01 • Hainka into the sky minō mountain rises distant june heat rises before the sun we wake early to make our way into the sky 02 • Imayo empty cellophane packet – juice masks bitterness standing beneath hot water – time steadily slows kneeling to tie my shoelaces – suddenly seated confusion then memory – empty cellophane packet 03 • Gogyohka simple tasks require help at the station with double vision and delayed reflexes – foolishly hiking to minō falls i near the edge he keeps me on the path
I needed a solution to the delayed medication problem. For the second month in a row, the package sent from the states with my meds was held up in customs. So, with the help of Yoko, my trainer:s12 wife, I went to the hospital in Juso to get a prescription. The doctor didn’t trust me, but Yoko explained the situation and he begrudgingly gave me a prescription for two drugs. One was basically a synonym for one of my meds, in pill form. The other was a packet of white powder containing the same medication as my time-release pills, except without the time release. I had to figure out how to take it effectively without overwhelming my system, and ended up dividing it between my three meals.
My friend Jeremy and I planned to climb Minō Mountain on our weekend (Monday, in reality) to see the falls and the monkeys. That morning, while eating breakfast, I decided that I didn’t want to carry the powder around with me all day, so just went ahead and threw the whole thing in my orange juice. Tasted terrible, but I thought nothing of it, having had no previous experience with powdered medicine.
After a hot shower, I was feeling a little woozy, but went ahead with my prep. As I bent to tie my shoes, I suddenly found myself seated and couldn’t figure out how it had happened. Then I started to notice that all my reflexes were delayed. Any correction when I felt myself drifting toward a wall resulted in a bit of a jump towards the opposite wall – but too late to stop myself from hitting the first wall.
Why I went ahead with the trip, I have no idea. I:ll go ahead and blame it on the drugs.
By the time we got to the station, Jeremy knew what was going on and actually had to help me get cash from the machine because the screen refresh rate was driving my vision bonkers. My slowed brain couldn’t keep up with the movement on the screen and it was spinning vertically like a slot machine. And I missed the card slot on the gate to the train several times – until Jeremy swiped my card for me.
This could be a very long story. I:ll shorten it.
I got lots of funny looks from people on the train, which, if you know Japanese culture, you:d be surprised by. Normally, they wouldn:t let us catch them staring at us. I think they were concerned. Either that or they thought I was rude for wearing sunglasses on the train, but my eyes were hyper-sensitive and I had to.
We hiked up the mountain with a drop-off on the left, and I needed to play bumper cars between Jeremy and the inside of the trail.
All my pictures of the monkeys were out of focus and one of the scoundrels stole food from my bag.
We never made it to the waterfall.
Jeremy was very kind. But he brought up the trip every time I was beating him at Soul Calibur3 after that.
When a colon takes the place of an apostrophe in this series, it:s a reference to the : key being in the spot on a Japanese keyboard where the ‘ key would be on an English keyboard.
The Toyonaka branch trainer:s name was Bruce. He would say things like, "freaking what:s going on in here?" Bruce always misplaced his epithets.
Soul Calibur is a weapon-based fighting game that we played on a half-broken Sega Genesis console.
I like the poem with extended deciphering. The poetry feels so Asian, but leaves me bewildered. It is nice when it snaps into place with infused meaning.
Strange experience in a far country - surreal!