Medical Facilities

USEFUL WEBSITE

Toyama Prefecture has a good website that can be used for locating medical and dental facilities within the prefecture (however, it is in Japanese…if you need help, ask your supervisor to take a look at it for you). Access it here.

MEDICAL FACILITIES LIST

The following is by no means the be all and end all of medical listings. The hospitals that are listed here are large hospitals. Within each hospital there are bound to be doctors and general staff that are friendly and some that are not. Large hospitals generally have long waiting periods. The doctors may have some English (also German, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, etc.) language ability, though. Most hospital doctors have some English ability, but the receptionists and office staff generally do not (therefore, phoning ahead is a nightmare). The same goes for local clinics. In your local area there is no doubt a number of clinics, of which there may be one that suits your needs, and they will undoubtedly have shorter waiting periods. Ask your supervisor or other JETs for the locations of some of the better clinics in your area. Also don’t forget to ask your supervisor what teachers live in your area and if they can recommend a local doctor. Remember the teachers at your school are native Toyama-ites!

Many hospitals are not available after five pm. Call ahead to see if the place you want to go is open. Local clinics and specialty clinics tend to be open later.

Some useful vocabulary:

• 病院 (byouin), hospital 
• 総合 (sougou), general 
• 市民 (shimin), public 
• 中央 (chuo), central