Sorry for the length of time between posts, but I got \u75c5\u6c17(\u3073\u3087\u3046\u304d\/sick) last week and then family stuff arose. I decided to write a little bit about being sick and going to \u75c5\u9662 (\u3073\u3087\u3046\u3044\u3093\/hospitals) in Japan (note the repeated use of \u75c5 for both sickness and hospital). Since it is a modern country, being ill is not a big deal.<\/p>\n
First of all, Japan has a lot of \u75c5\u9662 and \u30af\u30ea\u30cb\u30c3\u30af (clinics). Seriously, walk down any block, on any \u9053 (\u307f\u3061\/street) in any reasonably sized city and you will probably pass by at least one \u30af\u30ea\u30cb\u30c3\u30af or \u75c5\u9662. Most \u30af\u30ea\u30cb\u30c3\u30af specialize in different areas of medicine, like ear\/nose\/throat, digestive issues, skin problems, etc… which might be why there are so many around. \u75c5\u9662 are more generic, but they vary in size from \u5927\u304d\u3044 (\u304a\u304a\u304d\u3044\/big) down to clinic-sized.<\/p>\n
Once you pick a place to go to, you are always given a questionnaire and a thermometer to see if you have a \u71b1 (\u306d\u3064\/fever) before you see the \u5148\u751f (\u305b\u3093\u305b\u3044\/doctor). “Do you have a fever?” seems to be the first question everyone asks, both \u5148\u751f and \u5bb6\u65cf (\u304b\u305e\u304f\/family) alike.<\/p>\n
Medical care is cheap in Japan. Almost\u00a0 everyone has one of two types of health insurance (it’s required by law), which covers 70-80% of the costs. The first is called \u793e\u4f1a\u4fdd\u967a (\u3057\u3083\u304b\u3044\u307b\u3051\u3093), loosely translated as “Social Insurance”. The average full-time employee will have this. The second is called \u56fd\u6c11\u5065\u5eb7\u4fdd\u967a (\u3053\u304f\u307f\u3093\u3051\u3093\u3053\u3046\u307b\u3051\u3093) translated to National Health Insurance, which everyone else will use. The costs for most procedures are low, and doctors will often make use of every tool available. An xray costs next to nothing and other scans are surprisingly cheap too, so doctors will often do a scan, just in case.<\/p>\n
\u304a\u5927\u4e8b\u306b! (\u304a\u3060\u3044\u3058\u306b\/Take Care)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sorry for the length of time between posts, but I got \u75c5\u6c17(\u3073\u3087\u3046\u304d\/sick) last week and then family stuff arose. I decided to write a little bit about being sick and going to \u75c5\u9662 (\u3073\u3087\u3046\u3044\u3093\/hospitals) in Japan (note the repeated use of \u75c5 for both sickness and hospital). Since it is a modern country, being ill…<\/p>\n