Rizu

None of that is great. Everyone deserves better.

I hate seeing my family and friends nickel and dime their own health care. They pass on annual health checks-ups, they put off going to hospital or Urgent Care unless they're dying, they hesitate to call ambulances and then claim that America is great (or will soon be Great Again).

I've had literally family members say this shit and somehow pointing out to them that I, their daughter/niece/cousin, live in a country with UHC and things are great, does literally nothing to change their mind a single fraction. I don't know what to do.

Every time I look at the news or check Twitter or read Facebook comments I feel like I'm just slapped in the face with the stupidest, most uneducated slop, and there's just... no way to convince these people that they are misinformed or biased? They just don't fucking engage, they don't care.

"But my taxes wah wah wah"-- I'm sorry, you DON'T want your taxes going to the health care system that benefits you and your loved ones? You're fine with your tax dollars covering bombs dropped in foreign countries, but health care, wow, that's fucking socialist???

I just feel so insane. Many countries around the world have UHC systems, and yes, not all of them are the same, but for so many people to so confidently just swear up and down that the system doesn't work or could never work is so incredibly narrow-minded and ignorant.

Turns out, I did have the condition they were testing for. Now, I take two daily heart meds and carry nitroglycerin spray on me. If I lived in America, this would be a financial burden on me for the rest of my life. But last time I picked up my monthly supply at the pharmacy I paid ¥1650 ($10.50).

The procedure and hospital stay cost me, all-in-all, about ¥65,000 ($420). The average price for a heart catheterization in my home state of NC is ~$117,018, and that "doesn't include anesthesia, imaging, and other fees". I can't imagine paying that just to find out if you MIGHT have a condition.

I filed a form through my employment for a special cap on my medical charges where you tell the health insurance system that you are having a specific medical problem (heart, cancer, whatever) that will necessitate you going to doctors a lot for the next year. It was granted no problem.

I always hear the anti-UHC people saying that you definitely have to wait FOREVER for your procedures and surgeries and tests as a consequence of the system. I was told I needed a catheterization in mid-November and quickly had an appt. on the books for early December.

Most clinic appointments cost me between ¥1000-¥1600. So I was able to shop around for a good doctor and find someone to start testing me all for less than ¥6000. Bloodwork, EKGs, and monitors were usually <¥5000. Eventually I was told I would need a heart catheterization and short hospitalization.

Seeing a specialist "requires" a referral from a GP... but not really. They just charge you more if you make an appt. w/o one. But when I say "more"... I once went w/o for an urgent issue and the appt., x-ray, and meds was like ¥7500 ($48). This felt so expensive to me after 13+ years here, but lol.

I had to see several doctors at different clinics/hospitals until I found one willing to think beyond "lose weight?". At no point did I have to check or worry if those doctors were "in network" or not, and the cost never prohibited me from going to a specialist.

After I got sick in the first month of the pandemic, before we knew how bad things really were, I developed a heart condition. I knew something was wrong with me, but I had trouble finding a doctor who would take my concerns seriously bc woman + not skinny. (A universal issue in healthcare.)

Living fine on a single salary in a first world country with a universal health care system and gun bans watching Americans scream how those DON'T WORK and MY RIGHTS and SOCIALISM while they actively keep so many around the world safe and healthy like ??? y'all are so dumb I can't fucking stand it

"I asked chatGPT to do this-" "chatGPT wrote me this-" "if you ask chatGPT like this-"
EXPLODES YOU WITH MY MIND EXPLODES YOU WITH MY MIND EXPLODES YOU WITH MY MIND EXPLODES-

【NAKASENDO】Shout out to the #cats of the Nakasendo, between Magome-juku and Tsumago-juku. They were all beautiful and practically perfect, 9.5/10, my visit was greatly improved by their presence. -.5 for always refusing to pose in front of the lovely townscape, though... 📷 11.18.24 #japan

【KYOTO・SONYO-IN TEMPLE】I had heard about the unique ceiling at this #temple for a while, so I finally went… the contrast between the colorful chestnut tiger butterfly motifs and classic ink dragon, the stained glass panel behind the Jizo… a lot of neat contrasts here 📷 11.23.24 #japan #photography

Also, like, some of the rest of the shrine…

Some more playful placements by an anonymous stranger who came before me… and my fruity artist’s tool

【KURASHIKI・ACHI SHRINE】I suppose it was a very silly thing to do, but I saw someone else had picked up the quince fruit from the ground and placed them in lanterns and on torii gates… so I picked one up and put it on the left guardian lion-dog. Now they match. 📷 11.27.24 #japan #shrine #photography

After 6 months of work, 4 VCRs, and an official translation, I am pleased to share my RF rip of Yukio Ninagawa's staging of Euripides's Medea, a tape which has never been transferred. archive.org/details/ojo....

Very much looking forward to potentially seeing that!

Okay that had to be a bit, right… Next intermission she whipped out a messy oozy ankake bento… then all through the next play kept opening a pungent coffee thermos and just leaving the lid open as she considered drinking it… ma’am… mA’AM… 😰

Incredulously watching a woman in front of me at Minamiza theater whip out giant Horai 551 pork buns during the Kaomise kabuki performance intermission… #豚まんテロ was a viral hashtag for a reason… 🤨 Is this when I fully turn on the tourists and become a conservative Japanese troll.. #rizurants

Had very good manners, did not want to leave and go back outside

He’s a shrimp cutie!!!!

NANANANANANANANA HAWK MOTHHHHH

This big hawk moth accidentally flew in my house, but it let me hold it while I googled it… and also let me laugh at the fact that it’s Japanese name is literally “shrimp pattern hawk moth”… cutie… #japan #insects #bug #moth

I have never been this stressed planning 紅葉狩り in my liiiiife… between global warming turning fall foliage into free fall and my work being a butt about letting me take days off, everything I’m doing is so gd last minute… scrambling to find a rental car just so I can go to Hofu… lemme go… #rizurants