Eastern Medicine

When I flew from SFO to Sydney, I slept in a funny position on the plane. I don’t know what I did, but when I woke up, my neck really hurt. Three weeks later, it was worse. I could barely move without pain; therefore, So and I decided to buy some medicated patches that are used in Japan. Since we were staying on the edge of Chinatown, we knew that they would be easy to find. In the first Chemist we entered, we explained what we were looking for, and the woman helping us said, “Oh, Salonpas?” The box they had only contained small patches, and when I asked if they had a larger size, I was told only in other brands. The woman explained that the ingredients in the largest size (a Chinese product) were different but had the same effect. I bought a box of the small Salonpas and one large Chinese patch. So put some of the Salonpas on me when we went to breakfast. I felt much better. I used the Salonpas the following day and decided to try the Chinese patch that next evening. So put the patch on for me, and the sensation was different from the Salonpas. After several minutes, I told her that it felt like it was burning, that my skin felt really hot, but I would wait a bit to see if it went away. So told me not to be so impatient. A couple of minutes later, I told her that I couldn’t stand it anymore, and she took off the patch. She was amazed. I had a red mark where the patch had been, and my skin was hot on that area. I looked at the patch’s package, and it says, “Vorwerk ‘Chili Brand.’” Vorwerk seemed like German to me, but I could find no translation via the internet. (I later met a German guy who told me that there is no such word.) The Chili part, however, was abundantly clear.