2002-01-22 - 5:17 p.m.
Today I had the day off from school for my city-mandated health examination. At 9:00 AM, my fellow JETs and our supervisor (who also had to get the exam) reported to an auditorium adjacent to City Hall. The room had been converted into a make-shift hospital and we joined the was line of city employees holding blue health forms. Each corner of the room was sectioned off for different parts of the exam, and there was a long registration table at the front. It reminded me of the conversion of a school gym to a polling place on election day. Upon signing in, we were asked what we had last eaten and when (one egg, 7:30 AM, I was able to report in Japanese). We were then measured (height) and handed a paper cup (no lid) and pointed in the direction of the bathroom. After carrying our urine samples back into the auditorium for all to see and handing them over to a man in a lab coat, we stood in line for the next test. My co-JET and I were ushered into a room where another man in a lab coat presented us with two sets of headphones and a buzzer. “Hearing test,” my supervisor offered by way of translation. Easy enough, we pushed our buzzers whenever we heard a little beep. “Game over,” my supervisor joked, and we followed him over to the next station. This one was a vision test, and it took me about three minutes to figure out the layout of the eye chart. I was also asked some general health questions such as if I drink sake (no -- unclear whether or not I should have mentioned the occasional beer), if I smoke (no) and if I drink coffee (yes). The follow-up question was, “with milk?”
After having my blood pressure taken, I was led into a little curtained off area and told to take off my shoes and socks and lie on the table. Then they attached little electrodes to my ankles, wrists and chest and told me to “relax.” I later found out that this was a circulation test. Then I got weighed, which required me to take off my shoes and socks, wipe the bottoms of my feet with alcohol, and then step onto the scale. Next, off to another curtained off area where a nurse listened to my breathing with a stethoscope. At the next station three vials of blood were drawn (quite expertly, I might add). Finally, I was directed outside to a truck -- the ex-ray truck. I had to take off my shoes and leave them outside the truck and put on slippers to wear inside the truck, and then I was given a chest x-ray. The whole thing only took about an hour, and it was actually kind of fun.
On an unrelated note, I thought I’d comment on the presence of music in schools here. At all of the elementary schools I’ve visited they play classical music over the PA at lunch. The junior high I’m at now plays Japanese pop songs at lunch and classical music during clean-up time. And for some reason, the end of the school day is marked by a bell and then “Stand By Me,” which they play three times in a row, every day. I’ll have to ask about that one.
And one last, unrelated note -- On Sunday I saw “Harry Potter” in Tokyo. While Saori and I were waiting in line, some people near us began talking about the two of us because they thought that we were both gaijin (foreigners) who couldn’t understand Japanese. Saori translated for me once we got inside the theater: “I don’t want to sit next to those gaijin because they always laugh at different parts of the movie than we Japanese!” Other weekend highlight was going to a fancy international grocery store where I was transported to the second floor in an elevator operated by a woman wearing a suit, hat, and white gloves.
