Lets back up to the beginning of the story. The heat of the moment, you, your partner under the full moon the moment is perfect and the decision is made to not pull out. You realize that you are ovulating and might get pregnant. Your plane tickets are booked to fly out of the country. Let’s rephrase that…MOVE out of the country. You’re supposed to start your period the day you leave so you take a test that morning, negative. You board the plane and land, still no period. No worries maybe its the stress of traveling or the lack of sleep mixed with the beers you had on the plane.

Another day passes, no period. You start to wonder, but then there’s some spotting. You think, “could it be?” But it’s not normal spotting, it’s that wierd brown color spotting that really makes you question the reality. So you go down to the local drug store and try to decipher what the heck a pregnancy test is in Japanese. You get your phone out and use a translation app to ask the clerk to please help you. Now we wait until morning because we all know that the hormone levels are highest in the morning. You wake up early because of the jetlag and you take the stick to the bathroom and pee on it. 2 minutes later 2 pink lines appear (thank God they have English translation) and your pregnant. You wake your partner unsure if you’re extremely excited or nervous and freaking out. Once you celebrate and get excited for this new chapter the next thing to tackle is healthcare.

International insurance doesn’t cover maternity visits unless you’ve been on their plan for 10-12 months depending on the provider and you research that Japanese insurance also doesn’t cover maternity visits. Panic sets in, “how am I supposed to live here and afford the care that’s necessary for being pregnant?” We got some discount coupons for the prenatal visits from the government and had to pay out of pocket.

Here’s what I learned about being pregnant in Japan this far;

• Dont go to the doctor until you matter of factly can hear a heartbeat. You’ll be paying full price for these visits. 
• Once the Doctor can detect a heartbeat the pregnancy is confirmed…yay!
• Now you have to take that paper and go register your pregnancy in your local office.
• You receive a book and a tag for your purse that says there’s a baby inside me (people are supposed to give you their seat on transportation) and coupons to help pay for maternity visits. Plus heaps of other papers/samples of baby care products all in Japanese that I have no idea about. 
• There’s no English speaking obgyns at least in Kutchan where we were living.
• You can eat raw sushi in moderation. Avoid high mercury fish and high contaminate fish. 
• The Japanese are crazy about what pregnant women can or can’t do so if you plan to keep skiing/snowboarding or climbing I highly suggest not telling them that’s what you are doing. 
• Don’t plan on being a ski instructor or working outside. The government actually says its illegal to keep working as an instructor and if it’s -10c or colder you can’t go outside. This ones not super unreasonable but you can’t lift more than 35 kilograms. 
• If heaven forbid you wind up with a yeast infection or something like that and they find out at a routine visit, they wont call you, they make you wait until your next appointment which could be 4 weeks. 
• Lastly, the Japanese do not like Americans and the doctors treat you differently. Don’t plan anything on your appointment day because you’ll be the last one to be seen regardless of appointment time.