Medical Check : I do not want to take a bood check seriously

Do you take a medical check regularly ?
I did it actually a few weeks ago because we, Japanese, are supposed to take it annually, as long as we are employed by Japanese companies. It is because employers must make employees take it according to Japanese law. However, I`m not sure about this in the case of self-employment, but it is likely up to oneself.

It was 2010 October when I took a medical check last time as a check for departure for US in Tokyo, and more than one year has already passed. Therefore, I was urged to take it here by a department of accommodation and works last month. Here is not Japan, so we generally have a concern that foreign doctors understand what Japanese regular medical check means because I have heard from my colleagues that a medical check is arbitrary and it is up to people and  a health check here is not done until you feel something wrong. An idea of a medical check is to be able to detect a initial health problem as early as possible, and avoid the risk of fatal problems as much as possible which is too late to cure. I have such a concern but I can fortunately take a similar medical check with Japanese case because there are a few hospital here which Japanese doctors run. They are originally from Japan and were trained in Japan, and they have a license here and were trained in US as well. So they really understand what a regular medical check is.

A few weeks ago, I took it actually in some hospital, although I was reluctant honestly but I had to to. I am under 30 years old so I was supposed to take basic checks by consulting with a hospital people, although a number of check lists generally increase when I get older. Check items were a physical body check, an abdominal ultrasound check, an urine check, a stool check, a blood check and a X-ray check of chest. Among these check lists, I don`t really like a blood check and hate it in other words because I have a trauma about it when I was small. A new nurse failed to draw my blood many times and I was really feeling pain physically and mentally. Since that time, not every time but  I sometime feel dizzy and become pale and go white. And as I had feared, I felt so this time. I`m always fine physically but not fine mentally.

Results do not come out yet, but I really hope to pass it and do not take reexamination, especially, a blood check. Every time when I take a medical check annually, I strongly think that  I have to eat health foods and do exercise in order to avoid health problems as much as possible, although this idea gets less day by day.

Celebration for a birth of my collegue`s baby

Last December,  I and my wife visited a house of my Indian colleague to celebrate a birth of his baby boy. He was born last September, so I waited for around three months until his baby got settled. As far as I know, it generally takes around three month for that. Usually we bring something for a child when we visit somebody for a celebration. This time, this is not japan, so I though some religious things are not appropriated, so I decided to bring Japanese fairy tale book throughout which Japanese children can know what good things are and what bad things are. However, his child was just born, so this book is not useful now, but will be later. The time when I visited him was before noon, so he kindly served us real Indian food. Since I came here, I often go to Indian restaurants with my colleagues and I thought I already got used to it, but it was not. The foods which I ate at his house were really hot, although he said to me that it is moderate in India. We, Japanese, typically like hot foods because Korean kimuchi, hot food, is very popular. However we can not handle hot Indian food which generally contains a lot of spices. I have another episode about that. When I went to Korean place for lunch with another Indian colleague. We tried to tofu soup food, and I tried mild spicy and he tried hot spicy. Even mild spicy, it is out of my capacity, but he said to me that his choice was not hot, and this hot taste is equivalent to mild taste in India. At that time, I strongly realized that we have different kind of stomach essentially.

The lesson here is that I can not handle real Indian spicy food. I do not hesitate to choose mild taste when I enjoy Indian food.

Wine tasting at first time

Ridge vineyards

Last weekend, I could have experienced and enjoyed wine tasting finally. Since I came to California, everybody always recommends me to do it, and they say it is because California is famous for vine production and wine tasting in vine yard is really great. And a recommended place is always Napa. Honestly, I am a little bit reluctant for that because Napa is far from my living place, and I am actually beer lover. So I was always wondering if it is worth a lot to go there and enjoy wine tasting. However, when I was looking into the Google map around Santa Cruz mountain, I found wine yard in south bay area and the place is easy to access from my house. So I decided to try it immediately, and I did it last weekend just after enjoying the mission peak walking, although I was already exhausted.

When I got there, the tasting space was really full with people, and I had to wait for about 10 minutes until vine tasting space was open. There are 3 courses for wine tasting here, and it was first time for wine tasting, so I chose the lowest course for 5 dollars just in case. I could actually enjoy 4 kinds of wines, but every wine is red. I do not know how to enjoy red vines. So I could not enjoy it honestly. This wine yard must be good because a lot of people visit there. However it just does not mach my preference.

My first experience of vine tasting was not good so I am wondering if I go to enjoy wine tasting somewhere someday. And I am strongly realizing that I am a beer lover anyway. Next time, I want to enjoy beer tasting.

Mission peak hiking at Milpitas CA

(*) wikipedia

In the middle of week, when I talked with my Indian colleague about hiking, we decided to try the mission peak together at the east bay. He is very familiar with hiking, camping, but he stopped to do those outdoor activities because he got a bay and he took care of his wife until his child got settled. It is almost 4 months since his child was born, so he thought his baby is already stable and he can go for a short hiking. So I woke up earlier than usual at last Saturday and headed for there with him. When I got to a parking, what I came up with first was that I might not be able to make it seriously because I could see the peak of mountain, called mission peak, but its altitude looks very high, which I had never tried. However, I did not have a choice not to try it since I was already at the start line. Finally we headed for the peak at 9am while I was having something worry in my mind. From my experiences, if we don't know what a trail is like, it often excites us for unknown things but it worry us mentally at the same time, which sometimes makes us feel tired physically. I think that everyone has a experience once like that first time is hard but second time is easy. The same think was happening to me. As we walk, I realized that it would be really difficult to walk this trail in summer because three is no trees along the trail and no shade for rest, so we could easily suffer from heat stroke at higher risk. A story is totally different when it comes to hiking at west bay, Santa Cruz mountain. It is because there are plenty of trees giving us shade for rest and protecting us from sun shine. However, it is yet February and temperature goes up 65F at maximum, so it's no problem though water is definitely necessary. As we went up more, we could see and enjoy whole view of Silicon valley area, although it was a little bit foggy over the Santa Cruz mountain at other side. One hour later from the parking, we got to the final stage which is apparently steep, which made us feel tired just by looking at that. However, from experiences, we already know how we can feel after finishing it. So we headed for the peak step by step while we were feeling like approaching goal gradually. And finally we got it. When we looked around the whole view of bay area from the peak, we could feel great achievement. In the middle of way, I was wondering if I could make it and was finding a return path, but I seriously thought that it was very good that I did not give up. If I have given up in the middle of way, I would have regretted this strongly.  

Hiking is beautiful, it gives me power from nature and spirit for exploring what a trail is like.