Hospitals

Today was my first time going to the hospital in Japan. They're a little different than how hospitals work in the US - at least, in my experience anyways. Generally, I think of hospitals as emergency kind of places where you go as a "oh crap things have seriously gone wrong" or "woah major allergic reaction" or something. Not for minor things like colds or what have you. Something wrong? Go to the doctor's or to the health center/clinic.

But here... while there are clinics, a lot of people also just go to the hospital for simple things like doctor's notes or when you're ill with fever or something. It's not just for emergencies. They explained this in the "Learn Japanese through Life Situation/Cultural things" class I'm taking through Takahashi. Clinics here do function like clinics back at home. You can go there when you're sick and stuff, but they can't actually give you medicine. They can prescribe it for you to take to a pharmacy or something, but generally that pharmacy is somewhere else. Hospitals on the other hand, often do have the medicines on hand or at least have a pharmacy close by. They also do surgeries and so on. But if you're not close to a clinic, you just go into the hospital. So if someone says that they went to the hospital, it may or may not be a major thing. In my case, it wasn't really.

And here I was thinking my blue health card was going to be useless. Seriously, this thing is almost like a magic card here.

The hospital I went to today was in Niimi, right next to my school because I told myself that I had to go in to work and stuff since, for chrissakes, they were just bug bites. Lots of them.

Oh yeah, I haven't mentioned what I went to the hospital for. So when I woke up this morning, my arms were COVERED in small red bumps that itched like a bad joke. And when I say covered, I'm talking like, around 30 bumps/rashy looking things between my right and left arms. And hands. I can't actually wear my ring on my right hand anymore because my ring finger has a bite on it, which caused the finger to swell up (in addition to the swelling due to heat and my gaining weight thanks to four birthdays within the last month and no self-control). Needless to say, my commute in to work was something aong the lines of miserable, not to mention the fact that I was also running late because I had gone back to sleep after my first alarm clock. Thankfully, I slept most of the way in on the train.

Also thankfully, I had no classes today since the students were taking tests and stuff, so I actually didn't really have much to do during the day other than help eventually make the listening portion of the English test. So I made my way to the hospital sometime around 9:20; it was pretty much right next to the school, so finding it was pretty easy.

At first, I went in the wrong door. A really nice nurse lady who spoke a little English (and wasn't afraid to!) directed me to the actual reception area. And woaaahhh there were a lot of elderly people there. I guess that makes sense since all the young people are in school and stuff, and the people who are probably going to need health assistance are old people to begin with... So I'm not sure why I'm surprised.

But I managed to get my form filled out (by answering no to most questions, figuring that was a pretty safe bet), and then began the hard part. The waiting. I think I was waiting there for... an hour and a half. I was kicking myself for not bringing my Japanese books to study with. But I did have kindle on my iPhone, so I went through and read Arabian Nights (and wow, just wow, at all the layers of stories). Then I got bored and went on my phone. I thought they had forgotten about me for a while. I got up to use the bathroom and came back to find my seat taken, but the A's/Mariner's game on the TV.

Alright, I thought. Waiting was going to be way more fun. It took a while, but the TV quickly reminded me that not only was Ichiro playing (on the mariners) but Hideki was playing on the A's. Seriously, you should have seen the amount of time the cameras spent on them. Them in the dugout. Them standing on the base. They'd quickly cut back to the person who was actually at bat, or to the pitcher if he thought someone was going to steal a base. But then the camera went straight back to Hideki or Ichiro. It was kind of amusing. It wasn't long though, before Hideki went up to bat and go out on a pop fly to left field, and one of the old men watching the game got up and changed the channel to some Japanese oldschool drama that I couldn't actually hear. That was kind of unfortunate. Waiting was boring once more.

Eventually though, right before I thought I was going to have to go back home (around 11:15) they called my name and I followed the nurse into a small room where we talked for a little bit and I showed her the bug bites on my arm (which, ironically, had ceased to itch insanely and had actually faded a little bit so they weren't that angry red color). I also gave her the note that my JTE had written for me.

Eventually she left and came back with a doctor who was saying ti was probably dani and that I need to bug bomb my house (probably) and asked if I was allergic to anything and a couple of other questions I kind of just said no to.

He gave me a prescription for two medicines: a topical medicine that's like a clear gel stuff you spread over the bug bites, and a pill to take twice a day. The pill, I found out, was actually just Allegra; I was amused to find that they actually have to prescribe it here, but then again, Japan's drug laws are much stricter than the US's.

To get the drugs, after I got out of the office, I had to wait for them to call my name so I could collect my prescription and pay the ~1000 yen for a doctor's visit. Then I had to go to the pharmacy where I had to wait some more and fill out another form before they sent me on my way with medicine. That cost like, 760 yen. Total cost was around 1800.

Magic, I tell you. Super nice to get drugs for that cheap, especially when you have to wait so freaking long at the hospital.

I accidently took 2 allegra instead of just one for today. My bad. It shouldn't kill me, I think, since the American dosage is a a little different than the Japanese one.

But yeah, that was my adventure today. Lots of waiting. I swear, Japan is making me more patient, or it will so-help-it-god.

I am not really looking forward to going home right now. I'm kind of dreading it. They said that I probably have dani - bed bugs or tatami bugs. Usually you hear about them living in old tatami or in futons. I guess mine are the futon type, because sweat builds up and they eat that stuff.... gross. But I thought I'd been decent at putting away my futon and upkeeping it, but apparently I was very very wrong. Sigh.

I swear, I'll never take a bed or the noticable lack of major bugs in California for granted ever again. I'm getting tired of having to deal with bugs all the freaking time.

On a happier note, this weekend was absolutely packed full of things, both good and bad. I already mentioned the JLPT, but I didn't talk about any of the awesome things that happened.

On monday, when I went in to school, some of my students at Jounan asked me what I was doing with the eggplant. I was kind of confused at first, like, what? Then they told me that they saw me on TV with Joaquin-sensei (one of the other ALTs in Takahashi). And I was like, what. And then I remembered. Saturday, my insanely busy day, I spent like, an hourish at the Japanese class about Tanabata Matsuri - or the Star festival. There was a story to go along with it; I'll retell it later. But suffice it to say, that part of the class was learning how to make animals out of vegetables. Unfortunately I have no pictures of this... but we turned a cucumber into a... something with legs. Horse! The eggplant became a cow. And ginger turned into a rooster. They actually looked pretty cool too. This kid at the table we were at stuck a bunch of legs into his cucumber; we asked him if it was mukade and he was like "NOOOO IT'S A _____." He was really freaking adorable though. Also, according to Joaquin's librarian, they played that several times over the local news channel. Hooray, I've officially made the local news. Making eggplant animals.

EMBARRASSING-YOOOOO. I wonder how many of my kids saw that.