Kyoto trip with Lin

Lin and I went to Kyoto on my second weekend here in Japan. I’ve been to Kyoto 2 years ago, but I pretty much know all the good spots. It was just for a day but the trip was lots of fun. Here are some pictures:

Lin and I in front of Kinkakuji (Golden Temple)

Geisha!

Kiyomizu Temple (Clear Water Temple)

Outside of Kiyomizu Temple

Nagoya touristy spots

In my first free weekend in Nagoya, I went to check out some of the tourist spots in the city. Nagoya is not a big tourist destination, so a few days of traveling should suffice.

During the second weekend, when Lin (my friend and classmate) came, we checked out Nagoya castle. Here are some pictures:

Some very interesting graffiti on the outside wall of a building in Osu

Osu Kannon - it's basically a temple

The first weekend was right before the Chinese New Year, and I caught this Chinese New Year celebration in downtown Nagoya. Lots of great food (and authentic Mainland Chinese food!)

Oasis 21 - some UFO-like structure in downtown Nagoya/Sakae

TV Tower - it seems like every big Japanese city has one of these

Difference between the US and Japan – Lifestye

It is fair to say that it is not easy to be a doctor wherever you are in the world. We often work long hours, have great responsibility in improving patient’s health, and struggle to balance life in and out of the hospital. Japan and the US have the above similarities, but it is undoubtedly harder to be a doctor in Japan because of its lifestyle.

First of all, let’s talk about compensation, since that’s the most objective parameter. Pretty much everyone that I talk to give me the same figure. Japanese doctors, regardless of disciplines, make anywhere from $100,000 - $150,000 USD a year. Unlike the US where some procedures are not covered by insurance, in Japan everything goes through insurance and thus there cannot be too big of discrepancy in salary amongst doctors. It seems the slightly variable salary described above does not stem from disciplines, unlike the way it is in the US where orthopedic and plastic surgeons make much more so that it is very competitive to get in. In Japan, doctors with lighter schedule (i.e. dermatologists) often run a clinic on their own outside of hospital practice in order to make more money to reach that $150,000 figure above.

But do they work less because they make less money compared to the States? NO! During my month here, I saw how hard the doctors work here. A regular schedule for a surgeon is from 7:30am to 10-11pm, and this is the schedule for attendings! One of my surg onc friends, Kazu, told me that he’s coming to work EVERY DAY. It’s just that on the weekends he can work half-days. I asked why he can’t just let other surgeons take care of his patients on weekend, and he told me that there is no such “team” system in Japan. Each attending cares for his/her own patient. I think this phenomenon echoes my prior entry on how the system here can be very inefficient and “hopeless”.

It is very interesting to compare and contrast the two different systems in Japan and US. In US, we b@#%h all the time on doing scutwork and working long hours “as a resident”, but we don’t realize in other parts of the world, even the attendings are treated more poorly than the residents in the States. All in all, it makes me realize how fortunate I am to be a medical student and soon-to-be doctor in the US.