The epic burn.

I know people complain about the over use of the word "epic" but I do believe this qualifies:

Day 1: Right after it happened.

Day 2: Kinda angry.

Day 3: Looking okay.

Day 4: Skin is not looking normal, so went to the doctor. 

Day 6: You blisters, go away!

So the story behind the burn.

*Disclaimer: Corin feels terrible, absolutely terrible, and in no way do I blame him for what happened. Neither of us knew any better!*

My family has had a tradition of making fleischkuchle every Christmas eve for as long as we've been "in country" (1904). I had told my JTE at Meiki about this tradition and had described the fried meat pies to him. We had a bonenekai planned on the 16th and he asked very nicely if I could make some 'kuchle and bring it to the party. Of course I agreed. So, on Saturday, Corin and I set to work getting the ingredients gathered and got the big to-do started. Fleischkuchle is usually an all-family ordeal and while the women roll the dough and fill and seal the patties, the men stand in the garage with a boiling pot of oil, smoke cigars and fry the 'kuchle. I knew the oil was going to be the tricky part since we only have one sauce pan and it's just not very big, but we determined to just make due. We prepared about 30 meat pies, and started to work frying them. The first few turned out a little raw inside, so we upped the heat and attempted to keep them fully submerged for as long as possible. Both Corin and I had utensils in the pot of oil, a pair of tongs and a slotted spoon, respectively. The tongs Corin was using had one of those metal rings that keeps the tongs closed when they're not in use. He had them closed while moving the 'kuchle around but as soon as he started to remove the tongs from the pot, the ring slipped back and the tongs flung open, throwing oil everywhere. Since I was standing right next to him when it happened, I was first in the line of fire (the wall and floor got some too). I screamed, dropped my spoon and immediately ran cold water over my en fuego hand. But, boiling oil is boiling oil and the burn was set. 

I held cold compresses on the burn for the rest of the day and then headed off to my JTE's house for dinner. He provided a glorious bucket of cold water in which I submerged my hand for the duration of the evening. That night I tried powering through the blazing heat that encompassed the burned area but just couldn't do it, so I ended up sleeping with my hand tucked under a towel wrapped ice pack. By the next morning, it was feeling much better and seemed to be just a minor 1st degree burn. 

The next day, however, bubbly skin started to appear and on Tuesday I decided it was time to see a doctor (after getting scolded by three RN's via Facebook that I'd better). I asked the JTE at Hokuyo (the school I visit once or twice a week) if there were any English speaking doctors in the area. The PE teacher, school nurse, my Meiki JTE's wife whose house we had been at on Saturday and my regular JTE all banded together and found a dermatologist right near my apartment who travels with the hockey team internationally and supposedly spoke English. I got the address, finished my classes for the day and hoped for the best. Corin accompanied me to the clinic, just in case I needed an interpreter (and for moral support). We waited about 20 minutes to get in and, praise Jesus, the man immediately spoke to me in English. It was so nice to be able to fully explain what happened and his face was priceless when I showed him the burn. I have a feeling he was used to seeing much smaller affected areas. He prescribed some anti-inflammatory pills and burn cream, plus advised me to keep it clean and wrapped. I've done my best to follow orders and although apparently exercising makes blisters appear, the burn seems to be healing. I'll head back in on Monday for a follow up, just to make sure everything is looking hunky dory. Until then, I get to be Michael Jackson and wear one white glove all the time. If only it was sparkly...

Thank you so much for all the concern!

UPDATE: Healing burns itch like nothing I have ever felt before. I was awakened in the middle of the night to the most intense form of skin crawling, epidermis tingling itch ever. I struggled for a few minutes to restrain from doing the one thing I wished I could, tear my skin apart, and hoped it would pass. It didn't. When I could stand it no longer, I grabbed my phone and immediately Googled "burn itches severely." Turns out, I'm not alone. Studies have found that 87% of burn victims deal with severe itching during and after the healing process. The increased sensation is caused by the damaged skin becoming overly dry. I had been leaving the wrappings off of my hand at night, just to let it breath a little. Well, I will no longer be doing such a silly thing. The internet mentioned antihistamines and liberal application of burn cream, so I scrambled out of bed and rifled through our pill stash. I found some non-drowsy allergy medicine and figured that would be as close as I could get. I then applied a new wrapping and prayed that I would at least get a few minutes of sleep this night. The antihistamine worked and I fell asleep after only thirty minutes or so of wanting to rip my skin off. Problem solved, lesson learned. My sympathy goes out to all of the real burn victims with extensive skin damage. I have only glimpsed a small part of what they must go through.

Snow! Oh, and that conference thing...

Winter has finally arrived in Hokkaido. We had our first snow at the beginning of December and it has stuck around ever since. Definitely way less snow than us Coloradans and Wyomingites are used to but at least we'll have a white Christmas. On the 8th and 9th of December, the Hokkaido section of JET hosted a Mid Year Skill Development Conference in Sapporo. Corin and I headed out on the 7th, catching the earliest afternoon train we could. I prepared for the often motion-sick inducing ride by drinking catnip infused herbal tea. Yeah, I know, catnip...what?! Contrary to what you might think, it definitely didn't make me run around the train meowing like I was in heat, and actually helped a lot with the motion sickness thing. So it's a little weird, but it worked! I now have a hunch cats that have been pulling the wool over our eyes for centuries on the effects of that stuff...

Let's see what all the hype is about...

We arrived at the JR Inn, a nice little hotel recommended by our friend Corey (a different one) which was close to the main Sapporo Station, shopping and a great little British pub, shortly before 5. Besides the handy location, the biggest plus to the JR was that it was half the price of the hotel where the conference was being held. We started Sapporo off right with dinner at an American style hamburger joint (I had a few fries, grilled veggies and mixed nuts) that the guys raved over. Then we were off to karaoke where I imbibed a little too much in peach sours...hey, it was nomihodai*, I was determined to get my money's worth! The next morning was a little rough but we powered through. Unfortunately, the speaker didn't help much. He was...interesting. We'll leave it at that. 

After soba with the crew for lunch (I had a gigantic bowl of white rice, the first time anyone had ordered just rice at this particular place), we sat through another few hours of a much better quality speaker and the afternoon flew. By 4:00, we were ready for freedom and headed out to find the German Christmas Market and dinner. Apparently there is a prominent German community in Sapporo and each year they open a beautiful German style Christmas market in Odori Park, the biggest in the city. There were brats, kraut mashed potatoes, milled wine, and lots of adorable Christmas bobbles. I had some kraut mashed potatoes to satisfy my plummeting blood sugar, but if we didn't have our minds on some hot curry, and if it had not been below freezing, we may have explored longer. We headed off with our friend Jason to find an Indian food restaurant so that I could have my first full meal of the trip. Jason lead us nearly right to Taj Majal and we basked in the elaborate decor and English speaking maitre d, as well as the extensive menu. When our food arrived, I tucked into the tandoori mix grill. It had tandoori chicken curry, tandoori chicken, tandoori sikh kabob, curry rice and a nice little side salad. Delicious! Although I will stay loyal to our local B&T and declare that it is the best Nepalese food in Japan, I was starving for a real meal and the Indian food at Taj Majal hit the spot. We parted ways with Jason after dinner and did a little shopping, then called it a night. We found ourselves watching Japanese game shows by 9 p.m., whilst in the bustling metropolis of Sapporo...what an exciting couple of early 20-somethings we are!

The next morning broke us out into different sessions concerning Student Motivation (both Corin and I), the Hokkaido English Challenge (me) and teaching at Multiple Schools (Corin). The conference ended with a long presentation on making the tough decision to re-contract. Corin and I are still up in the air so I paid special attention, hoping to gain some insight. Unfortunately, we're still up in the air. The official decision has to be made by February 10, so we've still a little more time, thank goodness. 

We had the 6 o'clock train back to Kushiro so we quickly said our good-byes, grabbed a bite to eat at the pub (delicious salad for me, fish and chips plus a side of nachos for Corin), gathered our luggage from the station lockers and hopped on the train for our 4 hour trip home. In sum, the conference was beneficial but getting together with friends and getting out of our little town for a while were the definite highlights. Christmas in Hokkaido is coming up next!

Christmas 2011

*nomihodai: all you can drink for one set price.