Well it was bound to happen

I finally managed to get sick, though there's little mystery as to the hows and whys. I had lunch with a classmate one day, where she shared 2 pieces of sushi with me (using the end of the chopsticks she had previously eaten with - a minor faux pas I wasn't even about to quibble about in my endless quest to try to get people to like me, haha), and the next day she was dreadfully sick, blowing her nose all day in class. She sounded pretty bad, and I was worried about her, but the little devil on my shoulder was nonetheless whispering to me that I was next. And the little bastard was right. Fortunately, the morning I woke up sick was a field trip day - going on those is voluntary and not compulsory, and it was mainly just a trip to the Toyota Factory and a Hatcho Miso (a {delicious} special miso around here) factory so I didn't mind it too much. I drank tons and tons of fluids, took vitamins, drank a hot Airbourne "cocktail," and pretty much exclusively ate soup, vegetables, and dango. I slept plenty, and when I woke up the next day...

I was feeling pretty much the same, if not worse. So I ended up missing today too, a class day, which is something I really wanted to avoid. I am going to school tomorrow whether I like it or not, however, I will be courteous and don a surgical mask, which is the in thing to do in Japan when you're sick (or perhaps just having a bad breakout).

I could sum up the grosser parts of this particular illness with one word: loaded. That word itself can apply to so many LOVELY aspects of my current bodily functions, from the metric tons of variably watery to neon green streaked snot I'm producing, to the sheer amount of diarrhea I've had, to the number of times I was so sure I was gonna totally upchuck and have to run to the public dorm toilet (the thought of navigating changing my "bedroom and hall slippers" to the required "toilet slippers" of the bathroom while holding back a maelstrom of barf is somewhat amusing to me anyway) - only to be  (fortunately) disappointed in this last one. Not that I relish frequent random bursts of nausea (with no "pay off" as it were) but I relish barfing in a public place even less. And having to change my shoes to do it, no less, hahaha.

Well, if it weren't already abundantly clear, I am obviously a total perfect lady, so it seems appropriate to also mention that I really like the kanji for diarrhea. It's comprised of two kanji, the first one being "down" or "lower" 下 (read in this case as "ge") and the second one being comprised of mainly two distinct parts, the first one being the radical that signifies sickness (image stolen mercilessly from Jim Breen's Multi-Radical Kanji Look-up)

and the second one being 利, meaning profit, inside the sickness radical, making: 痢 (read as "ri").
So. 下痢. Geri. Lower Sick-profit. If there was ever any wonder previously about why I like studying Japanese so much, let you not wonder anymore. I'm tickled pink by shit (harhar) like this. It seems so apt, really. The porcelain altar as indeed received many an illness-bourne token from down below from me today at least.

And dear, strong-stomached readers, let me leave you on that scatalogical note. Until next time, when hopefully I'll have something more witty and less shitty to say.