Maybe it's the painkillers. Maybe it's the alcohol (an incredibly irresponsible combination I know). Maybe it's the fact that it's 2:30am and neither of the aforementioned seem to be doing the slightest to quell this throbbing, aching, agonising pain coming from my front right tooth.
This is by far my darkest moment in Japan thus far. I spent well over $2,000 on dentists before leaving Australia (removing wisdom teeth and other such maintenance) SPECIFICALLY to avoid situations like the one in which I am now festering.
"Everything looks good" they told me.
"Come and see us when you get back" they said, laying the foundations for my false hopes; that all would be merry in my mouthful of money pits.
Now, it wouldn't be so bad were it not for the fact that Japan is devoid of painkillers that do ANYTHING at all related to "killing pain". Not even when I went to the hospital with a busted ankle, gritting my teeth as my friends helped me limp in the door, did they give me anything strong enough to be even detectable let alone useful. There are products for sale with little pictures of stylised men clutching their heads and throats which I'm beginning to believe are more intended to indicate your behaviour post-consumption rather than pre.
"You've gotta take about 8 of them at once." one expat here told me. Thanks for the advice, dear, and while I may be stupid and reckless enough to mix my painkillers with whiskey, I won't go shoving half a packful of something down my throat when I can't read a single word on the packaging.
I really don't understand it. Maybe it's because Japanese have a lower average body mass and just like they get drunk quicker, the analgesics have more effect at lower dosage. Maybe it's a cultural thing, pain builds character. "The will of the samurai" or something like that. Whatever it is, right now I would sell a kidney for a crate of codeine and ibuprofen. Stupid cliche I know, but you really don't know what you've got till it's gone. Deprive people of their usual analgesics and I bet you'd have riots and/or a booming heroin trade before morning.
So tomorrow (well later today) I have to go and find a Japanese dentist. If you'd seen the average person's teeth here you would have to doubt their existence but luckily the Hiroshima city website insists they do. From what I can understand of my private health insurance arrangements I have to pay 100% of the private health system costs up front and then wait months and months for reimbursement. Oh rapturous joy. Still, being broke sounds like a piece of cake compared to this agony I'm in now.
I realise this entry is probably quite embarrassing, both for its puerile tone of self-pity and its utter lack of points of interest for anyone reading it. Well, consider this me jumping the shark. Or maybe I'll come back and delete it once I've returned to sanity's shores.
