Of all the eye care specialists in Japan...

Yesterday I undertook what I thought would be a herculean task: procuring new contacts for myself. Along the way what I got was an easy ride and good feelings about Japanese service and people.

After hammering out where I COULD go for new contacts with my supervisor (a number of emails tossed back and forth in Japanese), I located a place ('Heart Up') that was open after work and went. Once I got there, I was helped out I found out that I had to go somewhere else for the 'description' (the one mistake in this girl's beautiful English. Even though I was able to communicate what I needed fine in Japanese...she had such great English that we ended up talking in English.)

Which let me to Sako Eye Clinic. OH MY. I was floored. The techs spoke Japanese, which was cool, because any chance to practice my Japanese is great with me. (accompanied by the typical gasps of 'wowow, you can write your address in JAPANESE!) But, then, I had my check-up with the doctor. He starts right out in English. He tells me his daughter is a student at a university in San Francisco, and explains to me about my prescription and everything. Then, we talk about American television. He loves the show LOST. Is it popular in the US? How about 24?

Of all the eye clinics in YONAGO, which is a tiny city with a low foreign population, I happen on the guy who is functionally fluent! It was a great surprise.

Back over to Heart-Up to order my contacts. They didn't have them at the store, which was no surprise (I've always had to order them in the US as well) The guy who handled my order spoke no English to me...just rapid fire super-polite Japanese sales spiel. However, I understood the gist of it. Which is all you really need to understand when it comes to sales spiels, no matter what language they are in.

I think I'll be getting some glasses there too. I owned up to my wonky ears and said to the guy 'My ears are at a different heights so my glasses fit crooked!' and he said that they could adjust my glasses to compensate! Yay!

Weird thing that doesn't make much sense: My prescription is valid for 1 month. However, at Heart-Up, I applied for an 'eye data' card and can order contacts for my prescription for the next 2 years....HUH?