The helpful and the not-so-helpful

On doctors, recruitment agencies and builders

October 2024

It had been three months since my doctor’s appointment so I thought it was about time I went back to get my blood test results. This was the problem with not being able to book a follow-up appointment! (The clinic didn’t do them.) I just never got around to following up! Were the results even relevant now?!!!!! I probably should have been getting a whole new round of tests!

In I walked, dressed appropriately and prepared for any stethoscope-straight-down-the-shirt-without-warning, Part II. Thankfully there was none.

The doctor asked how I was. I was feeling far less dizzy than 3 months ago and I had more energy. But I still wasn’t 100%.

He happily nodded as he produced my blood and urine test results and went over them with me (via Shujin). Everything was excellent. So excellent in fact, that he pulled out his stamp and firmly planted it on my results.

“This stamp,” he explained, “is what teachers give to students when they get an excellent score on their exam. Your test results are so good, you’re in such great health!”

Except I didn’t feel in great health. I still had minor dizziness and lethargy. Regularly. I asked Shujin what my iron results were. The doctor hadn’t mentioned iron. Shujin asked him. But there was no results. Iron hadn’t been tested. What?! That’s the number one thing I wanted tested!!! ARGH!!!

“Your condition a few months ago must have been from stress. Please take it easy and look after yourself in this foreign country.”

It was disappointing to discover that Japanese doctors are just like Australian ones: to them, the blood test results spoke louder than the patient.

I went home, knowing once again that I had to be my own doctor.

The doctor wasn’t much help to me, but thankfully we were getting help in other areas of life.

The recruitment agency, Hellowork, had found a job for Shujin to apply for. A local company in Takasaki was wanting someone with native-level English. They sold fishing gear, camping gear, pet supplies, cafe supplies and made bento boxes amongst other things. This seemed right up Shujin’s ally!

He applied. He had been applying for many jobs. Some were in other parts of the country. It made me feel anxious and unsettled. I didn’t want to be selfish, but did we REALLY have to seek out work so far away? I’d left my mother country, we were now settled where we were in Japan. I had great friends (mostly English speaking ones!) and a lovely support network. We lived in a fantastic village, albeit a near retirement village, but I loved it nonetheless.

And the kids! Uprooting them, again, just seemed so cruel.

The thought of giving all this up and going to someplace new and starting all over again was horror to me. Especially when I couldn’t speak the language! On top of that, uprooting Okasan from her familiar and transplanting her across the country would really affect her dementia.

If it had to be done, it had to be done. But I prayed it didn’t. As I’ve had to do each time we’ve been in similar situations, I just had to pass all the worries, anxieties and what-if’s over to God. I knew I could trust Him to arrange the best outcome.

Help came for the Prayer House also. The builder who was willing to quote us on a bathroom came and measured up. He was a very nice man, Shujin connected with him well. Our bathroom was the right size to install a “unit bath” but we did need to remove the tiles off the wall brick wall. Bugger that!!

Out of interest I guess, the builder looked over the rest of the house. Shujin shared his plans for putting up a frame in the living room to support the structure, specifically the ceiling and roof. The builder nodded in agreement and said his plans were good, that’s what he would do too.

As they were walking outside, the builder noticed one of the “sandwich boards” that we had pulled out of the house. Probably from the kitchen floor. It was stacked with the wood, beside the pile of cement rubble.

“MISAWAPANEL,” he read the words printed on the side of one of the “sandwich boards.”

The “sandwich boards” actually have a proper name!

“They are a very good quality panel,” he commented, “your house was built well and will be very strong, even in earthquakes.”

Well, that certainly made me feel a bit better about having a “Lego brick” house!! I hoped his knowledge was correct!

A short time later we received the quote. It was going to cost $10,000 (¥1,000,000). It was pricey, but this was the only thing I was wanting to splurge on, so ruined was I from scrubbing mould off grout in Okasan’s bathroom!

We thought it wise to get a few quotes and so Shujin did some hunting around and found two other companies that were willing to quote us. Both came, inspected, and declined the job. They wanted to either do the whole renovation, or none at all. Their reasoning was that if something were to go wrong that we had done, they didn’t want the blame put on them. I totally got that. They had to protect themselves.

But God was protecting us and He had already provided. We accepted the quote from the first builder. He was willing to cut the cost if we did the prep work. We had already gutted the room, just needed to remove the tiles. The old window with its wooden frame and rattling glass needed replacing. He was happy for us to do that job and marked on the wall where to install the new window. He would order the new window for us to fit their specifications. We also needed to dig about 30cm of dirt out from the bathroom ground. Then we needed to pour a cement slab 10cm thick.

Somehow, October started off slow and gradually intensified as the days went by! My project became the bathroom. So ironic, since the bathroom was on the bottom of my priorities for renovating! I started on removing the dirt floor. Filling two buckets at a time, I would take them outside and fill holes and dips in the uneven yard.

I dug one half of the bathroom before the awful realisation occurred to me: it would be harder to reach the tiles on the wall if the ground was that much lower!!

I stopped removing dirt and took up the task of removing tiles. Now that we had accepted the quote it was all stations go. In one sense, it was very satisfying, using the electric hammer drill to chip away at them. It felt so good when a large section would crash down in one big piece! But the batteries drained quickly on that tool and didn’t recharge as fast as they were worn out, so it was slow going. And the hammer drill was heavy for me so my strength drained as fast as the batteries, if not faster.

I looked down at the ground, the dirt covered in broken tiles and cement grout.

“We really should have put down some sort of ground sheet so we could easily clean up this mess!” I moaned to Shujin.

“A ground sheet would just rip from tiles falling onto it” came his logical reply.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

But he wasn’t the one sorting out tile crumbs from dirt!

As the renovation really got underway, thoughts of moving back to Australia dimmed and the obligation to be applying for jobs for Hellowork came to the forefront. Sadly, one could not claim income protection insurance if they started up their own business. It was mandatory to get a real job. So cafe dreams also dimmed. At least for now.

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