Well i'm Boned...
 

Look's like i'll be having to go back to my home country...i wish i could have stayed longer aswell, But unfortunatly i got sick and had to goto a japanese hospital and because i was there for a few days i now owe them hundreds of dollars because in japan even if you have insurance you still have to pay 30% of medical bill's and thats pretty much all my budget gone so i have no money saved up for rent next month let alone food for the next week hopefully i get a better job within the next 2 days (which i doubt).

What sucks the most is i quit my job in australia and used most of my savings to get over here so even if i go back home i'll still be as fucked as i am now. And unfortunatly i don't come from a family that has much money so they can't help me out hell...i don't even know where im going to live...maybe if all my firends hadn't moved to either brissi or WA i might have a place to stay but no everything bad always has to happen at once it can't just happen at a time i can deal with it.

Alwell the overall experience i guess is what i came here for, still can't speak the language fluently and didn't manage to find a decent job but i did have a lot of fun experiences and met a lot of people. Didn't get to travel around japan at all but meh i guess i learnt my lesson lol...even hard work and persistance can't change some things.

Japanese national insurance is still 100 times better than what we have in the US. I pay a couple hundred dollars a month, and then dread getting sick, as they only cover certain illnesses and conditions.

In australia we pretty much get full coverage...from the government...but we have to pay tax...for it...

and it also doesn't change the fact that im boned...wow dude your real defensive when it comes to japan..you would do well as a priest lol...

That's exactly what we need in the US. Any major surgery can bankrupt a family here now. Doctors have to pay incredibly high malpractice insurance because there are so many lawyers telling people to sue their doctors, and that is all passed down to the patients.

You said you were in school?

Anyways, even if your family doesn't have much money, you mean you can't stay with them? That's harsh dude.

No way to get a job?

He is a teaching at a school.

Yeh unfortunatly my mother lives in a granny flat with her bf which only has like a bedroom and a kitchen and a dining room, and i haven't spoken to my dad and lets just say a long time....so yeh...i do have a job but it doesn't pay enough for me to live in japan...lol....just enough for me to buy instant ramen, cheese, bread and canned tuna XD and if i feel like spoiling myself yoshinoya hehe.

He said in another post he was 2 years into University.

I was talking about your home country...

Anyways, even if your mom lived in a shoebox, you're saying she wouldn't make room for you if you needed it?

We have that too. Practically everything is free on the NHS. I haven't got a clue why America hasn't done it yet, seriously.

Same as Canada. I hate it when people run around boasting about free healthcare and complain about taxes. But paying tax isn't nearly as much as we would have to pay if we didn't get full coverage. Especially for an elderly or sick person.

It's better if we don't go down that road. :D

I can't imagine the amount of bureaucracy that would create in U.S. Seriously it would be like the DMV turned up to 11. The amount of people that die in waiting rooms would increase 10 fold.

Another lesson for living in Japan is to sign up for a health insurance.

Even if it's a cheap package, it'll cover the 30% costs and that's what many people do.

I believe AIU has a year insurance which covers basic costs and it's around $1000.

You could easily sign up for it at the airport.

Anyways, how much money do you have left?

I know few hostels where you can stay for only $3000 a night.

Japan Youth Hostels, Inc.

If you think you got a chance of getting a job, you might want to take your chances.

Also, a friend of mine turned down a job here so there might be an opening.

http://www.robin-international.co.jp/index.html

Also, look into gaijinpot for jobs.

Good luck billysweird and hope things work out for you either back in Oz or in Japan.

Seems reasonable!:ywave:

in the us. medical bills and payments can be really high. insurance covers a lot but you still May end up paying thousands of dollars.
but so could you maybe get some help since your job?. im not sure if you could but i think maybe..i atleast know you can if you dont have a job. and in some cases if you have a low pay job and dont earn over a certain amount, you can get money or coverage for things, but i dont know about where you live.
in the us. things are different for certain reasons having to do with the set up of the whole system and such for medical, taxes, health care, bills, etc.
and yes taxes are horrible
also if people got more benefits and coverage for things than they do already now. it probably wouldnt help much because then you would probably have to pay more in taxes , and other things would maybe be higher too.

Henbaka If you read my complete post i said i took a year off University to travel, wtf?
and why is it strange to work even if you goto university, pretty much all my friends who goto uni work and my cousin took a year off to travel around europe and hes now working as an event manager in the UK? dude you seriously got an attitude problem aye....

thats is not a bad idea.

so what about not working? working actually is....um good. you want to work to get money.

..If you are talking about what i said
i wasnt meaning it like that. i meant like hypothetically like in different situations..not being specific. working while you are in college will actually help with your future career and experience.

by the way. i was planning to do something like the same as you.

Lol and tommasi if i had that much i wouldn't be surviving on bread, tuna, instant ramen and cheese. When i mean i have nothing i literally mean nothing, like my account balance for my bank is 470￥. And i only came over there with bare minimum of $2500 if i had of bought the insurance it would have been half my budget gone immediatly i was just hoping i didn't get sick and/or got a decent job...lesson learned i guess XD

nah i was talking about henbaka, lol i didnt get to your post yet...and i do work....

Are you just getting up or going to bed? If you work, it's 4:45 in the morning in Japan now...

oh okay then. sorry.
:) and yes i know..about you working..i was just wondering what you were talking about because you said something else about work or whatever in the post, but now i know what you were talking about.
but overall i dont think that you did too much wrong, but you took the chance of getting sick. you never know when you will, werent so lucky i guess, thats all.

Oh nah i just havent been able to sleep in this apartment lol, cause its cheap im next to a train station, school, under a flight path and near a hospital...so theres constantly something waking me up so i just pass out when i pass out. its 4:55 lol i just watched one missed call the japanese version...its not really that scary XD

Err, what are you on about? I think the attitude problem is on your part, judging from your posts.

I read your whole post. And I understood youre in Uni. but currently in Japan working. I merely said so.

You need to chill

yeh sorry dude im just really stressed out at the moment with lack of sleep and trying to find a job and staying alive. I must have misunderstood, i thought u thought it was weird for me to be doing that anyways im gunna try and get some sleep i have to wake up soon to meet some1 from this forum actually...

I'm assuming tommasi meant ￥３０００, not $3000.

Sorry things didn't work out for you dude.

Hope things work out for you and you can go back to Japan

You're right that hard work and persistence can't change some things but there are many ways to get to Japan (for Aussies and Kiwi's anyway) so try not to feel too down about it. :vsign:

Except that in the US you can get quality care 24/7. There are still stories in Japan of people dying because the hospital or emergency room they were taken to is either full or closed (Japanese law limits the amount of services each hospital may provide per day, week, month, and year).

In America, all hospitals and emergency rooms are required by law to help you, whether you have insurance or not, even if the service cost tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of dollars.

I've never been impressed with the quality of Japanese doctors. You can go to three different doctors and get three different opinions about the same problem. My GF had a mouth infection that no doctor in Japan seemed to be able to diagnose, luckily a friend of hers at work knew a British doctor who was in town for a convention, he diagnosed her problem without even having to do any clinical tests.

People from Canada, England, Korea, and Japan often travel to America for treatment to illnesses to avoid long waits for treatment in their own countries. Free health care is rationed health care, and one must often live with a painful condition for several months (often as long as a year) before a doctor or hospital can find a spot for your treatment appointment.

When you travel overseas, you should purchase your airline ticket with a good, travel type/airline credit card. I always use an American Express Platinum card to pay for my tickets. I'm completely covered for any medical problems which occur during my trip, which includes medivac if necessary (a medivac from some places can cost as much as $50,000).

If you did purchase your trip with a credit card, look at your card member agreement, or call the number on the back of the card and ask if you are covered for medical treatment required during travel.

I`m going to try not to step too deeply into the US/Japan healthcare debate - I`ve done it COUNTLESS times before on here, and am tiring of it, but can`t resist.

You can get care 24/7 in Japan - no problems, no people "dying in waiting rooms" - though I hear about that pretty often from the US. No, wait, in the US it`s "Dying while you wait for your insurance to approve your surgery, which takes years for them to do."

Yes, in the US you can get care at any time, taking priority over everyone else regardless of their needs if you have the cash. If you don`t, and your job doesn`t provide top notch insurance (most don`t), you`d almost might as well give up. No one in my family in the US has ever gone to the hospital without encountering insurance issues. My grandmother passed away in the hospital, and the insurance refused to pay for any of her care because *gasp* the condition she died from had to do with having worked in a factory during WWII. It was a "previously existing condition" despite no one knowing about it until 50 years after the fact, including more than 30 paying into the insurance. Not to mention the hospital tried to add on every additional treatment in the book to get more money (Speech therapy? Water therapy? Intensive exercise program? My grandmother was unconscious, and never left the bed.)

If you take a dive into the frightening world of premature birth, I cannot even tell you how many stories I`ve heard of parents having to sell their homes to pay for their baby`s medical care. Even great insurance companies cut you off after a certain monetary amount it reached - if your baby is on 24/7 intensive care, using expensive equipment and expensive drugs - what do you know, you hit that limit in the first few weeks of your baby`s 6 month hospital stay. The rest is cycled around to collection agencies, and you`re chased for the rest of your life as the average family simply cannot ever afford millions in medical bills.

On the other hand, in Japan, it`s all covered. In my little town, medical care for children is 100% free up until 12. There is no "limit". You start to see the big differences when you REALLY need the care and really need the insurance. Otherwise, it`s whining about waiting a few hours for an appointment because someone who REALLY needed the care is given priority, not the guy whose insurance is known to pay well, or the guy who flashes the cash. (By the way, I`ve never waited at all for anything serious. Colds, fevers, etc - yes. My son`s hernia becoming inflamed - something that could be quite serious? We were ushered in to see a doctor within 5 minutes.)
My son has a huge array of medical issues, and I have seen pretty much the most extreme levels of medical care... And compared to all the stories I have heard (both negative and positive) about children in similar situations in the US...... I would choose Japanese hospital care over them without the slightest doubt.

Almost all of the necessary medical trips (in contrast to vacation/resort medical trips - which have little to do with the conditions and more with the flaunting cash aspect of it) to the US from Japan are made for one reason - to receive transplants from children. Japan bans organ donation from children under the age of consent. Parents can`t consent for the children, and the children can`t consent for themselves...
This has very little to do with waits for care - as long as it`s illegal, there is nothing that can be done. (A number of groups are working on this though.)

Would a healthcare system like in Japan work in the US - I VERY seriously doubt it. Things are too different, and there are too many people who would look for a way to abuse the system.

As for the quality of doctors in Japan - I talked about this in another thread, but I was *finally* diagnosed properly here. The US doctors couldn`t agree on anything, and tried to make money by pushing drug after drug after drug, and various treatments even when they didn`t have a clue what was wrong. I certainly would not put my son`s life in the hands of a US doctor - I`ve seen WAY too many screw ups over there.

Back to the real topic...

Why are you buying such expensive stuff?
For quantity and calorie value, everything but bread on there ends up being very costly. Cheese and tuna are NOT cheap foods in Japan. Neither is instant ramen. Cheapy bread (the 100 yen half loaf things) is alright, I suppose, but still. You`re making me doubt you`re really in Japan now, especially added to your online times.

If I tried to live on those foods, I would run out of money pretty quickly too. :rolleyes:

The reason the US doesn't have good insurance plans is because the US sucks. That's why I plan to get the hell out of here sooner than later. I'm on my dad's insurance still, but only till I'm 22. I'm 19 now. (And I NEED the insurance, since I have Graves Disease and need to take meds for the rest of my life because of that and I have anixtey disorder which I'm still on meds for (and I probaly will for a while.)) So I'm rushing around looking for a job and going to college so I can get insurance and don't have to pay 5grand for my meds.

Pushing the insurance issue aside, that really sucks. Like someone else I think your mom would (or at least should try) to make room for you, temporarly. And if that doesn't work, why not try other family members or close friends? I hope everything works out for you.

True... when I was trying to live cheaply for a bit, I was living on rice, soba, and the occasional after-5 deal from the supermarket.

well i met someone off japan forum today named pinky to practice my japanese? and instant ramens 20-100 yen a pack from the super market. and i get the cheap proccessed cheese from the convinience store and they call it Sea chicken (looks like tuna but i can't read japanese so i don't know if its tuna or not) but if you still don't belive me you can ring me on my japanese phone which is 090-8480-5467 and i will confirm those disbeleifs hell make it a video call and i can show you my living arrangements...

and even if i was in my home country theres only an hours differance so yeh lol, just because i can't get to sleep in the city doesn't mean i'm not in japan...also if anyone lives in the kansai area i can tell them whats on TV on what channel...

I`ll pass on calling you.

That is some seriously cheap ramen. Processed cheese though is STILL expensive, as is tuna. It`s not that it`s that expensive as an item - it`s that it`s a really bad value. There are lots of foods out there that you could eat a lot more of for the same amount - or the same amount of for considerably less.

Also - something I haven`t seen you mention - where are you living? How are you dealing with living arrangements? You may not like me, but if you`re really in a bad situation, I`ve been there so might be able to help you out.

Nishinakajima-Minamigata, is where i am living at the moment, and i have no money like at all literally like i can't afford to eat tonite. It doesn't matter im going to have to leave the country anyway, the hospital bill is $240 and theres no way i can get that in 2 days with anything i'm doing at the moment
the only way i can think of is to find 10 students for private lessons within the next 2 days which seems pretty hard considering i would have no idea where to look.

Yup, sorry about that.

My bad.

But I think if billysweird is screwed because of $240 medical bill, that's just poor planning.

oh no thats how much i have owing...its a $1000 medical bill....but i have paid most of it...

Did you get sick after eating cheap food? If so you now owe $240 for the price of some cheap tuna, sorry sea chicken.

I was given all sorts of free stuff in Japan and by stuff I mean food and drink. And also many people would buy me things when I joined them at the bar. The Japanese are nice like that and if you are friendly with them they will fill your belly for a good story.
I never needed the stuff as I had enough money but was always surprised at how generous the people were. One night I had about 8 beers and a great deal of yakatori and big bowl of ramen and had a great laugh with the guy next to me. I asked for the bill at the end of the night only to be told that Taka san had shouted it for me. I bowed so low and so many times to Taka san as I left that it took me a good five minutes to say goodbye.

I dont know what you are doing to get so much bad luck but i think you should stop it right away.

odonata, its obviously my choice that i want all of this i mean who wouldn't want all this bad luck............=_=........no but seriously wtf dude are you high...or on crack...or wat...... no seriously i thought to myself hey i know what ill do i'll save up some money then i'll go have a heap of bad luck in japan and waste all my hardwork for the pure reason of me having a bad time...i really want to shoot you dear god if you wern't dropped on your head as a child you have sniffed paint/drank turpentine for the past 6 years...


No they usually don't fill your belly for a good story they normally do it for a free english lesson i have done that aswell and they give me presents but presents don't pay the bills they might give me cavities or a good meal or sometimes a good read but yeh, i get shouted beer all the time at pubs and clubs(discos as they call them) I also get free entry to some clubs because they like foreigners there because all the jappy girls want to go there to meet foriegners which attracts the guys aswell but the fact is to find english speakers you usually have look very hard or get them drunk...or post an ad to teach them...

Ugh! my head is sore from trying to comprehend what posessed you to write that...do you think im some sort of cosmic being which can control the turnout of luck? WHAT THE HELL...im just going to stop thinking about it because its just making me angry...

Also odonata were you travelling or were you living... or travelling...