Monday, May 18, 2009

Typhoid Terrie

Well, we're back in Japan. Our plane landed in Narita last Friday only to be immediately boarded by twenty people in hazmat suits. We were ordered over the  intercom to remain seated with seat belts on, no getting up for anything. And just to make sure not a single possibly-infected person hid out in a toilet they locked all the bathrooms. 

An hour later and the passengers were starting to get nasty.


We were home less than three hours before we were contacted by J's teacher. She said that the Ministry of Health called them and said he will have to stay out of school for ten days. He also has to take his temperature twice a day and record it on a special form along with the sordid details of other body functions. She then told us she'd bring the form over as soon as possible. She did. And she totally gets brownie points for not wearing a mask and gloves while talking to us in the foyer. 

Thirty six hours after walking into the house and I get a call from some government guy who works for the Hatsu Netsu Soudan Senta (Fever Consultation Center) and he tells me that I also can't go out or see anyone. I also have to keep track of my fever etc. If I feel I must sneeze he explained to me the proper way to do that. All in all he was a nice guy. Then before he hung up he said he'd be calling me every other day until my ten days were up. 

But I guess it's okay. I mean, I really need to get the house in shape. My husband has been crazy busy at work (working weekends and late nights), so he didn't have much time to clean up after the animals. They've all gone feral. The dog, while elated to see us, didn't smell right. But I took care of that with a nice soapy bath. The cats on the other hand... they had gone into my underwear drawer, kicked out half its contents, and made several nests out of the remaining. Do cats make nests? Oh, and they also decided to pee all over the newts' cage. As you can imagine, the newts weren't happy at all.  Don't get me started on the amount of hair/fur floating around.

☆ Next blog post will be the delightful book signing and exhilarating trip to New York City, a full three weeks of meeting friends and family and friendly strangers. The only unfriendly person the entire trip was the guy in Manhattan scolded me with a, "Learn how to walk, Sweetheart!" 

Did you know in New York they call everyone 'sweetheart', 'boss', or 'big daddy'? 

P.S. I was just telling J that I'm already homesick for the States. I really wish I could have spent more time with everyone. *sigh*