Getting sick in Japan definitely wasn’t on my travel bucket list, but it ended up being one of the most memorable parts of my study abroad experience. I’m here to share what happened, how I got through it, and what you might expect if you get sick while studying abroad.
A couple of weeks ago, I was on a class trip to Tokyo. The trip was amazing. I saw some of the best architecture of my life, experienced the chaos of Shibuya Crossing, ate incredible food, and of course walked about 40,000 steps every day of the trip. The trip ran from Friday the 27th to Wednesday the 4th. By the time Sunday rolled around, I was feeling completely exhausted. With more tours scheduled for Monday and still two more days in Tokyo, I felt like I was fighting for my life. I stayed optimistic and continued with the tours and exploring, but by Tuesday night, I was almost out of gas.
Some of the highlights of the trip included the Sumida Aquarium, Shibuya Crossing, Ginza’s beautiful architecture, the train systems, and of course the charming residential areas I stayed in. The well designed museums and parks were also very memorable. As an architecture student, it was interesting to experience Tokyo and Kyoto back to back. Tokyo feels incredibly tall, dense, and constantly moving, while Kyoto feels much smaller, quieter, and more human in scale, with shorter buildings and calmer streets.
I grew up in a coastal town in a very rural part of Virginia. Because of this, big cities can sometimes feel a bit much for me. Visiting New York City for the first time sent me pretty far into fight or flight mode. As soon as I made it back to Philadelphia from NYC, I immediately got in my car and drove 4 hours home just to breathe some fresh air. Large cities like NYC and Tokyo definitely feel exhilarating, but they can also feel suffocating. When you are not used to that environment, it can throw your body and your immune system out of balance, which is exactly what happened to me.
While in Tokyo, I probably passed by thousands of people, and the trains are so crowded that I could have caught a bug anywhere. By Tuesday night of the trip, I could feel my body trying to tell me that I had caught something and needed a breath of fresh air outside the city as soon as possible. The next morning, I got on the earliest Shinkansen back to Kyoto that I could.
I then spent the next week battling a pretty intense flu and quarantined myself in my apartment. Needless to say, getting sick away from home is difficult. Catching one of the worst bugs of your life on the opposite side of the planet from home was one of the most difficult things I have ever experienced.
Navigating a Japanese drugstore was also a challenge. I stood in the medicine aisle staring at rows of boxes covered in kanji, trying to guess what might help with a fever or cough. Many of the packages had small illustrations showing symptoms like headaches or sore throats, which became my best clues. It made me realize how much we rely on language when taking care of ourselves. Even something simple like buying cold medicine suddenly felt like solving a puzzle.
Luckily, Temple University Japan’s student help services were able to send me recommendations for nearby doctors. The doctor I visited was amazing. He spoke very good English, gave me the medicine I needed, and sent me on my way. Thankfully, with my Japanese healthcare coverage, the doctor visit and medication were very affordable.
After a week of living off instant miso soup, ramen noodles, a new season of Bridgerton and the prescribed medicine, I finally started feeling better and was able to return to class. From the experience, I learned that I can handle being sick in another country pretty well, but that does not make it easy. Getting sick in Japan made me feel extremely homesick and miss my family more than I ever expected. With TUJ’s help and their great recommendations, I was able to recover.
If I had to get sick abroad, I am glad it happened while studying in Japan with Temple University. Having support nearby made a difficult situation much easier to handle.
