Mucus and asthma and pills, oh my!

Well, I'm finally getting a chance to update my blog after a very tiring flight and first night in Japan, but, humble reader, you will not get a chance to hear about that today. I'll be sure to do a more thorough job in a few days though, once I get settled in my new apartment.

So I have hopefully piqued some interest in you with my entry title. As some of you may know, last Tuesday I caught a cold. Well, considering my track record at Canadian Tire, it's probably not too surprising that I started my JET life with a cold.

This cold decided to migrate with me across the Pacific via Northwest Airlines, the king of all ghetto airlines, and landed in Tokyo at approximately 3:40 pm local time. Like the body, mind, and spirit of the person the cold inhabited, the 13 hour flight, with it's pressurized cabin and recycled air, the cold became a lot worse for wear. So that night, I managed to get a few hours of sleep (after a fun night of exploring the Shinjuku district of Tokyo, where my hotel is), but over night my asthma started to kick in. By morning, I was wheezing, and my head was at that time composed of some 78.3% mucus, some of which was expelled during a hot shower.

By the time 8 am rolled around, I realized that letting nature run its course was not going to work out. The woman at the hotel store where they sell some drugs told me to try the medical walk-in clinic on the 30th floor. I followed this advice, and so started my very first, official life-in-Japan function.

Its funny. The walk-in clinic was for the most part no different than the ones I went to in Toronto. I got in, talked to the lady at the counter, filled out a medical history and why I wanted to see a doctor, waited, saw the doctor who gave me a presciption for some meds, and was on my merry way to my first official JET function.

There were some key differences though. First was the speed at which all this happened. I was in and out of there in about 40 minutes, though being there first thing in the morning probably had much to do which that. More importantly though, the staff there was nice and polite! A far cry from the almost surly staff you normally find at Toronto medical facilities.

I'm still pretty ill. Because I didn't have time to wait for the injections (I would have needed 2, set 40 minutes apart, and at the time I was in danger of being late to my first JET conference), the doctor gave me a prescription for a multitude of pills. After my conference, I headed out to a pharmacy. Because I don't yet have my national health insurance card, I was forced to pay in both cases 100% of the fee. I was expecting my wallet to be at least a hundred dollars lighter, but in the end everything only cost me about 30 bucks. Not bad at all, and when I do get my card and fax the clinic and pharmacy my info, they'll reimburse me for the insured costs.

Well, I'll end this entry with 2 pictures. The first is the clinic I went to, and the second the drug cocktail I have to take for the next 3 days. Fun times at Keio Plaza Hotel!