first time fee

I recently had to go get something checked out and it was my first time to this particular hospital.

Without a referral, you need to pay a "first-time" fee. And without an appointment, you need to wait...over two hours!

While you wait, you need to take your own blood pressure and give it to the nurse.

After finally being called, I had to wait again in front of the doctor's room, I was amazed because in Hawaii, the doctor goes around to various exam rooms to see patients, but in Japan, you go into a room to see the doctor.

I was also amazed that the doctor, himself, types in the computer onto your medical chart and schedules your next appointments on that computer too.

After all of that, you go to the lobby to pay your portion. Oh, but you can't just pay, they need to figure out how much you need to pay, so you need to wait again.

When you're finally called to pay, they send you over to a machine to pay.

Pretty interesting, yeah?!

p.s. the temperature has gone down into single digits (celsius)...brr!