Doctors at school

Last week I arrived at school to find 2 big vans parked out front. Assuming they were the blood donating vans, I asked my Kyoto-sensei if I could sign up. Turns out the vans were for the health checks.

Health checks? See, since teachers in Japan are expected to pull such long hours, all sorts of things come to them. Bank boys, bento deliveries, and even doctors! Ok, nurses, but still.

So without any warning, I got to pee in a cup early in the morning, have my height and weight measured, and answer fun health questions. And a standard part of a Japanese check up is an x-ray. Yes, they give everyone x-rays every year. Not something I was thrilled about. My teacher told me that pregnant women don't have to be x-rayed, so if I wanted to feed the rumor mill with a possible pregancy, I could get out of it.... tempting as that was, I took the x-ray.

I also had my eyes checked. In Japan, instead of reading letters or numbers, you look at small circles with depressions opening on a side. You call out "up" "down" "left" "right" for the check. Kinda fun.