March 6th, 200815 Minutes Can Cost You A Day
I’m not sure what it is about viruses in Japan, but they sure pack one heck of a whollop.
Two days ago I spent 15 minutes at a hospital here in Kakamigahara in order to get some money refunded, and in exchange for my patience I was awarded with another bout with the flu. Not just any flu … but an uber unfriendly Japanese “Sit-Yourself-Down” kind of flu.
Was it something I touched? Was it someone I spoke to? Who can say for certain. All I know is that in a really short amount of time, I managed to lose approximately the same amount of money I would have earned by going to work yesterday. Fun? Wow.
So, to prevent others from experiencing this needless downtime, I want to pass on a little advise that my wife often tells me: wear a mask.
Masks seem to be everywhere in Japan, and you can’t go one day in a crowded place without seeing at least one person wearing the ubiquitous white fashion accessories. I’ll admit that they don’t block too many of the big germs that are making their rounds this spring, but they do offer that little bit of protection from the people that insist on coughing without covering their mouth, or otherwise act as a biohazard to the people around them.
So, on that note, it’s time to get back to work and be one of those very few gaijin to be seen wearing a mask.
I wear a mask if I’m sick so that I don’t give my cold to someone else, but I haven’t yet brought myself to wear a mask so that I don’t catch a cold. With hay fever season looming, masks will be everywhere, which is really sad for people like A-chan in this post I wrote last year: Deaf in Japan. Get well soon, Jason!
I wondered if people in Japan wore the masks because they were sick and did not want to spread their sickness or if they did not want to get sick from other people.
I thought it was that they wanted to avoid getting sick but I heard some people say it was that they were sick and did not want to spread it around. Ho polite of them.