Ouch! - pain relief in Japan!

Today's post is on the mundane subject of finding a bottle of ibuprohen in Japan.

HAH! good luck. I had brought some generic 400mg wall-mart caps, but with my back hurting,

my friend's back hurting from lifting mom, and her ma complaining of phantom leg pains, it became obvious that we would run out soon.

Off to the local pharmacy right?

OH CRAP! No bilingual labels here! And it looks pricey!

So back to the apartment for a net search to print out the kana for ibuprophen,

back to the pharmacy. Well; it seems that ibu is considered dangerous stuff in Japan,

and the most you can get in one pill is 150mg, plus added gunk I have never heard of,

and it is relatively expensive.

So more net searching.. Best deal: Meridon EV, which another foreigner recommends
highly - QUOTE:

"メリドンEV錠 works like a charm. It says take two, but for my monster American headaches I need about 5 or 6. Sometimes I see unicorns playing the bagpipes in my office when I'm working."

So now it is time to get some cheap, without fricking around. Fortunately we have the interwebs:

RAKUTAN, the Japanese amazon (well, there is an Amazon.jp, more on that later) has english web pages and their shops send out stuff fast, with one of the many delivery companies in Japan, for reasonable shipping and a Y315 COD fee. as my friend and I are a bit apartment-bound watching obacha this seems a great deal.. Especially since I DO NOT have to once again face the wall of incomprehensible medicines at the drug mart.

Order in the evening; morning of the day after the next it arrives. Well, they are better than nuthin, but if you are prone to aches, bring a bottle of wall-mart 400mg ibu next time you visit.

Japanese regs on over-the counter meds are legendarily strict: for instance, they really, really,

suspect pseudophedrine, and control it, and tylenols 2's like the stuff was a gateway drug to needle park.

But there are cheaper ways to kill pain in Japan.. A visit to the OK discount center

yields:

Mmmm... iodine flavoured salaryman rotgut whiskey,

Y685 incl. tax ! That's a regular sized bottle, not a mickey!

And to chase it down, so called "class2" discount beer:

Y489 icl tax per 6-pack..

It says SUPER FINE, in English no less, so it must be good

(well it is better than american beer, at least)

This is better than Kentucky!

The good news is that next morning, you can down a litre carton

of fresh carrot-veggie-fruit juice mix for Y110, fresh at the local

discount grocery store. %5 discount if it sits for a day on the shelf!!!

No unicorns yet.. darn. . .

One more thing...

Yoshida Sensei is still right down the street at his Acupuncture and bone-setting clinic.

And, he is still giving me the gaijin discount (or perhaps those are his regular low-low-prices???)

One hour of heat packs, acupuncture needles, and Electro-muscle zapping, and I feel tired , but a lot better. I am still too much of a wimp to try moxa, so he tapes me up, like an athlete!

Dr Yoshida is the best!

Must avoid booze afterward though - it makes the inflammation worse.