{"id":2187,"date":"2020-03-11T15:22:56","date_gmt":"2020-03-11T06:22:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vhbloglive.wpengine.com?p=2187"},"modified":"2020-03-24T17:17:54","modified_gmt":"2020-03-24T08:17:54","slug":"going-to-the-doctors-office","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/japanese-apartment-life\/going-to-the-doctors-office\/","title":{"rendered":"Going To The Doctors Office"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

No matter how\nhard you try to be as healthy and safe as you possibly can be, you will\neventually get sick. Whether it be from riding a train on the wrong or touching\nyour face after using a door. It can become an even bigger problem when it\nhappens in a foreign country when you can’t fully speak the language. There are\nsome other things that may need to be done in order to have your experience be\nthe best it could be. Just try to take it slow and work your way through the\nprocess.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Insurance Card<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Before you even\nthink about where to find your nearest doctor you will need to have your\ninsurance card. This would seem like an obvious part of going to the doctor’s\noffice but sometimes an emergency may happen and you will forget some things.\nThe national health care system in Japan works very well, and the average\nperson only pays 30% of the overall bill. It covers all the basic health needs,\nfrom regular doctors to dentistry. You can use it anywhere that you will need\nto have any kind of wellness needs. There are some differences in what is\nconsidered a medical need and some things may not be considered as a medical\nexpense, like chiropractic, so you will need to look into what you are going to\ntry to use the card for. Depending on what your job is you may be able to\naccess a better form of insurance given to you by your company. It all depends\non how many hours you work and what kind of company you work for. Look into\nyour employers as best as you can before working for them to see what kind of\ninsurance you can be eligible for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Language Barrier<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is always\nthe problem of the language barrier. There is a different kind of terminology\nthat is used in Japan. There are a lot of offices that use English in their\npaperwork and have even begun to employ workers who have at least a small\namount of English ability. You can try to use whatever Japanese you know at the\ntime, but one of the best ways to get your point across is to use gestures.\nThere are universal signs to tell the doctor and the nursing staff what hurts\nyou. Be as obvious as you can be with your movements and they will figure out\nwhat it is you are trying to tell them. Your phone can be very helpful in this\nsituation so using it is highly recommended. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Here are a few\nwords and phrases that can help you when speaking with the doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Itai- pain<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Atama- head<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Onaka- stomach<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ude- arm<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ashi- leg<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seki- cough<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Netsu- fever<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hakike- nausea<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Genkigawarui- I\nfeel unwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eigowohansemasuka?-\nDo you speak English?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can find more\nwords and phrases before you go and it is a good idea to practice the situation\na few times by yourself to get used to the language.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Paperwork<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Anywhere you go\nfor the first time will require you to fill out all of the proper paperwork.\nYou will need to have your insurance card and your visa or residence card when\nyou first meet the nurses. They will ask if you have been there before, if not\nthey will then hand you the paperwork you will need to fill out before meeting\nthe doctor. You can use English if you don’t know any Japanese kanji and the\nstaff will be able to use it correctly. Once you finish all of the paperwork\nproperly they will give you a number or sit you in the waiting room. Once they\nhave all of it processed you can meet with the doctor. After you finish talking\nwith them you will get a card before you leave. This card will show that you\nhave been to that office and you will only need to show it when you go back.\nYou will have to repeat the process if you go to any other office after this,\nso keep that in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Medication<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

When the doctor\ngives you the medication slip, you will need to bring it to the nearby\npharmacy. There is usually a pharmacy within walking distance from the doctor’s\noffice. They might have workers who can speak English, but it is highly\nunlikely. Give them the slip and they will know what to do. Once they have\nprocessed the medicine you will get a brief explanation of how to take it. They\nwill then give you a small book that you will put records of your medication\nin. They will give you a sticker with the medication information and you put it\non an empty page. These will help them see what you have been taking and what\nmedicines you should get for future reference. If you forget to bring your\nbooklet it will be fine, and you can still get your prescriptions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The way that they\nrun their offices is very similar to western offices and the staff is always friendly.\nMake sure to wear a mask when you go as you will be in a room full of other\nsick people, and it will reduce the chance of you getting anyone else sick.\nDon’t stress too much about going there, as they will make it as easy of an\nexperience as they can. You should make sure to be thoughtful of their\nsituation in diagnosing you as you try to be understood. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

No matter how hard you try to be as healthy and safe as you possibly can be, you will eventually get sick. Whether it be from riding a train on the wrong or touching your face after using a door. It can become an even bigger problem when it happens in a foreign country when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2188,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2187","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-japanese-apartment-life"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2187"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2187\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2188"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2187"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2187"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2187"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}