I was at a local clinic today for some elbow rehab. It’s a fascinating place, mostly frequented by elderly who pop in for treatment for the aches and pains of aging, in a communal treatment room full of benches and machines that are showing their own signs of age.
Other than a few kids with limps and bruises, many patients seem to be regulars, which gives the place the feel of a community centre. Little chats unfold all over the place. “How’s the knee?” “They still haven’t fixed the clock.” “I used to love her songs.” So many snippets to eavesdrop on.
The exceptions are the new patients, like me, who sit there quietly, as has been the norm for everyone in the other waiting rooms I’ve experienced in Japan.
On this visit (my third), however, I think I might have moved beyond outsider status.
It started with one of the regulars commenting on how much I was sweating. The high is 37 today. I’m from Dartmoor. It was like a torrent.
That was the springboard for a chat with a couple of older ladies. We started with the weather, pivoted to where I was from and what’s wrong with my arm, and by way of stiff knees, aching wrists, and my height, ended with an unexpected twist: one of them suddenly switched into English to tell me about a song she’s been learning called Have You Ever Seen the Rain. Her online tutor suggested it, she said. Though it’s a shame it has to be online, she adds, but he recently moved.
Then I was off to have my elbow prodded and mildly electrocuted. And that’s the post. No takeaway or insight. Other than that I actually enjoyed a doctor’s visit.