Well, it is now February in Japan, so I’m officially entering my second month of being here. The last couple days has really been just me running around accomplishing errands. Japan has a deep love for bureaucracy, as my friend Olivia likes to say, and I think she’s totally right. Yesterday, I tried to visit the doctor, which was a trial in itself. I should have called the foreigner help line, but I was stubborn and just went to the Shinagawa Health Center instead. At least a nice lady there was able to point me to the proper place to go. But, I ended up not being able to go yesterday, because the ward I needed was only open until 11 AM… which was a little weird.
So, with the afternoon still young, I made the trek to the Shinagawa City Office to pick up my gaijin card. I ended up getting lost on the trains as usual, but eventually I found my way there. Picking up the card was relatively painless, given the rigamarole required to get there and back. I wasn’t even late for class!
This morning, I went to the correct hospital and got stuff sorted out. Health care really is cheap here. I paid a 3100 yen fee for coming without a referral (the lady at the Health Center said I should go even without a referral because the doctors at Showa University Hospital would be able to speak English, which she was right!). I then paid another 4000 yen to see a doctor, and that even included her taking an ultrasound that would have cost hundreds in the U.S. In the U.S., they wouldn’t even have ordered an ultrasound for the type of routine examination that she did. So, she was thorough. She even administered the medication that I would have had to purchase separately and administer myself in the U.S. Then she gave me a prescription for another medication, and that medicine ended up costing 470.
And, I have a follow up appointment for later in the month (where I won’t have to pay the referral fee again). So, overall, it was worth the money. I can probably get a reimbursement from my health insurance plan in the U.S. as well. Anyway, the hospitals here are different. Everything is done with a card. It looks like a credit card. It even has your name imprinted into it in kana (mine says ルリア マリア – the lady who printed my card misspelled my name… oh well). And you swipe it at machines to check in for your appointment. It saves your medical history on it, I believe, and it even keeps track of how much you owe the hospital. So, at the end of my visit, I just swiped my little card at an automated cashier and paid my bill with cash into the machine, which administered the change automatically. It was pretty nifty.
Anyway, that was my minor hospital experience. Hopefully, I won’t require more extensive visits. :)
I will end this post with a few interesting observations about Japan, to celebrate the beginning of February.
1. When you buy female personal products at the supermarket, the cashier will wrap the package in an opaque bag and tape it closed, apparently to maintain discretion. Never mind that you have to carry it around the whole store in a basket first!
2. You have to bag all of the rest of your own groceries and return the basket yourself, but the cashier will only give you one or two bags depending on how many she thinks you need.
3. The seats on the train are cushioned and cleaner than my couch at home. It looks like they vacuum them every day.
4. If you see litter in the street, you stop and mentally take note of it because it is so rare, even though there are no public garbage cans except for the occasional one in the train station near a vending machine. People just walk around with trash in their bags until they find a place to throw it away.
5. There are a lot of rules for everything, but frequently he only method of enforcement is disapproving looks from others around you. That’s usually enough for many Japanese.
6. On the JR trains, you are supposed to turn your phones to silent and not talk on them, but frequently, people will have in-person conversations that are louder than a cell phone conversation. Even the Japanese people. It makes no sense!
7. The men really do read dirty comics on the trains.
9. You pay all your bills at the 7-11, and you do your banking at the post office.
10. The Japanese think it’s super fashionable to put English all over everything, but they never do it when it really counts, like if you need medication or on food labels (for people with allergies).
11. You are not supposed to tip, and yet businesses are very service-oriented and workers very helpful.
12. It is not uncommon to see Japanese ladies in designer clothes with expensive shoes riding down the street on bicycles, sometimes even talking on cell phones, holding umbrellas, or both!
13. If you drop a coin on the ground at home, it’s not usually a big deal, but here, you could lose $5 that way (or enough for lunch)!
Well, that’s all I have for now. I’m sure I will think of more as time goes by. For now, I think I might go take a nap or something.
Ja, mata!
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