Massage at Home

Who doesn’t like getting massage? … well, actually I know someone. - My husband. He loves getting massage by me, but none else. :p So he doesn’t go to spa or massage places even though we have a voucher! What’s a shame..

Well, anyway… I love getting massage like other girls! My body and muscle get tired easily and are always stiff. I don’t mind getting massage every day, but of course it costs a lot here. I’ve only been to spas/massage places just 3 times since I came to Perth, I think.

Just to save little money, I normally get massage at home when I disparately need massage. There’re a few Japanese people who do mobile massage service, but I usually ask this lady (S-san) to come over to my house.

Personally I don’t like getting massage by men, nor strangers. I don’t feel comfortable… I know S-san for awhile, and she has a good skill and nice personality. She also don’t take any job from strangers either. It’s just for a security reason.

Having a skill is good, I think. You can work anywhere. One of my friend who is into beauty therapy stuff wants to start home business as well. She has already prepared massage bed, face steamer (from Japan) and other goods. I got free trial by her few times, and it was good! My face was totally different after the treatment. I hope she can officially start her own business soon.

My Hospital Experiences

After busy schedule and traveling around between 3 countries, my body finally gave up… I’ve been sick since I came back from Jakarta :p Not only me, my husband too. Coughing, running nose, fever, etc. I had to go to GP and then hospital few times, and took blood test. It seems that many people around me are also sick. My friends and co-workers.

You realize how important the health is when you get sick. I always think “meh, it’s fine” even though I have symptom of sickness, and don’t really do much about it. I don’t like taking medicine, so I try to recover by eating lots of fruits and nutritious food, and take a good sleep. Sometimes it’s ok, but sometimes the things go worse and I end up going to hospital..

When I was just about to graduate cookery course in TAFE, 2005, I was so looking forward to going back to my home and stay in Japan for awhile. The course was pretty hard and I had to work night time along with the classes, plus teachers were really strict there. When I finished my last exam I was so happy thinking “I’m finally free!”. I had booked my tickets to Osaka already and was counting the day to come. … Just few days before the flight, I started to feel strange - my body felt tired all the time, headache… I thought I just had caught cold or something. At that time my oversea travel insurance had been expired already ( I didn’t renew because I was going back to Japan in few weeks and I didn’t use insurance for the whole 2 years before then) so I was going to see doctor in Japan.

Just 5 days from the flight, my face started to have something - puffy things. Plus fever, huge headache and body ache. I couldn’t even walk, and because the puffy things on my face (only on the right side of my face) was kind of covering up my right eye, I couldn’t see things properly either. I should had gone to see doctor earlier! Now things had gone worse. My husband (boyfriend that time) took me to Medical Centre and doctor immediately sent me to Royal Perth Hospital. In the end I was having “shingles” and had to stay in hospital for 4 nights.

I had to change my flight date, but the worst thing was that my visa had expired while I was in the hospital! I couldn’t get out from the hospital so my boyfriend (my husband) had to go to immigration centre for me to extend my visa. Of course it was hard and he came back to hospital few times to get some documents from the nurses. Hospital staff kindly helped us calling immigration centre to explain what happened to me as well. But still, immigration didn’t give us any good news. In the end, right after I got out the hospital I had to go to immigration centre by myself to show this terrible face with a trace of shingles. We had a chat with an officer in a private room, and he gave me a temporary visa straight away after seeing my face.

Oh, another bad news was a bill from the hospital. Because I didn’t have any insurance (no travel insurance, no Medicare - because I was just a student-) I had to pay full amount. It was a BIG number… Been covered by insurance is really important!

This time I have Medicare and also private insurance, so things went smooth. I’m feeling getting better, but I really should have gone to see doctor when I first felt something wrong with my body. Sooner is better. By the way I had to go 3 times to get blood test, and on the third time nurse couldn’t find my vein (because it was too tiny and flat) she stung me 6 times on my both arms. She still couldn’t get any flow so she moved the needle around inside of my vein… it was painful Well, the pain is nothing compared with getting a huge bill, and also getting sick.

Dr Fish

While in Jakarta I had a chance to experience fish spa therapy.  Fish spa is a therapy by dipping your feet into a pool of “Dr Fish” and let these little healing creatures clean your feet and nibble away your dead skin, leaving your skin glow in health.  This fish spa treatments are growing in parts of Asia such as Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia.  Most of there spas employ Dr Fish species which originate from Turkey, called Garra Rufa.

Garra Rufa is a special fish with natural healing properties.  It started in Kangal, Turkey: where people discovered the fish’s ability to cure skin diseases.  Garra Rufa is a fresh water fish, and their usual habitat is in hot springs, where these fishes can withstand temperatures ranging from 0 degree Celcius up to 43 degree Celcius.  They are also known as Dr Fish, feeds only on dead and problematic areas of the skin.

 The benefits of this are natural exfoliation of dead skin, smoother and healthy blowing skin, promote blood circulation, lightning of minor scars, etc etc.

I did this just for the curiosity, but as I proceeded to the fish pool I was having a second thought.  I really didn’t want to dip my feet into those vigorously moving little fish…  Looked gross. :p  But, we have already paid for 30 mins, so no choice!  I sat down on the bench and dipped my feet slowly into the water.  !!!

Those little creatures were really really tickling for the first few minutes, and I was screaming..  but as I tried to calm down myself and ignore the fact that there are thousands of fish nibbling on my skin, I felt ok.  I dipped my feet in a pool of small fish first, and then moved to the pool of larger size fish.  Lager fish has bigger suction but less aggressive compared with the little ones.

After the therapy, my feet were very smooth, soft and moist!  I couldn’t help but touch my feet in the car on the way home  It was an interesting experience..

Change of Lifestyle

Do you feel great everyday?? If not, you can try some of the things I do .. ↓↓↓

I’m not trying to be cocky, but I always thought I was very strong, healthy, can-do-anything person since I was a child. I started to work when I was 15 to save money for my schools, and also to come to Australia. I liked helping with my family’s rice fields, carrying heavy rice bags and driving a truck. I flew to Okinawa few times by myself when I was a teenager to get home-stay experience at an Amerian family in Okinawa base, (which I organised everything myself) and also to get scuba diving license. I’ve worked under super strict people in hotels and restaurants both in Japan and Perth, doing some heavy jobs. I didn’t usually get sick, and was always running around outside with friends, my dog, and sometimes just by myself even in a typhoon day. I was like a macho girl

Especially the last one is the most important… try not to hold up the stress! Keep smiling and try to enjoy everyday

Mask!

In Japan you get to see lots of people wearing masks everywhere, such as in a train, supermarkets and on the street.  My friend who visited Japan last spring told me that he was kind of scared when he saw many people crossing the road with white masks…  To imagine the scene, yes it’s scary actually :p  

The big reason for that is because many people in Japan have hay fever and try to avoid the pollen as much as they can by wearing masks.  For other, they just have cold or want to avoid inhaling some dust…

Now, swine flu is getting serious around Osaka area, and some of the schools around Kansai are closed.  I’m from Shiga, and I was telling my family “don’t go to Osaka, Kyoto area!” but seems that there’s one person who is suffering from swine flu in Shiga (Otsu) already!  

Now, because of the flu, masks are selling like hot cakes.  Lots of shops are out of stock…  even amazon.jp sold out masks!  Mask has the biggest demand in Japan right now!

I don’t usually wear mask even in Japan (because I don’t have hay fever), but if I go back to Japan right now I’ll be wearing mask everyday everywhere!