Punching Holes and Popping Pimples

    To go somewhere for the purpose of having a hole punched through you, is not necessarily a pleasant thought.  As it was Tiffy and I were actually kind of excited! We have thought about getting our ears pierced for about three years and finally we were going to do it!

 

    On Tuesday the 27th, Tiffy and I drove with Mom to the shopping mall near where we'd get our piercings. Mom gave us the last hug while we still had whole ears, then said goodbye. She left to do some shopping and get a haircut. Tiffy and I walked through the 100 yen shop and bought Dad some cool magnets. Then we wandered through the pet shop. Realizing that it was only 15 minutes till our 11 o'clock appointment, we hurried down the stairs and around the bus turnabout. We checked the time of our departing bus, before walking to the dermatology for our appointment.
    The doors slid open and we entered. The building looked so official, almost intimidating. Behind the front desk were four or five people helping various clients.
    "Now what do we do?" I asked Tiffy, before going up to the desk. I gave them our name and told them we came to get our ears pierced. Since I had already made an appointment over the phone a few days earlier, they knew who we were. Handing us two sheets of paper, they asked us to fill them out. We did our best and they helped us on questions we didn't understand. After completing the form, the lady instructed us to go up to the second floor to the back. We took the elevator up.

      "We're going to get our ears pierced!" Tiffy exclaimed. The elevator doors opened and a lady poked her head out from around the corner. She had been expecting us. She motioned for us to come forward. Then she asked us to sit. In a little bit she brought out three colors of earrings for us to choose from. Pink, blue, and white. Tiffy chose the white diamond looking ones, and I chose blue. Next we had to draw dots on each others ears with green marker pen. It took several tries before we got it looking right. It was about 11:15 by the time we finished that. We sat down again on the seats provided and waited. We looked at the posters on the wall, watched as the staff worked, read the signs near the doors, talked, laughed, snapped some 'before' shots for our before and after pictures, and waited. Every time a nurse opened the doctors door, I wondered if it was our turn. I have to admit I was a little nervous. I wasn't sure how much it would hurt or how long it would take.

Staring down the hallway as we wait tensely...

        Finally just before noon, I was called in. I put my bags in the basket that was provided and sat on the bed. I asked if I should pull my hair back with a hair bow and the assistant said I should. I got off the bed and pulled a hair bow out of my purse. As I was putting my hair into a ponytail, the doctor came in. She was a very pleasant looking lady. She put the earring in a small metal piercing gun and started lining it up with the green dot. Then telling me that she was going to push it, she did and something went slamming into my ear! Kaaaaaaazam! I hadn't expected it to feel like that! She prepared the other earring and my ear throbbed a little. This time knowing what to expect I was much more tense as she lined up the gun.
    "Here we go." she said in Japanese. I tensed as she pulled the gun. WAM! The earring plunged into my ear as I flinched slightly. My ears were tingling and sore. But I had pierced ears finally! The doctor said that she might know me and asked how many siblings I had. I told her there were seven in our family.
     "I think I know your father," she said in English. As we talked we found out that she was the doctor lady who gave us the stone lantern in our yard years ago. We did know her! I was surprised, although I found out later that Dad and Mom had already known that it was her hospital we were going to, so they weren't overly surprised. =)

      I got off the bed, grabbed my stuff and went out of the room into the hallway. Tiffy sat waiting and went in as soon as I was out of the doorway. My ears sore and throbbing as Tiffy was getting her ears pierced. But I was excited! I had pierced ears! I looked in the mirror and snapped a few pictures. They were sensitive so I didn't dare touch them. In a few minutes the door opened again and a nurse asked me to come in so we could hear the explanation together. When I came in, the doctor said,
       "I can give you medicine for acne." I wasn't expecting that. But she said she could also give us treatment for any pimples on our face. We decided to go for it.
      I was brought into another room. I laid on the bed as instructed. The nurse came back and with a needle pricked one of my zits open, then pressed it hard with a round metal tool. Ouch! Thankfully I didn't have too many zits, so I was soon done. She put some medicine on my face and then sent my out to the waiting area, calling Tiffy in. I cautiously snuck a look at myself in my hand mirror to see if the paste she had smeared on my face was noticeable. Thankfully it was clear and could hardly be seen. I sat in the lobby and waited for Tiffy. When she came out it was obvious that hers had hurt more. Poor girl!
      After getting instructions for taking care of our pierced ears and using the medicine for acne, we went down the elevator once again. One of the ladies showed me where the pharmacy was so that we could pick up the medicine. After paying, we walked out the back of the building, around the corner, and across the parking lot to the pharmacy. The cold wind against our ears made them hurt a bit. Filling out another form, we got the acne medicine. It was almost 12:30 and we needed to catch the 1:13 bus back. So we walked to MacDonald's for some lunch. Yum! We had to eat kind of quickly though! After throwing away our garbage, we ran to the bus stop. It was going to be close! I wasn't sure if we would make it! As we arrived at the far end of the bus turnaround, we saw our bus pull up. We ran across the turnaround and boarded the bus. Phew! We made it!

    Riding home we took our 'after' shots. I think people were looking at us strangely as we made weird faces into the camera. Oh well! =)

    We got to our stop. Then began the 30 minute trek up the the hill to our house. It was nice though! Our ears were becoming less sensitive and the day was truly beautiful. Fall trees covered the mountains, while fall leaves coated the road. As we leisurely walked home, we enjoyed the lovely day. We couldn't help saying to each other occasionally,
      "You know what? We have pierced ears!"

 We made it to the top of the hill! Rejoice!

 

      I am so excited to finally have my ears pierced. I'm glad I waited though! I enjoyed having a few more years of totally not worrying about my ears. Now we have to wait one month before we can change our earrings. And that month is going to go by super quickly with all the Christmas events, parties, and the like! It's almost December! Wow! I can't believe that 2012 is almost over!