Dinner

The gang from the hospital and I went out for dinner at a nice Italian restaurant (well..Japanese-italian) in Yagami. In attendance were Dr.Izumi, his wife and 3 children, Kawakami san, Iwata san and myself.

I couldn't help but think that a lot of good has come out of the accident I had over a year ago. On Sept 11th 2004, a few weeks after having arrived in Japan, I had an accident that landed me in the hospital for a little over a month. It was the first time a foreigner had been admitted to this hospital, also and the first time i've ever had to stay the night at a hospital. No one spoke a word of English, except for a part time nurse (Iwata san) who was called in on her day off when I was brought in. My stay in the hospital turned out to be a very positive experience! It gave me the opportunity to get to know some really great people. The staff at the Chiwata hospital are amongst the kindest people I have ever met.

Since leaving the hospital, I have still remained in touch with a lot of the staff. We had an end-of-year party at the doctor’s house which, despite the language barrier, was loads of fun.

When my parents came to visit 6 months later, the doctor treated us to dinner. It was a fun evening. The language barrier didn’t prevent us from having a good time.


A month later, when Roxanne came for a visit, we had another get together with some of the hospital staff. This time, we went to a soba restaurant in downtown Nagasaki. Afterwards, Dr. Izumi, Kawakami san, Roxy and I went to a jazzy place for a drink.

Anyways, back to this evening’s dinner. Dr. Izumi’s kids have grown since the last time I saw them. They are such sweet kids! The evening ended with plans to have another get together in the near future to celebrate Iwata san’s return from Spain/Portugal. Sounds good to me!