In hospital

While Japan may be lacking in many areas, there are a few things it manages to place on every block--convenience stores, vending machines and hospitals come to mind. Within a three-block radius of my apartment, there are about 4 hospitals. Under normal circumstances, having so many hospitals would not be necessary. These hospitals do not, however, conform to the image that an American might have of a hospital--a large place where one goes only if something is broken or death is imminent. A Japanese hospital is a small affair, and one goes there for just about any illness, be it a cold or something more serious. In addition, the hospital is only open during certain hours, say for example from 8:00 to noon, Monday through Friday, because people don't get sick on the weekend or in the afternoon.

A while back, I had to get a medical form filled out. It was a very simple one-page form, asking for things like my weight, but it had to be signed by a doctor. I was not looking forward to completing this task, since like most Americans, I have an innate fear of hospitals. In the end, I would have to go to the hospital 5 times to get the form completed.

The first time, I asked around to see what hospital people recommended. One was recommended to me. I looked at the hospital's website, and decided to go on a Monday which was a holiday since otherwise I would have to take vacation from work to go. On the website, it said nothing about being closed on national holidays, so I assumed it wouldn't be a problem. Wrong. After waking up early on my day off and driving to the hospital, I found it closed due to the holiday.

The second time, I decided to try a different hospital. I consulted my trusty JET handbook, which indicated that it was open for a period of time in the morning and a period of time in the afternoon. I decided to go in the afternoon. However, as I approached the door, I noticed that the afternoon hours had been x-ed out in marker. I headed in anyway, and consulted a nurse, who said they in fact no longer open in the afternoon.

For my third trial, I decided to head back to the first hospital on a normal day. I went after work, since it was supposed to be open until 5. I arrived at 4, and got to see a doctor at 7. I showed him my form and explained what needed to be filled out. "Ah, the doctor who does that kind of thing leaves at 5. If you come before 5, you can see him. I can't do it." Keep in mind, I had been there since 4 and had explained to the nurses what was required in this form.

For the fourth time, I decided to head to the university hospital, the biggest hospital in town. According to the JET guide, it was supposed to be open from 8am to 12am. 12am, based on my understanding, meant midnight. I know we learned that kind of thing in frist grade, but I had a shaky grasp on it even then, and wasn't too sure. Finally satisfied that 12 am meant midnight, I headed off to the hospital after school. I knew something was wrong when I entered an empty lobby, with no one at the reception desk. I looked around for a while and finally found a sign indicating that the hospital was open until 12pm, i.e. noon.

A few days later, exasperated and in tears, I decided to take some vacation time and head back to the first hospital. I arrived just as they opened for the afternoon session, and told the nurses exactly what I needed. It took approximately 10 minutes. Two weeks of frustration, 5 trips to the hospital, a couple of hours of vacation, and all it took were 10 minutes.

I bring up the subject of Japanese hospitals, because this weekend I went to visit a friend in the hospital, and it was one of the more bizarre experiences I've had in Japan.

I asked my friend when I could visit him, assuming there would be visiting hours, but he told me "Any time is fine." I arrived at the hospital at 7pm, expecting it to be pretty empty. It wasn't pretty empty; it was completely empty. I walked up to the front doors and all the lights were turned off. I tried the door, assuming it would be locked, but it opened when I pushed. There was no one at the front desk, nowhere for me to sign in.

I headed through the dark lobby and into the elevator to get to my friend's room. I didn't know which room he was in however, so I called him to ask. "Room 302. I'm the only person here." Sure enough, all the other rooms were empty and he was the only patient.

We talked for a while, and then he needed to ask the nurse a question, so he pressed the buzzer. No one came. At first we thought she was on her way; then we thought she had fallen asleep; and a last we came to realize that perhaps she wasn't there. My sick friend had been left alone in an open, unguarded hospital. Our suspicions were confirmed when we saw a car pull into the parking lot a little while later, and the nurse got out of it and ran upstairs.

There are two morals to this story. The first is, don't go to a Japanese hospital if you can aviod it. The second is, Japan is a third world country. Well, maybe that's going too far. I doubt there are many empty hospitals in third world countries. But the level of efficiency and the number of hoops that have to be jumped to get a simple form filled out is the kind of thing one would expect from a much less developed place.