I've been sick for over a week now, and I've missed out a tonne of fun trips with the other Shiki dorm occupants as a result. While this is by no means the worst cold that I've had, I've never had a cold last this long before. As soon as I think I'm getting better I end up with some new symptom. As soon as my cough went away I got an earache. Then it went away and my nose started running to the point where I had to blow it so much that I looked like I had a skin disease (thank God those masks that the Japanese wear when they're sick conceal this), and now I have a very painful jaw, probably as a result of the earache.
I never get earaches as a result of having a cold, so when this happened last Friday I figured that I'd better go see the health clinic at Rikkyo. This was a waste of time. He had a look in my ear, decided it was a 'bit red' and then referred me to a throat, ear and nose doctor. I dunno what happens in other countries, but in Australia if a doctor could see that I had an infection they would give me a script for antibiotics and send me on my way. Anyway I wandered off to find the special doctor with the use of the map that I was given, but that's the thing about Japan, there are no street names and the street numbers don't run in any particular order. I couldn't find the building and had to get to class so I wasn't able to get to the special doctor until today, being Monday.
The throat, ear and nose doctor visit was...interesting. The good news for those of you who don't really speak Japanese is that they have English versions of all the paperwork, and while the doctor didn't speak very much English she knew enough so that I knew what was going on. When I first walked into the room it was a bit intimidating. The closest thing I have to liken it to is a dentist's office. There's a chair with a big light above it, an assistant, and a whole table full of scary metal objects. No wonder the kids in the next room were screaming. She cleaned my ears to get all the wax out (which I have to admit felt good, like when you clean your ears with a cotton bud), sprayed some stuff in my nose and sucked out some snot (which was a little uncomfortable and kind of gross lol), and then put some sort of numbing stuff on the back of my tongue (probably to help with the sore throat?). I was then put on a nebuliser where I breathed stuff in first through my nose and then through my mouth. And all of this cost me about $15. Bargain lol.
I then headed downstairs to the pharmacy with my script (if you come from a country where a pharmacy is called a chemist, don't bother saying chemist, no one will know what the hell you're talking about). I couldn't read the script because it was in Japanese so I had no idea what I was in for until the pharmacist came out with this:
To anyone else needing medicine today, I'm sorry but I'm pretty sure I cleaned the place out. 5 DIFFERENT TYPES OF MEDICINE. SERIOUSLY? I have antibiotics, antitussives to help suppress my cough, tablets to help break down my snot, painkillers, as well as a general all purpose cold relief medicine. I need to take these 3 times a day, 6 tablets each time. The upside to Japanese medicine is that they seem to favour the little round sized pills. This is great for me since I struggle with tablets. The other interesting thing is that the meds don't come in boxes like they do in Australia, they just give you what you need. You also get a sheet with a photo of the pill, it's name, what it does, and how many to take (I guess this makes sense since you don't get a box). Luckily the pharmacist spoke a bit of English and was able to tell me what they were all for and how many to take, and that I could substitute my ibuprofen tablets for the painkillers if I wanted. All those tablets cost me only $12. Pretty sure I'd be looking at like $50 if I was in Australia, although I can't be sure because I usually avoid dosing myself up on 5 DIFFERENT TABLETS. This is also the first time I've ever taken antibiotics. You've broken me Japan.
So my advice: be prepared for your trip to Japan. Bring cold and flu medicine with you. I didn't bother to bring anything because I had the flu shot before I came. Do not be silly like me and rely on the flu shot alone, because if you do get sick and need medicine you will be sent on a wild goose chase to get it, and if you're like me and don't even have the energy to walk to the train station when you're sick you're gonna have a hard time.
My second piece of advice to Rikkyo students, if you need medicine because you have a cold, don't bother with the uni health clinic, go straight to a throat, ear and nose doctor. There's the one in Ikebukuro only a few streets from the uni that I went to (I can't remember the exact name, Nakai something or other), or if you're staying in the Shiki dorms there's one on the way to the Shiki train station. I'm not saying that you should avoid the uni clinic altogether, but it seems that for colds they will just send you somewhere else to get a script so you might as well skip this step.
That's it for now, I'll try and have some fun photos up soon, not that I've really been out of the dorm lately to have any fun though.
Anthea xx
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