Day 45: Local immunity
At this point I am half way through my time here in Japan, and I am deeply embroiled in fighting a weapons-grade Japanese cold.
As I have spent time with my host Mandy for nearly a week, she has certainly been exposed to my cold germs, but aside from a bit of a sniffle she has been unscathed. The power of an immune system that is conditioned to the local germs is clearly on her side and not on mine.
Yesterday was a holiday, so Mandy was free to go adventuring with me, as I was determined not to let my cold completely swamp my time in Nagoya. On the docket; Mariocart VR at an arcade downtown.
I love VR, as evidenced by the fact I own my own system back home. What I enjoy most about VR is being able to expose people to it for their first time as well. Short of having my own system with me, this seemed like the next best thing.
It was an excellent experience, and both of us had a lot of fun racing through the Mariocart world. But after the VR session was over, the trip to the arcade took a... strange turn;
Mandy introduced me to the bizarre wonder that is japanese photo booths. You step inside and a screen below the camera lens displayed the pose you should strike before the flash fires and your image is captured by the computer. What I didn't know going in was that the booth automatically detects and "augments" the faces of those being shot.
Suddenly I found my virtual image shifted and beautified. My eyes enlarged, freckles erased, lips painted, chin reduced in size, the red in my eyes from my cold removed.
For a few hundred yen it was good for some fun and unexpected laughs, but I think I'll stick with VR in the future.
After the arcade my body gave up the fight and I began rather violently melting, so we headed to the train to go back up north to Mandy's house. I both struggled to breath clearly and stay awake for the trip back home.
Along the way we stopped at a pharmacy connected to the train station and acquired some meds to help combat my worsening state of affairs.
At first the meds were slow to act, and seemed to fade after only a few hours. But with patience the effectiveness of the meds came in waves, and the relief that eventually came was quite literally euphoric.
Today I am feeling cautiously better, but I am going to continue to take the medication throughout the day to give my system the room to fight and recover from this foreign invader.
I might end up staying a day longer, depending on how I am feeling in the morning tomorrow. But either way I will soon head out towards Hamamatsu.
As I have spent time with my host Mandy for nearly a week, she has certainly been exposed to my cold germs, but aside from a bit of a sniffle she has been unscathed. The power of an immune system that is conditioned to the local germs is clearly on her side and not on mine.
Yesterday was a holiday, so Mandy was free to go adventuring with me, as I was determined not to let my cold completely swamp my time in Nagoya. On the docket; Mariocart VR at an arcade downtown.
I love VR, as evidenced by the fact I own my own system back home. What I enjoy most about VR is being able to expose people to it for their first time as well. Short of having my own system with me, this seemed like the next best thing.
It was an excellent experience, and both of us had a lot of fun racing through the Mariocart world. But after the VR session was over, the trip to the arcade took a... strange turn;
Mandy introduced me to the bizarre wonder that is japanese photo booths. You step inside and a screen below the camera lens displayed the pose you should strike before the flash fires and your image is captured by the computer. What I didn't know going in was that the booth automatically detects and "augments" the faces of those being shot.
Suddenly I found my virtual image shifted and beautified. My eyes enlarged, freckles erased, lips painted, chin reduced in size, the red in my eyes from my cold removed.
For a few hundred yen it was good for some fun and unexpected laughs, but I think I'll stick with VR in the future.
After the arcade my body gave up the fight and I began rather violently melting, so we headed to the train to go back up north to Mandy's house. I both struggled to breath clearly and stay awake for the trip back home.
Along the way we stopped at a pharmacy connected to the train station and acquired some meds to help combat my worsening state of affairs.
At first the meds were slow to act, and seemed to fade after only a few hours. But with patience the effectiveness of the meds came in waves, and the relief that eventually came was quite literally euphoric.
Today I am feeling cautiously better, but I am going to continue to take the medication throughout the day to give my system the room to fight and recover from this foreign invader.
I might end up staying a day longer, depending on how I am feeling in the morning tomorrow. But either way I will soon head out towards Hamamatsu.
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