Kyukagetsu health check

A few weeks ago, we got a letter in the mail inviting us to bring J in to our ward's medical office for his 8-month checkup. This is a free service to all babies here (even gaijin babies!) every few months. We were going to be in Korea at our scheduled time, so we phoned the office and they suggested another day (so this was really a 9-month checkup for J). This visit was optional, but we were happy to do it, both to make sure J is thriving and also for the cultural experience.

The experience was rather complicated and stretched our Japanese language ability (and the English ability of the health officers!). Before we even had to try to communicate, we first had to identify the correct building. Fortunately, we had remembered to bring the kanji address with us and we had a general idea of the distance from our apartment and the side of the street (it's about a 15 minute walk), so we just had to carefully match up the characters on our paper with the characters on the building (our kanji reading ability includes things like "vegetables" and "exit" rather than "ward medical offices"). This worked fine.

We then had to fill out some paperwork with the help of three or four staff members in a mix of Japanese and English. We filled the forms out in English, and then another staff person filled out a parallel form in kanji to include in our medical book. This will be handy in the unlikely event that we need to visit another doctor or hospital.

After the paperwork came the best part of the visit from J's perspective. We were told (all in Japanese, so it took a little time) by an apron-wearing staff person that the wait would be 30 minutes, but that we could enjoy "kindergarten" (this word was English (well, German), and she substituted "nursery" when we looked utterly confused). What she was suggesting was that we join a group of 10-12 mothers and babies and several apron-wearing women playing and reading on a big mat in a waiting room. J loved looking and screaming at the other babies and watched intently as an apron-lady read a book about animal sounds (in Japanese) to him. It's pretty great that the medical office seems to employ people to read to babies in the waiting room. J especially liked touching and yelling at a giant sumo-type 8-month old boy.

We then did more paperwork and joined a small group of people in the examining room. After a short wait, J's height and weight were checked and he was then seen by a doctor. We lucked out--the doctor on staff today did a Fulbright at Washington University in St. Louis and had pretty good English (and, we assume, an understanding about the general height/weight range for an American baby). He looked J over in just about the same way our doctor at home does and made him do the things a 9-month old should do (sitting up, standing up with support, standing on one foot). I think J was supposed to crawl, but when the doctor tried to get him to do this, J balanced on his hands and feet! Who needs crawling, anyway?

Our only question, as always, was about J's weight (especially since he had lost some while sick in Korea). The doctor just glanced at him and said he looked fine and that "it's better to be thin than too big" and that he's within the correct range. Once again, he assured us that J was in good shape.

We ended our visit with an exit interview with another staff person who spoke only Japanese. From what I was able to understand, she went over the information in our new medical baby book, recapped today's visit (including the height/weight charts), and told us we could join a child-care class next door but that it would be all in Japanese. Thus, we were finished.

The whole experience took about an hour. In spite of lots of confused discussion, getting weighed and looked over, and waiting for paperwork, J did great. The "kindergarten" waiting room made him think visiting the doctor was an acceptable experience.

My favorite cultural moment was a question on an English-language questionnaire: "Are there any times you do not think your baby is lovely?" Secretly, there are rare moments at about 3:30 a.m. when "lovely" is not the word I might choose to describe our wakeful little Jaybird. However, I couldn't bring myself to circle "yes" on the form. J is always lovely to me.

We celebrated J's loveliness and health with a "mo-ni-n-gu set-to" at the coffee shop across the street from our apartment. This particular morning set included toast and the best "aisu cohi" (iced coffee) I've had anywhere. We've often noticed this coffee shop, but thought it looked a little fancy for bringing a baby. We gave it a try today, though, and were glad we did. J was promptly picked up by a staff person and carried around the shop and sidewalk to greet people, and the owner spoke a little English and had lived in upstate NY for a year a long time ago. He noted that he'd seen us many times at the bus stop outside his shop and was curious about us. We'll definitely enjoy moningu setto there again.