The Lisa Rinna-issance is upon us, and when it comes to her most beloved beauty products, you better believe she's gonna talk about it. That includes sharing the skincare product she calls her...
There are two phone numbers to remember in a situation like this, but one is much more important.
Our Japanese-language reporter P.K. Sanjun is an adventurous guy with a wide range of interests, and if you’re out and about in Japan, you might run into him at a Pokémon tournament, nuikatsu gathering, or just seeing how far away from downtown Tokyo a person can bicycle in eight hours. However, he’s currently on break from field assignments, because he’s in the hospital recovering from a heart attack.
Dedicated correspondent that he is, though, P.K. still feels the urge to write while he’s recuperating. For the record, this isn’t something we asked him to do, but he wants to share the story of what happened, so we’ll turn things over to him now.
Seriously, I’m as surprised about this as anybody, but I had a heart attack.
I’m writing this on the morning of Tuesday, May 19, and I had the heart attack on Sunday morning. So yeah, it’s only been two days since it happened. “Should you be working right now?” is probably something a lot of you are thinking, but physically, I’m honestly feeling fine right now. Really, I’m getting antsy just sitting here in the hospital with so much time on my hands, so I figured I’d fire up my laptop and write something.
Getting down to business, on Sunday I woke up at about 7 in the morning and felt a weird pain in my chest. I can’t really remember if it was the pain that woke me up, or if I noticed it after I was awake, but either way, when I made a move to get out of bed, my chest was hurting. At first, it felt like my whole upper body had tensed itself up.
It was strange to feel that sensation over such a large area, and I remember thinking “Geez, is this what getting older feels like?” But after I got up and went to the bathroom, the pain went away…or so I thought. It was only gone for a second, but then it came back so much worse, and I started gushing cold sweat.
In a rush, I grabbed my phone and did a search for “chest pain sickness,” and the results said “There is a possibility that you are experiencing myocardial infarction [a heart attack] or aortic dissection” and “Please call 119 [the nationwide number for emergency medical services in Japan] immediately.” That’s when I realized “Uh oh…this might be something serious.”
But even still, I didn’t call 119 right away. I didn’t want to jam up the line calling for an ambulance if my condition turned out to be nothing major, and I can’t deny that at this point I was still thinking “No, I couldn’t be having a heart attack. Not me.”
So instead I dialed 7119, which is the Tokyo Fire Department’s Emergency Consultation number, thinking that I should ask them whether or not I really needed an ambulance. To be honest, my memory starts getting a little fuzzy from here, but I remember the operator asking me “Do you think you can make it to the hospital by yourself?”, but by that time the pain had gotten exponentially worse. “No, I don’t think I can,” I told her, and she said she’d send an ambulance, telling me to stay in my apartment, so I sat in my entryway and waited.
Actually, a fire engine arrived even before the ambulance, and they administered first aid to me. The ambulance rolled up right after that, though, and it seems like they did some other on-site treatment too. While that was going on, they kept asking me “Can you tell us your name and date of birth?” “Damn, quit asking the same thing over and over!” I thought, but now I can understand that they were doing that to make sure I was still able to think straight and communicate. Once they were done with the first aid, they loaded me into the ambulance and rushed me to the hospital and into the emergency room, with my consciousness starting to fade. The doctors diagnosed me as having had a heart attack, and I had to have surgery, but it’s crazy how a few hours later I felt so much better.
P.K. says he has more to say about his experience, but we’re going to let the guy get some rest now. As mentioned in his report, the number for emergency medical services in Japan, and emergency fire department response too, is 119, and the number in Tokyo for “emergency consultation” is 7119. We should also add, however, that we don’t necessarily recommend copying P.K.’s hesitancy to call for an ambulance when experiencing searing chest pains, since it really could be a matter of life and death.
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The adorable bottle is only part of what makes this a fun and convenient way to protect yourself from UV rays.
The calendar says we’re still in spring, but the thermometer shows that summer is almost here. With temperatures in Tokyo hitting 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) last weekend, we’re closing in on the time of year when some form of sun protection is a must for many when going outside, which in turn means the time of year when many find themselves thinking “I really should put on some sunblock…but it’s a hassle, so maybe I’ll just skip it…”
Thankfully, Japan’s Biore brand of sunblock is here to give us a little extra nudge towards taking the time to apply protection with its Kids Stamp UV.
Yes, the name does reveal that this was created first and foremost with kids in mind, but the appeal of cats knows no age limits, and unlike, say, children’s medicine, Kids Stamp UV is just as effective for adults as it is for children, with an SPF50 PA+++ rating.
Right away, the cute feline-eared design for the bottle catches the cat-loving eye, and things get even better when you flip open the cap.
Instead of a single opening, Kids Stamp UV has five, arranged in the pattern of a cat’s paw pads. The bottle is also designed so that instead of squeezing out a stream of liquid, you use it like a stamp, tapping it against your skin to apply the sunblock directly…
…and when you do, you get a series of paw prints, like a little kitty has been walking across your arm, leg, or cheek.
You do still need to rub the lotion in, but while there’s some initial stickiness, it quickly fades away and the Kids Stamp UV sunblock dries nicely, leaving no significant greasiness behind.
If you have kids, a big advantage of Kids Stamp UV is how it makes the process of applying sunblock fun. Our Japanese-language reporter Ninoude Punico tried it out with her 6-year-old, and it immediately turned the regular session of “Sit still! You need this!” into a much more relaxed and happy “OK, let’s get our cat prints on before we go out.”
As a matter of fact, with how easy the sunblock is to apply because of the stamp-style top, Punico’s kid has even started using it without Mom’s help.
▼ The instructions, complete with adorable illustrations, say to apply one “stamp” every 10 centimeters (3.9 inches) or so.
Of course, Biore’s cute and clever design is just as fun and convenient for adult cat fans as it is for kids, and with Japan being the land of kawaii culture, you’re not going to get side-eyed by other adults for using it yourself either.
Being jointly developed by Biore parent company Kao and Aeon Retail, Kids Stamp UV is available at Aeon, Welcia, and Tsuruha supermarkets/drugstores, and we’ll be keeping some handy for mountain- hiking, Gundam-viewing, and other outdoor summer excursions.
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