What do Japanese do when they’re sick?

I know this sounds stupid but I was wondering if the Japanese have any ''cultural myths'' about when they or their kids are sick.

A good example is like ''A spoon full of sugar helps the medicine go down'' or things like that. Not that nowaydays we're more pratical than that, but I was wondering if the Japanese have anything like it.

I don't get it. That's not a myth. A spoon full of sugar DOES help the medicine go down in the most delightful way. Pediatricians in Japan often tells us to give the medician with icecream and such.

My grandmother once told me that Japanese people used to believe that putting soy sauce on any burns would make it better...which we now know to be complete rubbish, as soy sauce does nothing to heal a burn!

Vinagar helps with burns or use pickle juice if thats on hand. I could have gotten badly scarred if I did not use it.

Seriously

As vinegar is an acid I wouldn't recommend putting it on any burn with blisters or broken skin- sounds excruciating.

Western tradition recommends butter for burns, but people with medical training say that is a bad idea- just cold water, then let your doctor treat the burn if it is serious enough.

It was actually cold and mild and it is a proven fact. Even in the movie Fight Club Tyler Durden said that it helps neutralize burns.

I know a girl who had a bad sunburn and she poured vinager on it and her brother said ''Get away you smell like a salad!'' And she said ''Hush you, I hurt''. :0)

sunburn, ok. anything where the skin is more damaged than that and it might do more harm than good. The first step though is lots of cold water- the most important thing is to get the temperature of the skin down so that cell damage is minimised.

Not when you've gotten sick, but about staying healthy in general... just like you say in English "an apple a day keeps the doctor away," in Japan we say "When people's faces turn yellow (from eating a lot of oranges/tangerines), doctors' faces turn green/pale (because they don't get any patients)."

I'm not Japanese but i must say that Horse Oil from Hokkaido is really good for burnt! Very good. I have blisters after 'cooking' my fingers with hot boiling water. both hands, abt 8 fingers.... so i apply the horse oil continously for days and the blisters that appeared after 1/2 day later on that dreadful day starts to disappear. i also have peeling but they are not painful and phew, they stop where they are supposed to and not peel all the way up to palm etc.

Horse oil is really wonderful! Never regret buying it when I'm in Hokkaido for a visit. To think that I'm skeptical initally.

Putting any kind of oil on a burn is an absolute NO NO
Perpetuating the myth that it does some good is only going to result in problems for those silly enough to believe it.
This thread started with " what do Japanese people do when they are sick" The correct answer is like the rest of the world they get better or they die.