Pee Collectors

Sorry if this image scares you. This is the teacher that sits next to me at one of my schools. She was intentionally trying to be odd and funny. I think she looks like Pebbles from the Flinstones in this photo. When I first met her she wanted to know if I thought she was a "he" or a "she". She likes to wear mens clothes and I think she would prefer to be a man in all other ways (wink wink). However to my pleasure she's pretty funny and very kind in trying to communicate with me in both Japanese and English.

Anyway the past couple of days the teachers at my school became "pee collectors". They had to collect urine samples from every student in the entire building. They also had to give urine samples. I asked one of my JTEs and friend, Emiko, why they were collecting pee. She said that they do it every year in all schools. It's part of the yearly physical. I asked what they were checking for and she responded diabetes and other kidney/stomach problems. It was interesting b/c every pee bottle had their name on it and there wasn't any sense of privacy. So if your pee showed some health problem, everyone (including the private lab) would know about it. She also said that there have been instances when the results were bad for a student and they had to inform them and the parent that they needed to seek medical help. I was surprised by the extreme involvement that the school plays in the students health care, however also in awe and impressed. Many kids throughout the world go without checkups and unfortunately medical problems go undetected. I guess the Japanese have decided to take responsibility for every child's health by running these mandatory tests. Emiko also enlightened me by saying that as a teacher she was lucky b/c she didn't have to collect "pooh pooh" samples. I giggled. I guess some schools are very thourough and also collect a stool samples. Yuck!