I would say that one of the most difficult parts of living in a foreign country is getting sick. Japan's attitude towards things like colds and the flu is fairly different from the attitude most of us foreigners grow up with. I want to be clear; this isn't a bad thing. I'm not saying that Japanese healthcare attitudes are inferior or superior to other systems. I'm just saying that they're different.
If you get sick in Japan, you are expected to wear a mask. This is something that most foreigners, myself included, have trouble with. Masks are uncomfortable! Even the best-fitting mask is restrictive, and if you wear glasses get used to them fogging up every fifteen seconds. Also, the benefit of wearing a mask once the wearer is showing symptoms is pretty much nil. The contagious period of illness is before and after the person is visibly sick, right? So wearing a mask during periods of obvious sickness only serves as a placebo in terms of reducing illness. The only benefit that I can see is that if you see a person wearing a mask you're more aware of them and therefore more likely to wash your hands, drink vitamin C, and eat lots of vegetables. Otherwise, it seems like a lot of hassle for very little return. Some foreigners refuse to wear masks unless they're forced. Some only wear them when they're coughing up a lung. I personally refuse to wear them when I have allergies, because no one can catch my allergies and I'm not wearing masks for two weeks straight every few months. Everyone has to find their own personal mask method.
One of the things I hate most about wearing a mask is being unable to blow my nose. Actually, that shouldn't be a problem in Japan. Unlike the US, where we are encouraged to blow our noses and get it out of our systems instead of sniffing for three hours straight Japan is the polar opposite. Blowing one's nose is considered very, very rude. During cold and flu season every office is a symphony of sniffing, horking, and other noises. This makes my teeth itch, because it sounds so gross! I have to go to the bathroom to blow my nose when I'm at the BOE, and if I'm at a school I don't blow my nose at all because even the bathrooms aren't private enough for my shameful habit. I also end up feeling nauseous due to snorting all the gook back into my body. I've considered taking sick days just so that I can blow my nose to my heart's content in the privacy of my own home. I don't, because I would feel like a lazy bum. It's tempting, though!
Finally, there's one thing that tends to cause cognitive dissonance in almost every foreigner I've met: Japanese people go to the doctor and get specially prescribed medicine for colds and mild cases of the flu. Having grown up in an environment where you are taught at a young age that there are no medicines that can help a cold it's horribly frustrating to be told by your boss to walk down to the doctor and pay 20 bucks for some pills you know won't do anything. It hits buttons in the independent sector of my brain. I am an adult who knows how to care for my own body. If I catch a cold I drink orange juice and rest. I can decide for myself if I need to go to the doctor. Except in Japan, apparently I can't. For the record, this might be ALT specific as opposed to a practice throughout Japanese culture because ALTs are often viewed as commodities. For example, an ALT has come forward on the forums saying that their BOE has forbidden them from buying a car or driving in their free time on the threat of terminating their contract. It appalls me that this isn't being viewed as a violation of human rights. We are adults! Even if there were statistics of how much more often ALTs get into traffic accidents compared to their Japanese counterparts (there aren't) the answer isn't to restrict our non-working lives. Make us pay higher insurance premiums, but don't ever tell us we aren't allowed to do something because we are difficult or expensive to replace, and I'm saying this as an ALT who doesn't even drive.
It makes me nervous that we aren't allowed to have agency in our own lives here in Japan. There is a huge difference between saying "you must go to a doctor because I know better than you simply because I am Japanese and you are foreign" and "I would suggest you go to a doctor, but you're a grown person so if you choose not to that's your choice." It may be a stupid choice, or it may be a smart choice. In any case, it should be our choice as autonomous adults. I don't see it being a valid argument to say "oh, but they just want you to get better faster so that you can go back to class sooner since you're such a valuable commodity." If I have to take sick leave it comes out of my number of sick leave days, thus motivating me to take good care of myself and get better sooner rather than later. I am not a thing that needs to be prepped for optimum performance at the expense of my free will.
I'll expand on this more in later entries, but suffice it to say that choice is a huge part of being human. When higher-ups take that away and treat us like robots or children we start to seriously question the wisdom of what we are being ordered to do. A dubious management move to say the least.
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