Tuesday, September 11, 2001. Tokyo, Japan.1:30 am.
My back is on fire.
Hours of bad airline posture finally caught up with me. Instead of sleeping through my first night in Japan, I wake up to back pain. There is a spot in-between my shoulder blades, and it hurts very badly. As much as I stretch and pop, it won’t go back into place.
I can visualize what has happened in my spine. The soft nerve tissue between two of my vertebrae is being pinched because one vertebra is slightly out of line with the other. It’s like pushing down on one side of a peanut butter & jelly bagel sandwich, watching the pressure force filling out of the sandwich. This is the type of thing I normally go to a chiropractor for.
Too bad I don’t know any chiropractors in Tokyo. Even if I did, I doubt they make house calls in the middle of the night.
The hotel offers in-room massages. However they are scheduled from “15:00 to 26:00”. This is bad for me for two reasons. One, I can’t wait till 3:00 pm. Two, 26:00 isn’t an actual time (are the Japanese so overworked that they have actually added hours to the day?).
So I pop three of my reserve ibuprofen and soak in a hot bathtub. Perhaps a little television will help me relax.
Okay, bad plan. CNN International is not helping me relax. After reporting on terrorist violence, the weather reporters start talking about Typhoon Danas. Central Japan is about to get whacked by 139 km/h winds and heavy rain. I can handle the rain, but the delays in train service might be a problem for my business trip. Trains make Japanese business run, so I might have issues making my appointments.
I think it’s time to lie flat on my back, take some more drugs, and wait for CNNi to report on Godzilla coming ashore. That might make my trip a bit more interesting.
Leave a Reply