In Japan - Blood Donation (Final Episode)

I'm technically not in Japan anymore; the last few days in Japan had been pretty busy with finals and my parents coming over for a short trip. I had to pay 500 yen for internet access per night so I didn't really want to waste my money on that.

Well, remember the last time I shared my story on blood donation? Two months finally passed, and I finally was able to donate my blood!

... not. I failed again haha. And the reason was that my haemoglobin concentration was not enough *cries*

And I waited for 1 hour to go through the whole process of registering and waiting. 1 hour. Only to be told to rest and come back some time.. later. Yeah. Later.

Anyways, while I was waiting in line, the staff kindly asked everyone if they had had food or enough drink before the blood donation (even though they will still test your haemoglobin level and determine if you can donate blood or not).

I told the staff I had lunch recently but he still gave me a donut. 

I received lots of pamphlets and stuffs as well. Well, this paper is basically a checklist. The first bullet point was the reason I couldn't donate my blood last time: I haven't been in Japan for 4 weeks.

They will also ask if this was your first time donating blood. If it was, they will give you a card that you can hang on your neck. That basically tells the nurse to be gentler and to explain things in greater detail to you.

After I was told that I couldn't donate, the staffs were really kind. They kept apologizing to me (for making me wait and in the end I still couldn't donate, and one staff actually remembered that I came last time and couldn't donate as well). They said it's the heart that counts, and they kept asking me to grab some drinks and donuts on the way home as a form of thanks. 

You know what? I was a little disappointed because I had to wait for so long and go through a lot of process of registering and stuff, but it didn't feel that bad because everyone was so polite and thoughtful. This is one of the reason why I love Japan :)

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In Japan - Blood Donation

Two days ago on my way back home I saw a blood donation event going on at the high school I always pass every day. It's very noticeable because there was this very cute mascot standing in front of the school!

I checked in and told them that I'm a foreigner. I was told to read a question sheet (I can't remember all of them but if you say 'no' to any of the question then you probably can't donate). I filled in a form (the usual name, address, phone number...). Well, I passed that stage, and waited for about 15 minutes until I was told to read another informative sheet that tells you if you can donate your blood or not.

On the very first bullet, it states that if I haven't been in Japan for 4 weeks, I'm not allowed to donate.

Well, there goes my chance.

But anyways, they're so nice. While I was waiting they gave me a heat pack and a pack of electrolyte drink. When I told the people at the registration counter that I can't donate, they gave me a donut.

And while I was waiting, I spoke to a university student and when I told her that I'm a foreigner (to be exact, I told her I came from the US; not really a lie) she started to try speaking English at times. I had a good time!

Well, that's a good experience. I wouldn't call that wasting my time. It's good to let things flow on its own instead of forcing everything to go according to plan :)

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