A Weekend Away and a Funeral

So i went away for the weekend in September with the not-boyfriend. it was our first overnite trip together. we went to Izu which is on a penninsula south of Tokyo. it was one of the last warmish weekends to swim in the ocean and lay on the beach, which is just what we did for the first day. the second day was spent at the beach, the aquarium, and on Mt. Nesugata after going up the ropeway. from the top of the mountain, we got a very cool view of the harbor where Admiral Perry first brought his black flagged ships to Japan. the trip was fun and slightly educational and not at all too romantic (probably because i sorta pissed him off on the first night -- ooops), which was great for me.

I came home and almost immediately caught a cold. i was snot-filled and gross for almost two weeks straight. then the first shoe fell.

My cousin in Kyoto passed away at the end of September. He was playing golf and had a heart attack. He was 46. So I covered my shift for one day and went to Kyoto for the funeral. My aunt was a complete mess. Surprisingly, the widow and his daughter didn’t seem too broken up about it. They are a weird family so I chalked it up to that but it was VERY weird. (i mean, the little girl pats me on the arm on the way to the service in the morning and says to me
"don't worry, it's going to be OK." so i turn to her and say, "that's MY line!" hello?!!!) The funeral lasted ALL DAY. The service was long; lots of incense burning, praying, viewed the body a few times and then loaded him into the hearse. Then the family and closest friends went to the crematorium. More incense burning and praying. Then we watched them roll the coffin (which was incidentally made of really nice completely unfinished wood) with him in it and all into the furnace. Then we waited for 2 hours while the body burned and cooled. Then we went back into a special room in the crematorium where they brought the body back. They burned him until he was ash and his bones were all brittle. My aunt lost it when she saw him like that. Then we all took turns placing his bones in the urn. We started feet first and it finished with his skull. I know it’s morbid but I’ve never beared witness to such ceremony and science so I thought it was kinda interesting. I got the last shinkansen home that night after all the hoopla, completely exhausted.

it was raining in Kyoto when i went for the funeral so the cold i was getting over came back at me full force. i was on my ass agin with a big box of tissues. then the other shoe dropped.

My grandpa had been putting off coming over for dinner for a couple of days so i called him to reconfirm and he tells he he has chest pains and wants to go to the doctor. so i immediately rush to his house, help him have a light supper, and we went to the closest hospital's ER. the attending physician says that they don't have a cardiologist on that night so we could either go to a bigger hospital or come back in the morning. Grandpa says he's OK for the night so we decide to go back in the morning. The next day, my uncle comes down and we take him to his GP (who is a complete fucking retarded old man who wouldn't know his dick from his stethescope) then back to the hospital we went to the night before. i had to go to work but i get a call a couple hours later saying my grandad had been admitted to a special senior citizen's hospital in Oyama because his pericardium and lungs are filling with fluid which is why his chest hurts. Jesus. and so it has been since the first week of October that i have been going to the hospital almost every night to see him and make sure he's ok. he was in fairly serious condition for a bit (got moved to CCU) but seems to be getting better VERY SLOWLY. we'll have to wait and see.

with all the crap that has been going on this year, i decided to go home for the holidays. my head hurts permanently and i am getting sould sick. i need some turkey dinner, quality time with the family, and a break from work. all i gotta say is next year better not be this shitty.