How to Vanquish a Winter Cold in Japan

Hello all,

I have officially made it to the ripe age of 46, and to celebrate my return to even numbers (and remember, I may be 46 chronologically, but I act half my age, which makes me 23)........

I caught a cold.

Dealing with a cold here in Japan is and isn't exactly like dealing with a cold back in California.

For one thing, I can read all the writing on the medicine containers in California.
I cannot easily read the writing on the medicine containers here.
So I have to engage in a sort of Charades approach to puzzling out medicines.

1.  Look for any drawings or decorations on the box that would indicate what the medicine is designed to treat.  Drawings of stomachs or people grimacing and holding their stomachs would indicate that it is stomach medicine.  Drawings of people with bright flashes of red emanating from their heads would indicate headache medicine.   Etc.  Etc.  Etc.

2. Look for katakana.  Katakana is the Japanese writing system reserved for non-Japanese words.  I can read Katakana.  So I look for Katakana, read it, and then try to match it  in my brain with known medicine-related words in English.  This approach actually works fairly well.

3. Last resort:  ask.  Now this would seem to be the step I should have pursued first.  However there is a hidden danger in asking, namely that if I ask for help finding a medicine to treat a symptom, say, a cough, the friendly neighborhood pharmacy person will invariably start rattling off advice at the speed of light--in Japanese of course.  Speed of light Japanese is rather difficult to understand, at least for me.   And invariably the discussion breaks down into me buying whatever they are holding out to me.

I often end up with stomach medicine to treat my runny nose, or headache medicine to treat my cough.
My life is funny that way.

But dealing with a cold in Japan isn't all medication. Oh no!  It is also LEMON DRINKS.  I have never in my life seen so many Vitamin C packed citrus beverages in my life.  There are vitamin c enhanced lemon and orange waters, carbonated and non-carbonated, hot and ice cold.  There are packets of powdered lemon drink to mix with hot water.  There are glistening jars of yuzu (a Japanese citrus fruit) to mix with hot water and honey.  Then there are lemon teas and sports drinks and tiny bottles of vitamin boosted elixirs designed to save you from your own folly of working too hard or drinking too much beer.  There are even....wait for it....LEMONS.

It's amazing.

So once I have my medicine and my lemon drink of choice, I'm usually good to go.

Except for the weather.

Which is COLD.

Kyoto has a reputation as having hotter than average summers (true) and colder than average winters (also true), due to its location in a wide bowl between several lovely mountains.

Let's put it this way:  when I go upstairs, I can see my breath.

I can also see my breath when I leave the living room (the only room we heat, by the way.  Last winter we tried heating 2 rooms and nearly needed resuscitating  after we got the electric bill), although not as alarmingly as I can see it upstairs.

Whoever said that heat rises was wrong, I tell you.  Wrong.

So during the winter I am usually sporting at least 3 layers of clothing, along with an ever-so-stylish electric blanket as an accessory, if I'm lucky enough to be sitting down.  If I'm not lucky enough to be sitting down, then I take any opportunities for warmth that my daily activities offer.  Heating water for soup?  The stove is a handy hand warmer (as long as I keep my finger tips out of the flames).  Washing dishes?  Only the hottest water will do.


The last part of dealing with a cold in Japan is the face mask.

It's a lovely thing , really.  When people get sick here, they quarantine their own faces by wearing disposable face masks.

And face masks are sold everywhere in all sorts of styles and shapes and thicknesses.
And all of them are a pristine, blinding white.
Which makes all of us wearing them look like particularly tidy bandits.

And they are all designed to help all us sickies keep our nasty germs to ourselves.
So while the trains and buses in the wintertime do sound rather like infirmaries, it's nice to know that all those coughs and sniffles are being captured and held at bay.

And so I begin my slow drift away from 45, taking medicine which may or may not treat my sore throat and throbbing head, a cup of steaming lemon drink in my hand and a gleaming white bandit mask sequestering my germs from Bob and the kids.

Life is.....weird.

Until next time.