If there is anything I need to do, it's to write everything down so that I don't forget in this event packed trip. Lets continue where we last left off from my posts, going onto the 4th day, this was more of a simple day with some background learning into the pharmacy system in Japan. We learned the basics of physical assessment, (PEARRL if anyone recognizes that) the reactive patellar reflex test, and simple assessment techniques that is taught in most healthcare classes. We then learn a bit more practical techniques found in Japan, such as making an oblate paper to hold powdered medicine. It required a little bit of simple origami work to get the rice paper to fold correctly where you can place the medicine inside the triangle paper and simply swallow with a spoonful of water - simple and tasteless way to swallow down some medicine. Ok, class over and time to move onto more sightseeing. We head down to Akashi fish market but take a quick stop at a pharmacy along the way. It was a unique pharmacy with a long family history of passing ownership from father to son. Introductions were made and we got a brief description of what they did there. Only later did I learn what type of pharmacy was it (Kampo pharmacy). After that quick stop, we went to the fish market and discovered octopus heaven, for those that liked octopus at least. I had Akashi takoyaki there, it was an interesting blend of dipping the takoyaki into a soup and quickly eating it.I had other octopus goodies like fried octopus and the such but the akashi takoyaki was the popular dish there. If you looked carefully, you could find some live octopus trying to escape their containers at the fish market! After we filled our belly with fish, we headed to Himeji castle, a beautiful castle, well defended and never invaded (for good reasons). We had to walk all the way up in the small stairs but boy was it worth it when we got to the top. You could the whole city, the cool breeze, and the feeling of being at the top made it feel like it was an accomplishment (plus the souvenir shop at the top made it even better). There were lots to see throughout the castle but I'll leave that for the photos the others will post. We headed back and we still have time to explore, this is where my phone started dying. We ended up stopping at a small shop to try out their "ninja ramen burger" 2 fried ramen buns with who knows what was inside but it was good. By this time, it was getting late and we were all ready to crash, back to Kobe we go.

Day 5, It seems like every day is packed huh? It literally is, and this day is no exception. Today we learned a lot about Japan's pharmacy systems. We head off to the university where we learn about the different kind of pharmacies present in Japan, we learn a bit about the pharmacy curriculum (6year program straight out of high school). We had lunch at the cafeteria and boy was it fancy, hot noodles and lots of sides for me! During the afternoon, we split into 3 different groups and rotated between a community pharmacy and a hospital pharmacy. There we asked and learned about how things were ran, number of presciptions normally filled. a bit of insurance questions, etc. Interesting thing I learned is that doctors made money on number of presciptions, can you guess what could go wrong here if I had a simple cold? Also the number of pharmacists hired is aimed at a ration of  1 pharmacist per 40 prescriptions filled. A full day of learning, and a takoyaki party awaits us at the end of the day. we came back to the university with drinks and our pen pals have prepared a room ready to cook a variety of takoyaki. To my surprise, there was a room ready for us to dress up in yukatas too! Almost all of our group dressed up in yukatas, It was a fun filled night with everyone full from the delicious food. We wrap it all up by heading to the bridge to launch small fireworks and firecrackers. Sadly, this was the last night for some of our pen pals, including my pen pal who had to leave for home soon after. Luckily not many pen pals had to say farewell so early.  We give our farewells to those leaving and I thanked my pen pal for the great time we had and helping everyone into their yukatas. I short meeting for me and others but a great friendship formed non-the-less.

Its Aug 10, the 6th day. Past the half point of our trip, we are on our last day of learning about Japan's pharmacy system. Today we learned about healthcare insurances, proposal for optimal health care system taught by Dr. Eiichi Akaho. We learn of the overview of Japans medical services, comparison of the life expectancy among a list of countries, treatment of the elderly, medical services fees, and other financial statistics and info regarding healthcare. We have a lecture on Kampo medicine, an interesting area of study where we focus on the old chinese medicinal herbs and mixtures. We actually made a mixture of ginger and other ingredients and drank it. Taste wasn't so bad but I could live without it haha. After lecture ended, we went to the cafeteria again where I decided to try something different. We bumped into another fellow IPSF but he left shortly after discovering we weren't international students staying for long. After lunch we headed to a Kampo pharmacy in Nishinomiya. A small pharmacy but definitely different from any I have seem. We tried Kampo medicine, it was not to tasteful but something I am familiar with as my parents have also used chinese medicines. We spent some time and it was quite the experience, something I would recommend to any pharmacy student. After we headed back, we went out and got some dinner with the students and called it a day.

Onsen day! Aug 11, the 7th day in our trip and the day I was able to write my previous blog post. So much to remember... If I was Dory from Finding Dory movie - I would say "Hi my name is Dory Daniel and I have short term memory". This one will be brief as it is a simple day at the hot springs in Arima aside from shopping and sightseeing. The onsen was amazing, at first all of us guys were nervous going in nude, but once we got into the dressing room - it was fine to go butt naked. We had to put our shoes away and lock up our clothes in the locker room before the bathing room. Once we were in the bathing room, we had to clean ourselves before entering the onsen. The onsen was SO hot. One bath was 42 degrees and another was 44 degrees. I did not last too long but it was quite enjoyable in the cooler bathes where us guys just talked for some time.