Roving Japan

Photoset, Day 31

I like to experience as much as I can, so why not a hospital as well? Today I got a taste of the Japanese health care system. We didn’t need an appointment, we just walked in and gave them my insurance card. A couple of nurses came over and took a look at my foot while we sat in the hallway. They decided that I should have an x-ray so we went over to the x-ray room where a technician snapped two quick shots of my foot. A couple of minutes later, the x-rays were whisked over to another room where a doctor examined them for any broken bones. After just a minute or so, they called us into the room where the doctor poked and prodded my foot asking if this hurt, or that hurt. In the end he said, “Tendon” and a bunch of Japanese to Risa which included “rest for 3 – 4 days”. He prescribed some pain relief/anti-inflammatory cream and we were on our way. Total price at the hospital, $16. The medicine was another $6.

With the doctor ordering a few days of rest, our next task was to figure out where we would ride this out. There are a couple campgrounds just a few stations south of Imabari, so we considered camping out for the next 3 days. But then Risa remembered that her dad had talked about some family that lives in the small city of Mitsugi which is right across the bridges from Imabari!

A long series of phone calls later, and we were on a bus across the Seto inland sea with a bottle of sake in hand for Risa extended family. With very little warning, they were willing to let us stay at their house while my foot heals up. We can’t thank them enough!

So here we are, staying with the Kanou family in the countryside of Hiroshima prefecture. They have one of the biggest houses I have seen in Japan, so we are tucked away nicely in an upstairs room. The Kanou household includes Mr. and Mrs. Kanou and their daughter Izumi. Mr. Kanou is a retired professor of agriculture as well as an active rice farmer. The women of the family are very musical. Mrs Kanou is part farmer, part piano teacher and Izumi is a professional piano player who has spent the last few years working on cruise ships. The whole family is also very international. Izumi has traveled all over Europe, the Caribbean and America. She also speaks fluent English and Italian. Her sisters who live in Nagoya and Tokyo have also traveled all over the world. One sister lived in Nepal with her husband who gives tours in Nepal and Pakistan. Last year Mr. Kanou spent a couple of weeks in the mountains of Nepal with his son-in-law as his guide.

We are incredibly happy to be staying with such kind and interesting people for the next couple of days. We are doing our best to avoid becoming a burden. I have already explained to Mrs. Kanou that I am an expert at cutting vegetables so she should use me in the kitchen whenever she cooks something. Izumi is temporarily teaching English at a cram school, so I offered to help out if she wants a native speaker to come to her class. I hope she takes me up on the offer, but it seems like the cram school curriculum is more about passing a technical test rather than conversation skills. Oh well.

Tomorrow we have no plans other than heal! I hope we can head back to Shikoku by the weekend.

Oh, between the phone calls and the bus, we had a couple of hours to burn. We spent the time at Imabari Castle. Here are a couple photos.