Teachers don’t take sick days

When I first got to Japan, we were all told that although our contracts granted us sick leave, it might be slightly difficult to use it.  Two months went by before I needed my first sick day.  I called the school, as I knew I was supposed to, as soon as I knew that I wasn’t going to make it in that day.  They said they would inform the BOE for me.  So I spent the day sick in bed, and the next I felt better and went back to school.

Later in the month, I noticed something strange on my attendance sheet.  It’s a calendar like sheet that I stamp for everyday I’m at work.  It’s located at my base school, so I only stamp it on Monday and then on Friday for the rest of the week.  I had left the day I had been sick blank.  Because I didn’t work that day.  The problem was, when the Vice Principal was doing the records at the end of the month, he counted it as one of my vacation days. 

I was unsure as to how this had happened, as I had told them I had been sick.  If you miss three days or more in a row you have to get a doctor’s note.  But one day doesn’t require any documentation.  I asked my Japanese English Teacher about sick days and he wasn’t sure what I was talking about.  Even when I said the Japanese word for sick day (byokunen) he still looked confused.  He thought about it and told me that the principal and vice principal probably didn’t know what that was.  He thought that maybe one teacher had taken it years ago, but only when he had had to stay overnight in the hospital.

So now I not only felt kinda bad for trying to take a type of leave that Japanese people apparently reserve for serious illness, but I didn’t know how to fix it.  I emailed one of the program advisors and he was able to help walk me through how to fix it.  He told me this type of problem was very common.  Japanese teachers do not take sick days.  They use their vacation days if they absolutely have to miss school. 

Japanese teachers are so busy that they often are not able to use all of their vacation days.  ALTs however, have nothing to do over the breaks, and need their vacation days to travel back home to visit family.  When you consider that basically two days of every trip overseas can be chalked up to travel time, it all adds up.  And our employers understand this.  It’s the reason we even have sick days in the contract. 

After I got it sorted out the first time, it hasn’t been a problem since.  It’s just another interesting example of how the cultures differ.

I actually got sent home once from elementary school.  I wasn’t feeling great, but I thought I was well enough to get through two classes.  Apparently I looked like I was about to die.  This seems to be the case whenever I am slightly under the weather.  They took my temperature at the school.  It was a tiny bit high, but not a fever.  Fearing for the health of the children, I was asked to go home and “take a rest.”

Another interesting cultural difference is that every time I feel a little sick, one of my teachers offers to take me to the hospital.  This always strikes me as odd, when I only have a little cold.  Who goes to the hospital for a cold?  Japanese people apparently.  It seems to be the general standard that if you feel sick, you go to the doctor and get medicine.  I hate hospitals and will avoid them at all costs.  I avoid going to hospitals in Japan because I don’t like not understanding what’s going on.

The one time I did go to the hospital, I had been feeling bad for several days.  My doctor who spoke a little English told me, “I don’t think you have Influenza.  I think you have the common flu.”  I’ll let that one sink in for a moment.  I didn’t bother bringing up the fact that, as far as I was aware, InFLUenza was the common flu.  I just nodded, assured in the fact that my doctor didn’t think I was going to die.  He gave me medicine, including my first ever powdered medicine.  That’s right, powder medicine.  I was lucky I had seen my teachers take such medicine or I might have been confused on how to take it.  You might think that it should be mixed with a drink.  But no, my friend.  You simply pour the powder into your mouth and then drink some water to wash it down.

A final note on Japanese hospitals.  The word for hospital is byoin.  The word for hair salon is biyoin.  When I learned that I couldn’t help but imagine some foreign guy who had been shot hailing down a cab and desperately asking to go to the nearest hospital, only to be taken to get his hair done.  Granted, I’m not sure how you would get shot in Japan, and I’m not sure how the cabbie would miss the fact that you were bleeding all over his seat, but you get the idea.