Grade A (in every way)

It seems like I just had my mandatory entrance medical examination for Mitsui.  Okay, so maybe it was back in November... but June was the month for medical check ups in the Nagoya office. 

Last time since I was a new employee, my medical check up was a lone affair.  This time, I had the pleasure of being herded around with many other women of the office.  We all had to:

• submit urine (yup, walking down the hallways of work with a cup full o' pee)
• have blood taken
• remove our tops for a chest X-rays (exactly what are they looking for with this one?!)
• complete a vision and hearing exam (you try telling the eye doctor which direction the "E" is facing when you don't know the Japanese words for "up" or "down"... I had to resort to pointing!)

In addition, they recorded our height, weight, and blood pressure.  I was all proud of myself for losing 5 kilos since my last weigh-in!!  But then I peeked at a my neighbor's sheet and was appalled by the discovery that her total weight was under 50 kgs!  I started checking out others kgs and realized that everyone else was like that, too.  Sure, I might have a good 15 cms of height on these lovely ladies, but I was back to feeling like the Jolly Green Giant.  Thank goodness I don't have body image issues (outside of this small panic attack) because Japan people are just too small to compete with!

I finally got all of my medical results back, and I am a grade "A" so they will let me finish out the rest of my work assignment rather than being deported.  Of course, my BMI is lower than November, but still not to Mitsui's satisfaction.  (I know my Wii Fit will be happy when I get back home!)  And I do have a slightly low MCHC level.  After some research I realized that MCHC is related to iron levels, so now I have a good excuse to visit Hard Rock Cafe more often and have a rich-in-iron hamburger!  Yummy!!  Maybe I should invite my less-than-50-kilo friends to join me again, too :)