What do Japanese really eat for breakfast?

The Tokyo Forum, where the ACP meeting was held. If you can believe it, this is their convention center.

The Japan chapter of the American College of Physicians is the only chapter of the ACP outside of the Americas, but it is apparently more active and filled with enthusiasm that many of its counterparts in our own country. The medical students who attended the conference in Tokyo on Saturday were eager to practice their English and learn about Western style case discussions - your basic presentation of a patient followed by a group effort to create a differential diagnosis and diagnostic plan.

This format is somewhat foreign to Japanese students and residents because students are taught that there is only one correct answer rather than many valid possibilities. Students here prefer to be quiet rather than speak up, and it takes much encouragement to overcome this tendency.

For my part, I played the patient - a 50-year-old woman with fever and a headache. I dutifully sat on a table and allowed about 30 students to crowd around me, ask questions, and examine my old, aching joints. When one student asked me what I ate for breakfast before I got sick, I panicked and answered "Pizza." Dr. G pointed out that I was in Japan, so I changed my answer to "Rice" and got a good laugh. It was surprisingly fun :)

But the best part of the day was meeting all of the medical students.

The student leaders of the conference who also planned the after-party.

Saki, one of my new Japanese friends. She speaks English with a British accent and wants to be a pediatrician!

Medical training is a little different here. Students enter medical school straight out of high school and it lasts 6 years. The first two years are sort of undergrad-like and the last four are much like here. Except they get a lot less patient contact on the wards, their role being mainly to shadow. Hitomi said in her whole 15 months on the wards, she only saw about 15 patients.

At the end of the conference, I was invited to an after-party with the students. We ate communally at a Chinese restaurant and played get-to-know-you games such as Bingo with your first and last name. Despite having more letters than anyone else, I actually won a prize at that one. Some yummy sweet rice crackers.

The next morning, Dr. G and I ate an Easter brunch buffet at the ritzy Imperial hotel, and I had my first traditional Japanese breakfast.


Miso soup, rice gruel, a light broth with fish and various veggies, and in the far right corner, a poached egg in broth, which was delicious! The gray thing that looks like a stone in the main dish was my first mochi ball, a very, very condensed ball of congealed rice. I learned about them in the conference because apparently, they are a real hazard to the elderly here who don't chew them very well and end up getting them caught in their intestine or aspirating them into their lungs. Hmmm... I had to try one anyway, but I think I'll pass in the future.