Having lived for more than ssi years isthe Lard of the Rising Sun to pursue higher edbication had been ome of the most treasured mioments of my life. I wart (o share my experiences to all those who are curious about, aid who ad beet in Japan as well. shall narrate the Japanese people the wey I sew ther ‘Are they really hardworking people? Aré they really honest? Ist really a land of high technology? Or are these merely labels? Let us Lae ee by Gino C Nabe, MO PhD explore Japan, I will offer a series of draft ofthe book fam working on for you to get a glimpse of what isin it, Hopefully he book will be available in the first quarter of 2010, Jn finding enjoyment from the book, 1 think wey mission will Faave been accomplished. My Life In Japan twas in Japan that | learned to appreciate nature, the mountains, the hot springs, the lakes, the flowers, the trees, and dogs. | was not really particular about them before. The tulips and all flowers are appreciated and photographed, bodies of water are crystal clear, and fish abound. The Japanese created highways and train ways under the mountains to preserve the trees. And the dogs are a darling. They seldom bark, if ever they do. Sometimes | think that they don't. They are lovingly taken cared of. Not long after my arrival in the autumn, my first experience of winter came. Winter could last for five months or more in Hokkaido, Something new to me was the longer nights than days. At 4:00 in the afternoon the sun has already set. At 8:00 in the moming the sun has not yet tigen. Ilike winter for many reasons. No tropical sweaty feeling. | think | always smelled nice. tt felt great to sleep all day although | must admit that | managed to sleep only five to six hours per day. My skin became fairer and my complexion better. However, | had to use tons of baby ail, lotion, petroleum gel, and medicated lip stick to keep me warm and avoid getting dry skin, itchy feeling and chapped lips. | also wore three layers of clothing and that included a body warmer. Sometimes it was quite tedious to undress especially when | rushed to the toilet. My first winter was a nightmare. | did not know about humidity before because it is always humid in tropical Philippines. | discovered that in cold countries, the humidity is low, meaning to say there is no water vapor to moisturize the nasal turbinate. My nasal passages were bleeding, In the end, | could hardly breathe because the blood has clotted inside my nose, which made it difficult to pick. had to breathe through my mouth. I was advised by my Jeepney Press September-October 2009 sensei to buy an air humidifier but at avery prohibitive cost. To get the same effect for free, | placed a bucketful of water on top of my ald-madel heater. This way, | was able to generate water vapor in my room. Within two days, | was. able to breathe much better despite the small amounts of blood. | was able to save alot of money. It just took a little use of my neurons. There was a time that the water in my toilet bow! became frozen. | could not fiush it. How odd. Putting boiling water in the tank solved it. On several occasions, the pipes in my apato burst because the water inside turned into ice. | could neither shower nar wash my clothes because no water came from the faucet. One time it happened during the weekend, so | had to wait until Monday to have it repaired. | paid quite a huge amount for these winter accidents. The most. memorable was when | was taking bath just before going to bed. My water heater malfunctioned. Already with shampoo and body soap all over, the water would not tum warm, For about half an hour, | waited for the water to heat Up but in vain. I could not rinse because the freezing coldness was too painful to bear. | just dried myself and went to sleep feeling so sticky.