Sounds Good

We woke up a bit later the next morning. We’d purposely set our breakfast time into the morning to give us some extra minutes to sleep in, since the previous day left us exhausted. We ate our breakfast, packed our things, and Seri checked us out of the hotel. But not before asking the front desk clerk about veterinarians in the area…

Unfortunately, it seems as though the 14-hour pee-holding ordeal on the flight left Einstein with a bladder issue. Not only had he peed in the hotel room while we were out the previous day (NOBODY TELL THE HOTEL), we noticed a bit of blood in it, signaling a potential UTI. I told you there would be foreshadowing in the blog.

As luck would have it, the clerk helping us check out had a dog, and recommended a nearby vet who would be able to see Ein the same day. He called to let them know to expect us, and we made our way over. When we got there, it was pretty different than what I’m used to when going to vets: There was an entryway with a reception area on our right, and the examination room on our left. That’s it. Oh, sorry, there was also a small restroom. Pretty tiny!

The receptionist and the vet were both very nice, and after a urine examination and ultrasound of Ein’s stomach (3 guesses how much he enjoyed that), we were good to go. The doctor gave us some antibiotics for his issue, and we went to the front room to pay.

Dear reader, if you are in possession of an animal in the United States, I regret to inform you that you are being robbed each and every time you visit the vet. Einstein has, unfortunately, had a UTI before. With an ultrasound and a couple of other line items, the total in the US came out to be just north of $400. Seri and I speculated on the price of this impromptu visit in a somewhat remote part of Japan – surely a boutique vet with elevated prices! The bill was $76. Sorry, it was ¥7,600. That’s about $67, at the time of this post. We should take him there every week! (Just kidding, he’d never forgive us)

With the vet visit behind us, it was time to start the longest drive of the trip. Our next hotel, “That Sounds Good!” was in the Akita prefecture, about a 6-hour drive north of where we were. This would mean driving through Sendai, which was not only a convenient place to stop for lunch, but also a place to shop for Einstein-related goods at a nearby pet store. Since we weren’t able to ship his preferred bed to Japan, we bought him a nice new one we hoped he’d like.

I thought driving in Japan was going to be more difficult. Sure, you drive on the other side of the road, and I definitely tried to enter what ended up being the passenger’s side of the car more than a few times during our trip, but I was surprised at how quickly things just fell into place. Your brain sorta starts to adjust after only a few days, and even though you might want to operate the signal with your left hand – which actually engages your wipers – everything eventually clicks, and it looks like you’ve been driving in Japan all your life. Oh, until you reach a one-lane construction zone with automated signals at both ends where you blatantly ignore the red light on your end and drive on because other cars were sorta ignoring the red light at other construction zones and you wanted to look like you were a local. Except that when you got to the end of the zone, a huge semi had to reverse out of the lane and laid on his horn at you because he was staring at a green light, and you shouldn’t have been on the road because it was red when you got on, dummy! Or so I’ve heard…

We made it to the hotel pretty late in the evening. The road leading up it was winding, with a lot of tunnels. I opined that it was good we wouldn’t need to take the road again the next morning when we left the hotel, since it wasn’t exactly a fun drive. FORESHADOWING ALERT (I feel like you shouldn’t have to call these out but I’m not good at writing so here we are).

The hotel was pretty cool. It’s a bed-and-breakfast owned by a husband and wife who seem to love jazz. The dog friendly room was more of a standalone structure than anything else, and we enjoyed the seclusion. The beds were upstairs, which was a bit cramped but it was only a one-night stay so we didn’t complain (except to each other).

The restaurant was pretty interesting. They host live jazz bands at least once per month, and the room was decorated with various posters of famous musicians and albums. The husband greeted us barefoot. I snapped my fingers in appreciation of his jazziness (just kidding – good lord who do you think I am?!). They had local beer brewed from rice (the Akita prefecture is known for it) that was really good, and the food was nice as well.

The next morning, we made use of the hotel’s ofuro; our room had a shower, but it was pretty tiny, so this was the preferred way to clean ourselves. We didn’t take any pictures because we’re not weirdos, but the ofuro itself was shaped like a grand piano, with keys crafted from differently colored stone. Pretty cool, but not exactly practical: it was tough to get comfortable in any configuration.

After the bath, it was time to pack up and start the day that would end at the final hotel stay before our long-term destination of Hakodate!