Things that are easier in Japan: glasses

Even before I came to Japan, I was looking into getting a slightly stronger pair of glasses. My old glasses weren’t really a problem, but they seemed to fall short in dimly-lit far-seeing situations like theatres. I also wanted new glasses for scenery gazing.

But I don’t understand insurance and eye doctor visits and deductibles and charges in my own country. It is natural to assume that in a foreign country, navigating that mess is difficult tantamount to not-worth-dealing-with. But I tentatively asked people like my JTE and keeper Mikan-sensei, and our Japanese teacher what the procedure might be, and where to go to get an eye exam.

They were all a little vaguely confused and suggested I just go to the glasses store.

So the day Jermaine was born, I did just that. Heke accompanied me first, and we were later joined by The Cat. We ended up in Himeji by the end of it, browsing frames and exclaiming over how easy this whole process actually was.

Once I picked out my frames, I looked into a little machine, requested higher power, tried on some trial glasses that made me look like a classic nerd in eighties depiction, and then my glasses were produced in about twenty minutes for under fifty dollars (well maybe not with the conversion rate, but still).

I don’t wear them all the time, because they are heavy, and my old ones are still sufficient. But when I want to see far, they are there to provide me with super vision.

So, thanks Japan for making that at least a bit easier.