Doctor's visit

No, this post is not to give you any gory details about my health. I just have to post about this becuase visiting the doctor here was an entirely strange experience. It was not like visiting the doctor in the US - at all. A friend got me to the clinic and the forms were in Japanese. He filled out my name and address then left. In the very busy waiting room, the nurse came out and asked me my symptoms - in front of everyone! I have to hope this was because I couldn't fill it out on the paper. She then took my temperature in the waiting room -with everyone! After about 40 minutes, I heard a man's voice on a PA asking me to come to room 3. I found room 3 and in it was a doctor. Thankfully he spoke english (we determined this ahead of time, that's why I went to this particular clinic). He asked me what my symptoms were. There were no questions about family history. I wasn't weighed, I didn't have my blood pressure taken, I wasn't asked what medications I was on or if I was allergic to anything. He didn't really know what to say about my symptoms but he didn't check into them in any physical way. He just took my description and kind of stared at me blankly. I had some ideas about the problem so I made some suggestions. He seemed to like my ideas and decided a blood test was in order. And that was it! I got the blood test, paid my money, was told to come back in a week and I left. He was nice but it was a pretty useless visit (unless of course the blood test is enlightening). It just felt really unthorough. If I hadn't had any thoughts of my own who knows where I'd be. So that's that.