Round about every August in Japan, people with medical insurance at their work (or maybe anybody with insurance) get a full medical once over.

I had mine just the other week, and a most interesting experience it was too. I’ve never actually had a lot of the tests they conducted, so it was a new experience in many ways, especially as the instructions
were in Japanese although thankfully my wife came along to translate or it would have been a much less pleasant day out.

Amongst all the basic tests (weight, height, eyes, hearing, etc), there were also a few “special” ones. For example I was attached to some electronic device at my ankles and various places on my chest while some readings were taken – not sure what that was for, possibly pulse??

I also had one of those sonograph things where they smear your stomach with jelly and try to find a baby. I was a little bit surprised to see an alert and attentive meercat where my left kidney was supposed to be, but the nurse didn’t seem bothered by it. I stopped looking at the monitor after that.

Also had a CAT scan for my stomach which seemed to be called a FAT scan on the medical sheet. Came back with a nice picture of my fat. Which I don’t think I’ll post here.

The one most people had warned me about was the delightful Barium test. Where you drink some radioactive barium, and stand on a “vertical” table that rotates to a horizontal position and beyond and while a man shouts through a microphone unintelligible instructions in English (at least he was trying, so I’m not complaining, just couldn’t understand his accent).

Then some mechanical arm extends out and presses your stomach. To be honest it wasn’t as bad as everyone made out it to be, although the powder you take before the barium made me retch.

Afterwards they give you a laxative as apparently it’s very bad to keep this white goop (tastes like plain yoghurt) in you as it solidifies. Nice.

There was some blood tests, some other measurements were taken and a very brief chat with a grumpy doctor :

Doc: How are you?
Me: Fine.
Doc: No problems?
Me: No.
Doc: Goodbye.

Then we left to stuff ourselves full of KFC – Deep fried chicken, perfect after a health check up

Got the results back about 2 weeks later…surprise, surprise, I’m fat! The big thing in Japan this year is Metabolic Syndrome or Metabo as they like to call it.

It seems to be the biggest threat for Japanese people at the moment, and especially for Japanese business as apparently if your employee is “Metabo” a year after he’s warned about it, the company gets fined!
Now that’s a diet incentive! (Not sure if that is true but have heard it from two sources)

I, apparently, don’t have Metabo – mainly because I’m less than 40, and my blood pressure is hunky dory. However my (bad) cholesterol is bad, and I have too much Purine in my diet – which is odd, as I don’t remember eating any. Turns out, there’s lots in beer. Doh!

Now on my new low cholesterol low purine diet, which in itself is tricky as the 2 seem to be at odds with each other.
High cholesterol food has low purine, and vice versa. Doh! and Doh!
Switched to brown bread, less deep fried food, more vegetables (I keep finding raw cabbage in my bento each day, thanks Aki ), and the biggest shock of all….low purine beer!

This purine thing is obviously a problem in Japan as recently Kirin launched a 99% free Purine and 60% free calorie “beer”.

Having almost got used to Happoshu (the fake beer), I’m now drinking this….drink.

Turns out the thing that puts the mmmm, beer in beer, is purine. Bugger.
Oh, well, wish me luck…

Related posts:

1. Is That Beer Pt 2
2. Is That Beer?

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Post tags: Drinking in Japan, Happoshu, Health Check, Metabolic Syndrome, Purine

It seems it’s not just me who’s been feeling the pinch lately. There was an article in the paper the other day about increasing food prices and how it’s affecting people’s spending habits.

Sales of “third category beer-like drinks” as they’re called, have gone up about 10%, and real beer sales have gone down about 12%. (Beer prices went up last month due to high cost of malt, etc.

According to the paper, these third-category beers are made of corn or peas!

That would explain the unusual taste I guess.

More info about Third Category Beers can be found at my beer fuelled website www.moippai.com

Related posts:

1. Is That Beer?
2. Is that a Meerkat?

© Silentjim for Balloon Shapes By Cops, 2008. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: beer, Happoshu, Third category beer

Things have been a bit difficult financially recently, mainly due to getting “married” in England in less than two months, which as everyone knows is very expensive, plus the extra cost of including a “holiday” to another country (and I don’t mean the honeymoon), so not much surplus cash kicking around.
Therefore I’ve cut down my beer intake

The other day, really fancied a beer on the way home so bought a can of happoshu from the vending machine near my house.

What’s happoshu? I hear you cry. Well, pretty sure it’s only a Japanese thing, but here there are 3 types of beer. Beer, fake beer and even faker beer.

When I say beer, I mean lager (not ale or bitter like in Europe), although you can get dark beer which I guess is like a stout. Anyway, so there’s beer, like Asahi, Kirin, Sapporo, etc

Then there’s the fake beer. This is called happoshu. It’s about half the price, only ￥150 for a can, but this is because it’s made of peas, or beans or god knows what.
Has a bizarre metallic aftertaste, and fairly undrinkable, but despite that it’s pretty popular here. The best one I’ve found is called Diet (low calorie happoshu). Used to actually drink that a lot, and eventually got quite used to it.

The can I bought the other day was made by Sapporo, and, well, it sure wasn’t beer, but ￥80 cheaper than a can of Kirin

Then there’s the even faker beer. And I have no idea what that is made of! Probably grass or something, not barley and hops, that’s for sure. It’s even cheaper and I haven’t risked any yet. Should do in the name of research though eh.

One (of the many) good things about Japan is that not only is the food seasonal here, so’s the beer, so every month or so you get a new kind of beer, or a limited edition beer. Always good to try.

I’m in the process of putting together a website, mainly for wine, but also for beer and sake that will have reviews on it. Another good excuse to try them out! (After the wedding that is!).
(Here’s a link to the website – www.moippai.com )

Related posts:

1. Is That Beer Pt 2
2. Is that a Meerkat?
3. My Wine Review Website

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Post tags: Asahi, Drinking in Japan, Happoshu, Kirin, Sapporo