Meet My Archnemesis!

Robin C, thankfully, started coming around after taking the antihistamines and was trying to do whatever she could to get it under control, so she wouldn't have to go to the hospital. The company employers look satisfied and told Karla to look after her until she could return to training. They shoed me back into the training area and said she was fine. The trainer acted as if nothing happened and carried on the training as robotic and cold as ever. I was worried about Robin C, even though I barely knew the girl-but I did have a heart! I was also worried about they way my new employer reacted to the situation and thought nervously about what would happen to me, if I had found myself in an emergency situation here.

We continued on with the by-the-book, but not in-real-life, health and safety presentation. Robin C joined the group an hour or so later and said she was feeling a lot better, after almost finishing the package of antihistamines. Emergency adverted, whewf! A new trainer stepped in for the next section,  First Aid training. It happened to be the same man who dropped me off at my apartment and woke me up a few days later. I was still a little bitter about it but brushed it aside, as little did I know he would get his own annoyance soon enough...

The man ran through a condensed version of the Japanese First Aid course (each country has there own slightly altered version of what to do in emergency situations). Up until this point, there had been a outsider making herself known to the group as such, that had been slowly been driving me to the brink of insanity. She was an overweight, dark haired, outspoken, loud and abrasive Canadian. Her know-it-all attitude, immaturity, social incapability and overly try-hard personality, made it almost impossible for anyone of us to like her.

As interruption had become one of her many annoying talents, she started up with a ten minute story about her bruised arm when she was five, which ended up being completely irrelevant, boring and just a desperate need for her to hear herself talk. Even the trainer was squirming, politely trying to "uhuh, hmm and ah" his way to cue for her to stop herself, which failed. After a huge, solo belly chuckle and a clap, she stopped and let the trainer speak.

The man continued on with this presentation.. ah wait pause.. another hand shot up like an eager three-year old. This girl, who I will refer to as Big B, was starting to drive everyone bonkers! The people in the room would shuffle in their seats uncomfortably, make deep sighing noises or have a dog- like sneer on there faces directed towards her, but she just didn't get it! Big B would stretch any training session, for at least an additional hour, because of her lame stories, questions that were already answered or stated in the previous sentence, or a correction to the trainer to which she thought she knew more about.

We were discussing the Heimlich maneuver, when a pudgy hand shot up. The trainer had barely begun his presentation and had been side-tracked by Big B several times already. Big B decided to stand up this time, because her whole body was practically trembling in rage. "That's not how you do it!" she rudely yelled. "I'm a qualified First Aid Trainer for the last two years in Canada and that is not what we learned and would never teach anyone to ever do!" she smugly added. The trainer bit his tongue, swallowed, took in a deep breath and tried to calmly state that even though he was originally from Canada as well, that this was the Japan's version of First Aid, that was taught and recognized here and would be what was expected of us teacher's to do in an emergency situation. I would have honestly sat there quietly, if he had said pick a child up by it's feet and dangle him or her upside down if they were choking, because I knew in a emergency situation, I would be the one to make the call on what action I would need to take. I'm pretty sure all of us had our First Aid Certificates as is, since we were dealing with children, so could make a reasonable judgement. The argument that lasted for almost twenty minutes (yes I kept time), and was about how in Japan's First Aid version when someone is choking first try striking them with the underside of your palm in an upward motion to remove the choking object, before trying the Heimlich maneuver. Big B was bright, red and shaking, she was so outraged that this was even mentioned. The trainer was getting more up in her face and the epic cringe-worthy battle began. All fifteen of us sat there uncomfortably in a circle, watching the mayhem of this argument unfold. Eventually the trainer pretty much told her she could leave if she was not going to abide and respect the companies policies. Big B finally decided to shut her mouth, as flying from Canada to Japan, spending countless hours and cash on visas and flights and getting nearly fired within a two day span of a training session, was probably worth her keeping her opinions to herself.

After breaking for lunch, finally, it was in that moment that I knew I had met my archnemesis...

It's on..new archenemy Batman and Big B (or Penguin in this photo)

A piece of meat

Poor girl, an octopus allergy seems like something you would chuckle at in the Doctor's office, once they told you what your allergy was, as back in England (where she was from), I'm sure it isn't quite a common ingredient to be included in a meal; but Japan was a different story. Japan is a food orientated culture is an understatement. They are a food obsessed culture, especially when it comes to seafood. I remember my brother describing Japan's take on seafood was like if someone walked into the ocean, pulled out a sea-cucumber, or any other creature for that matter, it would be chopped upped, plated and served and probably regarded as delicious (which I hold back from judgement, if it actually is or not). Octopus is a dish I don't think I've ever seen anywhere else, but allergies become on high alert in Japan, as the variety of types of foods put before you, increases.

Braised octopus with honey and saffron.
Can't lie, this does not look
appetizing at all to me.

Robin C didn't have her EpiPen (adrenaline shot) with her and was starting to panic. Her throat was swelling up and she was feeling nauseated and faint. We took a break and the trainer and a few of us, myself included, walked Robin C into an empty room, to try to figure out what to do. I was fanning Robin C, with Karla, and encouraging her to drink water. The words that kept floating around from the three company employers present were, "..hospital, health insurance, company won't pay." Robin C didn't have any health insurance and a cost to the hospital would have set her back hundreds of dollars. Someone luckily had an antihistamine and she took a handful of those. The company employers sounded like scripted robots, "We recommend you appoint a doctor, but be advised the company will not pay or reimburse you for any hospital or medical costs." The poor girl was just trying to focus on breathing, let alone trying not to have a panic attack, because she didn't have that type of money with her. They consistently were bombarding her with questions about wire transfers, getting to an ATM before they took her to the hospital and other such nonsense! Way to make her like a piece of meat! What was being discussed, with Robin barely able to squeak out a word, shouldn't be talked about until that person's health and well-being is taken care of!

Ironic, how we were discussing the topics of healthy and safety and now we were faced head-on with an emergency situation and what was being ignored was health and safety of this girl, and what was more important was how the company didn't want to fork out the bill. "What kind of company had I signed up for", I drearily thought.

An unexpected turn for the worse

All my sucking up paid off by the end and I think my tardiness was forgotten by the CEO by the end of his presentation. It wasn't so important to me to me to make sure I sucked up to the boss, but it was important to me to be able to know that I still had enough social skills, that seemed to have left me the minute I entered Japan,  to start anew from a bad impression. We briefly breaked for five minutes and Brenda and I shared in our embarrassment from the late entry. We made sure this time we were a minute early and made a pack never to be late again.

We sat down to listen to our next section of the training, which was healthy and safety. About half and hour went by and my eyes were drooping again. I wish I had brought those fake mustache and eye glasses, but not surprisingly, 'no mustache' was on the list-Damn they thought of everything!

This guy is a pro!
I would like to shake his hand one day.

There were two girls sitting behind me, Danielle and Robin (same name different girl, so "Robin C" is what she will be named hereafter). I heard some muttering back and forth, which was starting to get louder. My eyes opened and I looked behind me, wondering if they were playing the, "call-out-sequentially-louder-fill-in-the-blank-inappropriate-word-game," because I wanted to play. Robin C raised her hand and the trainer gave her an annoyed head tilt to say she could speak. "I think I'm going to be sick!" Robin C called out. Whoa that caught  me off guard, I thought she was going for first place game. "I'm severely allergic to octopus and I think my lunch had traces of it in it," she further explained. Now she had the trainers attention. She was as white as a ghost and I was concerned for her and myself. I was sitting right in front of her, and well within vomit range...

Time is of the essence

I finished up in the toilet and waited for Brenda. I was fixing my up-do when a man pokes his head into the female toilets. "We're waiting for you!" he bellowed at us. Brenda just opened up the stall door and we both exchanged looks of dread. I ran out the door and Brenda tailed behind. "Shit, shit, shit!" I mumbled to myself. The trainer was holding open the door his face scowling at us. We could see inside the door the CEO was sitting at the front and all heads turned to the door to see the late-comers. I think we were maybe one minute late, but one minute could be one hour in Japan. It was lectured to us several times, in the course of the last day, that in Japan lateness is not tolerated even by a minute. I swallowed the lump in my throat and tried to walk in confidently. I had to face, yet again, my newfound, perpetual habit of making bad impressions in Japan. Everyone's eyes were on us, even Robin and Merran's with looks of sympathy. The CEO was a cute, balding, petite Japanese man who looked the least bit threatening. I gave him a little smile, as he watched Brenda and I do the walk of shame, but then his eyes shot daggers at me. I shriveled into my chair near the front, mortified. What was wrong with me?? How did I make it through so many other impressionable encounters, in my twenty plus years of life, so flawlessly and now couldn't even half-ass a few here!

I decided, I would have to put on my Hermoine Granger pants and suck up like I've never sucked up before! Bad impressions could be turned around, the last few days were proof of that! I was throwing up my hand at every question enthusiastically, dropping larger than normal words, nodding my head in agreement at every word passed from his lips and even started the slow clap at the end of his presentation!

My Hermoine Granger suck up act, to win back points
for my tardiness.

Time is treated with such respect in Japan, which is a change from what the norm is in many Western countries. Buses are late, people show up a few minutes late for work, drinks, parties, etc and it's almost a given.  The term "Fashionably late," makes lateness seem more cool, to leave your friends, family or colleagues, waiting for your grand arrival. A 5-20 minute buffer zone is given to most people on any given task, so of course people take advantage and time becomes a more flexible, yet rushed phenomenon. In Japan time is exact and precise, there is no buffer zone, no flexibility and less rush. Time is much more orderly and easy to understand, clock strikes one o'clock and one second and your late, doors locked or trains passed. I have come to love the orderliness and prefer it to the counterpart of the West and what concepts of time I've come to know. Traveling and living in many countries I've seen the differences of cultural time and I think Japan has it down-pat. People are less rushed and stressed,  I rarely see people running for trains or getting upset for buses or trains that are running late, because it just doesn't really happen. My friend even told me that Japan has the best transportation system in the world, which I wouldn't doubt, and that even in Tokyo with an average of 6.33 million passengers each day (in 2009), if a train was delayed for any reason, each of the 6.33 million people would get a note of apology from JR (Japan Railways) to give to there employers, stating it was there fault, because lateness is such an uncommon occurrence they can make promises such as these.

This was one fault, that was completely my own, and I made a promise to myself to watch the time, through the eyes of the efficient timely people of Japan.