I have had the flu for the past week or so. I stayed at home, slept a lot, kept warm and drank lots of fluids. Today I contacted my Japanese teacher as I wanted to have a lesson tomorrow. I am not completely better yet but I do feel much better than I did last week.

She can’t come and teach me tomorrow. She told me that in Japan flu is considered to be an infectious disease. I agree that it’s an infectious disease but what I didn’t realise was the impact of that statement. I’m not supposed to go out and, if I were working, I would need a doctor to say it was O.K. for me to go back to work. My teacher can’t come and see me yet because she knows that there is no way my flu is completely gone. She told me that under Japanese health law she is not allowed to put her other pupils at risk of catching an infectious disease, which could happen if she saw me.

She rang tonight as she was very concerned that I had not seen a doctor. In the U.K. we are encouraged not to see a doctor for something like the flu. You can easily buy decongestants and painkillers to help alleviate the symptoms and apart from that you stay at home, rest, drink fruit juice and wait to get better. In Japan you go and see a doctor as soon as you start to feel ill and again when you think you are better. I asked my teacher what exactly the doctor could do for flu and she said that they give medicine or maybe an injection. She told me that then people recover from flu within 8 to 10 days. I told her that people in the U.K. also recover from flu within a similar time frame.

At this stage in my flu I certainly won’t get a doctor to come and see me but it seems that I am going to be expected to stay at home by myself until I am completely better – which won’t be for a few days yet.