Another Year, Another Physical

The thing about working in Japan is the requirement that we have to do a medical/physical examination every year. While I had to make a booking and pay for it under my previous employer, my current employer takes care of the booking and payment of it. During all my time working in Australia with various employers, I have never had to do a physical examination.

Fortunately, as I have taken some days off this week, taking the medical exam worked well for me. 

Compared to having to do a physical in Australia (or at least, in my home town), in Japan I only need to go to the one clinic to get everything checked - vision, hearing, blood test, height, weight, chest x-ray - plus I could pick one optional check as part of the exam - some options including tumor marker to even checking if one has antibodies against the Chinese Communist Pneumonia. From getting in there to leaving the clinic, it took maybe 45 minutes at most, though with so few people there that day, I would say these were ideal conditions and there was very little waiting between each check.

When I had to do my medical before moving to Japan all the way back in 2016, I had to go to 4 different places, all on different days. I went to my GP for my height, vision and weight check; a different place for hearing, another place for my x-ray, and another place for my blood test - all out of my own pocket (despite health insurance), though it's not exactly reasonable for an employer situated in a different country to fork out for a medical examination in Australia. As it was on different days, it takes time to get the results back, and I had to go back my GP at the end of it all anyway. 

There are some things that Australia does better than Japan (which I may cover in a separate entry some time) but when it comes to things like medical exams, Japan completely trumps Australia on this. Lift your game Australia.