Finals season is upon us and I am busier than ever. Between doing projects for my graphic design class, writing papers for my art history class, work for my internship and going out with friends, I have almost no time for anything else.
This past week I did a bunch of fun things. On Friday I went to an Art Aquarium at night, which was really interesting. The atmosphere was high class and mysterious. The aquarium had gold fish in all different types of tanks that were lit up with neon lights against the dark background. It was a pretty cool sight to experience.
On Saturday I got really sick. I basically woke up in extreme pain. I was sick for about the first month of my stay here but I never went to the hospital because I didn’t think it was necessary. However, this time around, I knew I had to go.
As a foreigner in this country I was a little nervous trying to deal with healthcare. Dealing with hospital visits in America is a headache in itself, so I imagined it would be even more difficult in a country with a different language. To my surprise I was wrong. As a part of this program, Temple University requires students to sign up for GeoBlue Health Care. It’s an international health care plan available for students abroad. This service helped me find a facility that was covered by my health insurance, and that fit my needs. All the facilities listed on their website speak English, all I had to do was make a phone call to set up an appointment for that same day.
After the hospital visit, I was pretty beat so I took it easy for the rest of the day. The medicine the doctor gave me took effect right away and I was already in a lot less pain than I was at the start of the day. That was a huge relief because the next day I had to go to Spo-Cha!
Spo-Cha is a huge sports complex located in Odaiba. You can go and play soccer, tennis, basketball, baseball, volleyball, bowling, rollerskating, they even had Segways people could ride. The complex also had a bunch of arcade games, darts, and billiards.
After Spo-Cha, my friends and I walked around Odaiba for a bit. Odaiba is huge, with at least 4 mega malls surrounding the area. It’s a great place to go shopping and find cool things to do like Spo-Cha and other places like amusement parks and game centers.
I ended my week by going to the Ginza Graphic Gallery or the GGG as it’s known. I went on a field trip with my art history class so it was cool to go with other people who knew about what was on display.
After the gallery, a few friends I made this semester in class took me to Shibuya and showed me a recording studio. This was probably one of the coolest things I’ve done here in Tokyo so far. My friend Jason, pictured below on the left, was teaching Matt and me how to mix songs together like a DJ. I actually bought a disposable camera to shoot film on that night, which I did, but then I forgot when we left. I guess this experience is just one I’ll have to remember without it.
