Oh, Nippon.

Long-time readers of this lj will be familiar with my many run ins with Japan's "health" system, of which this example is one of the country's crowning achievements in weirdness.

Of course, being back in Japan again means being health examined again.

So today I dutifully trotted down to the airstream trailers parked on the uni plaza and submitted myself to the same health check I had to take a mere eight months ago in order to be admitted.

Anyway. It turned out to be a lot less invasive than the health checks I'd undergone as a civil servant. No swallowing bromide. No vampire-worthy levels of blood drawn. No (see above). It looked like it would be over in the blink of an eye, but then I made the unfortunate mistake of informing a nurse that I was currently undergoing a certain biological process.

Now, American physicians often just make note of this and carry on, but not, apparently, their Japanese counterparts. The nurse told the head physician on duty, who handed me a plastic cup and urinalysis vial and told me to bring them back at my leisure. I mean, seriously.

This would NEVER FLY in America. NEVER.

So I'm now walking around with a slightly mushed paper cup (albeit one manufactured for actual use in urinalysis tests, not a dixie cup) and (rather paraphanelia-remininscent) plastic apparatus in my bag. Apparently the contamination they will undergo in there is less worrisome than the presense of some extra platelets. I'm having a much easier time getting over this than I'd anticipated, due in no small part to the fact that I was told to complete a urine test...eh, whenever and wherever I felt like it. I mean, doesn't that defeat a large part of the purpose?

Never change, Japan. Never change.

That will be all.