Japanese Doctoring

Took a sick day yesterday to go to the doctor. After a weekend of rest, I was already feeling much better by Monday morning. But just to be on the safe side, both for my health and for my vacation days, I took a sick day and went to the Nakashima nose throat ear clinic, across the street from Marugo supermarket, to have it checked out.

After 2 full hours, from 10 to almost 12, the doctor finally had time to see me. He asked me, in Japanese, what symptoms I have, which were redundant because I had filled out a symptoms survey. Blah blah, the conversation evolved from Japanese, to pigeon Japanese, to broken English. His English was not horrible, we exchanged broken English sentences. After spending maybe 30 seconds looking at my nostril, tonsil, and ear, his English got exponentially better: "You have the common cold and mild bronchitis. Don't worry about the flu." From beginning to end, it took about 2 minutes.

2 minutes. I didn't even have time to admire the entirely pink patient room, or his harem of pink nurses. He is either the most skilled doctor in the world or...