Doing uncomfortably grown-up things successfully in a foreign language is something of a well deserved ego-boost. I found a clinic, signed up as a new patient, had a discussion with a nurse that didn't shoot my blood pressure through the roof, was able to talk to the doctor and procured the medication that I went in looking for; all in Japanese.
I find I psych myself out far too much when it comes to these sorts of things, when I am able to hold conversations about a great many things which pertain to daily life. By no means am I fluent, and the nurses spoke slowly and pantomimed a great deal (which I'm fairly certain they did not do for the other patients) but I was able to respond using somewhat coherent thoughts delivered with a language that I didn't start using regularly until earlier this year. I had a wee bit of trouble with the kanji on the forms, because it's a stupid butt-pain used to prevent people from enjoying the acquisition of this tongue.
Fun fact, people think way more highly of you if you're a teacher and a gaijin (as opposed to a gaijin doing other gaijin-y jobs of gaijinness). They made a special note of it in my health file. I don't think it's medically relevant (other than the overwhelming germ exposure) and there wasn't a place in the forms for it. Nope. She just wrote it out on the cover of my file. Right next to the big sticky tab reading "ピル". It reads "pill" for all of you too lazy to Google X-late that. Which is short for "the pill" which is what I was after.
Finding the pill in Japan hasn't been any sort of a problem for me. Sure, they don't always have the same brands, but darn near any ladies clinic will have the goods. If you're super advanced you can call ahead to see what is carried at the destination (I'm not, I will take the risk upon arrival). But it's kinda convenient that they have the pills in house, and they dispense up to 3 months at a time. It's kinda inconvenient that you have to go to the clinic every time you need a refill, but 3 months and a doctor visit running around 7000円 is much better than what I was on in the States with insurance. So make sure you utilize the heck outta those visits!
On a fairly related topic; I've got nearly all my ducks aligned for NZ. Yes, oral contraceptive is a duck now, just work with me. I was even bad and broke open my coin bank early. More than I expected, less than I hoped. It's going to make someone fairly happy though. With happiness. Which is good. I like making people happy. I think the 18th, I will be doing some sjupa schjopping. Just cuz I can. And I kinda need to. I know I need sunglasses and hairties. I'm sure there are other things too. I'll post a packing list later.
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