My first time donating blood in Japan.
In fact, it’s my first SUCCESSFUL blood donation…
Saw the blood donation poster featuring AKB48 a while ago at the workplace. Red Cross finally came today, so after lunch (gotta eat something since I never eat breakfast) I went straight for it!
There were many people… since I was a first time blood donor, I was asked many questions and had to fill out some paperworks. I was really nervous, like I always do when people speak Japanese to me 😀  Phew, finally, all the questioning was done… thankfully I could read Kanji, otherwise I wouldn’t be able to fill out those questionares (though the answers were always “NO” except for the first question). Finally it was my turn to register for a new donor card, and there were some system errors… =_= had to wait for 20 mins before I received my card and moved on to blood testing.
It was stationed by a nurse and an old doctor (I saw him falling asleep during the system down time lol)… he measured my blood pressure and the nurse took a tube of blood sample. I was then given a pack of biscuits and a bottle of Pocari beverage, and told to drink half of it. Soon I was brought into the donation area by a nurse… she was very gentle and diligent. I lied down on a bed, with blanket too.
During the donation, she found my hand was cold and gave me a can of warm tea to hold on to 😛 It was over before I realized it… like under 10 mins. Too bad it was a short afternoon nap….
Before I headed back to office, I was given some donation gifts too! and of course the can of tea as well =)
I love freebies. We got to choose too: between handsoap, toothpaste, bowl noodles etc.
I received... green tea, handcream, hand soap, some bandaids/cotton sticks, crackers and of course my donor card!
No bruise, so happy!
Rolled up the bloody bandaid inside the bandage... Im gonna keep it... Haha JK.
I will donate again before I leave Japan, probably around June. This felt great, completely different from my last horrible experience in Vancouver…. which the nurse couldn’t find my vessel, so she kept poking the needle around (several times!)… and the blood flow stopped after she messed with it.. So at the end, there was only less than half a bag (if under 200cc, the blood couldn’t be used 😥 ) I bruised up so much too, it hurt for a week! This time however, was quick and painless! Plus, Canadian Blood Services doesn’t give out free hand creams!
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Japanese sweet a colleague brought from Kanazawa. It's iced sugar covering a lot of red beans! Yum!!
290 yen crepes day! Got it before Japanese class... Mine was Strawberry Tiramisu flavor. I eat crepes at least once a week... I think I've given up on my weight.
Gonna do some Japanese Review now, have a nice day! =)
Blah. 