Man with kids: News at 11

Posted on May 11, 2010 by MThomas

Yesterday, the evening NHK news announced that judo Olympic star Ryoko Tani (also known in Japan as “Yawara-chan,” because she reminds people of a comic book hero by that name) would be running in the upcoming Upper House election. News articles in English appeared online this morning.

One interesting point of note is how the Japan Times article refers to the sangi-in (参議院) as the Upper House, while the Mainichi Shimbun and Japan Today articles refer to it as the House of Councillors. This is probably because the Japan Times writes its own articles (generally in American English), while the Mainichi and Japan Today typically buy the same translated story from the Kyodo News Service (which is typically in British English).

I certainly hope that the British English translation is not the reason for the final line at the very end of the Kyodo News article: “She gave birth to her second child last October.” This line does not appear in the Japan Times article. Continue reading →

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ER Japan – Part Two

Posted on May 8, 2010 by MThomas

(Note: This is the second of two parts. The first described events leading up to my daughter’s hospital stay. The second examines more details of problems with Japanese pediatrics and the public hospital care system. Yes, this story is a bit long.)

The doctor at the private hospital arranged for the needle to remain in place for our daughter, taped down carefully so that she wouldn’t be able to rip it out or damage herself, in the hope that the next hospital could simply insert the IV tubes without having to stick her with a needle again. However, he did warn us that we might have to wait a while in the emergency room and that the doctor at the prefectural hospital would determine whether or not our daughter needed overnight hospitalization.

After paying the bill (2900 yen, about $26, which was 20% co-pay with the national health care system), we set out by car, in the dark, having no idea of how exactly to get to the prefectural hospital. Luckily, we had recently purchased a car navigator device, so we were able to locate the hospital on the map. On the other hand, we hadn’t gotten the more expensive real-time update plan, so because of various road construction projects not on last year’s map the navigator directed us to highway exits and interchanges that no longer existed. We spent an extra half hour circling around trying to find the entrance to prefectural hospital, finally arriving at around 6:30 p.m. Continue reading →

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ER Japan – Part One

Posted on May 1, 2010 by MThomas

(Note: This is the first of two parts. The first will describe events leading up to my daughter’s hospital stay. The second will examine more details of problems with Japanese pediatrics and public hospital care system. At least from my personal experience.)

At close to 2 in the morning on April 19th, our daughter woke up crying loudly. It was a diaper change, a really big one at that, as if her intestinal tract had decided to eject all the detritus from her entire body. But all in all it didn’t seem all that unusual at the time. We changed her diaper and went back to bed.

At 2:30, she woke up again, this time with a loud gurgling noise. Continue reading →

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