An unfortunate reality of life is that sometimes we have medical issues. Sometimes they are serious and sometimes they are not. Sometimes we might even have to go “under the knife”!

In this blog post I talk a little about having surgery in a Japanese hospital. This post will actually focus more on an 8+ minute video blog I made a few years ago about hernia repair surgery I had at a hospital here in Kobe, Japan.

The focus really isn’t about the type of surgery, but having to have an operation in general in Japan.

Surgery can be stressful at the best of times let alone being in a foreign country. In my case there were definite language barriers, but the staff at the hospital I was at bent over backwards to try to accommodate me and make me feel comfortable.

The actual hospital and the technology were amazing. I think this facility was more modern than most in Canada (where I’m from).

In this video I talk about insurance. I did have Japanese National Insurance plus a private insurance policy (my wife got this for me once we had children) and both together pad for the entire surgery as well as a week or more of lost wages!

They were however very hesitant to give me pain treatment and I suffered a lot because of that.

Check out the video and learn a thing or two about having surgery in Japan.

The writer/video blogger:

Kevin O’Shea is the host of the Just Japan Podcast and the Just Japan News Podcast. He is also the guy behind JustJapanStuff. Kevin is a Canadian educator who lives in Kobe, Japan with his family.

Follow him on Twitter: @madformaple

Email: justjapanpodcast@gmail.com