentional, like he just never speaks english so doesn't even realize he's using japanese. he wrote some instructions for me (on how to take the urine test) in english and that was flawless though. the doctor was one of those that's so good at his job he only takes like two seconds to do it, which is what i keep experiencing over and over here in japan (and have experienced a couple times in sweden... but never in the USA). obviously the clinic doesn't get many english-speaking patients but at the same time the nurses didn't seem like i was the only english-speaking one they've ever had (at any rate i spoke entirely in japanese with all the nurses, i just made mistakes).

so basically i can't get my medicine until 2-3 weeks from now. they have to do a ton of random tests - today i did a urine and blood test, and got my height, weight, blood pressure, thyroid, spine, breathing etc checked (all of which went amazingly fast). one reason for having all these tests is that the dosage i had in sweden was 4x higher than the legal limit in japan, because of stuff like a high dose causing liver damage lol. japan's apparently figured out that if you do x lower dose, your body naturally reacts to it in such a way that you end up at the proper level of what you need about a week afterwards, instead of the swedish method where you kinda just overload your body in order to get covered from day one.

anyway, it's now thursday (at 2 in the morning). "tomorrow" i'll know if i got the job or not. on that same day i also have my first tutoring session where a japanese student is supposed to help me with japanese (i specifically asked to be helped with the kind of polite grammar that helps in getting/keeping jobs), and the last class session for my BA thesis writing prep class.

i'm living in an apartment building for tohoku university (a huuuuge university) exchange students... and on saturday starting at 9am we're supposed to take part in a 5-6 hour emergency drill session. first we practice a fire drill which takes 1-2 hours, then we get on a bus and go to tohoku university to get first aid training, experience the earthquake simulation truck which i've already been in at my own university, have the disaster government-rationed food which i can't eat anyway, listen to a lecture on how to prepare and why preparedness is important etc. supposedly attendance is pretty mandatory in that they'll be doing a roll call and everything but i plan on skipping out and just telling the apartment receptionist that i have work and can't come. some of my classmates are going to claim the same thing so we'll see lol. not only have i already done some of this stuff (like, although it was years ago, i did take first aid classes in the USA in order to get certified, and i figure if i take them at all in japan i should do it in a way where i'm certified too), but i figure i'll have to do it all AGAIN at future jobs, schools, apartments etc in japan anyway so i'm not exactly worried. because near to sendai was the big earthquake and tsunami that killed a ton of people and obliterated a few towns, they're really keen on disaster preparation. which isn't bad, but it's just like, not 6 hours on a saturday starting at 9am please.