English
Online Reservation

Ear & Eye Pain in Tokyo – English-Speaking Clinic

Is This You?

The plane descended into Haneda, everyone else yawned and swallowed, and your right ear never popped. Two days later it still feels blocked, with a dull ache that worsens lying down. Or you woke up in your Asakusa hotel with one eyelid crusted shut, or left your contact lenses in through a long night out and now that eye hurts to blink.

Whatever brought you here, the question is the same: can this wait until I get home, or does someone need to look at it today? This page helps you answer that. Japan International Clinic ASAKUSA is open 9:00–19:00 every day of the year, one minute from the station, and the doctor talks with you directly in English.

Ear Pain: What Usually Causes It on a Trip to Japan

Ears are unusually sensitive to what travel does to a body: pressure changes, water, unfamiliar bugs and too little sleep.

Airplane Ear (Barotrauma)

The eustachian tube equalises pressure between the middle ear and the back of the nose. If it is swollen — from a cold, from allergies, or from dry cabin air — it cannot keep up during descent, and the eardrum is pulled inward. That means pain, muffled hearing, and a fullness that can outlast the flight by days. An ear still blocked well into your trip is worth checking, especially with another flight coming.

Swimmer’s Ear After Pools, Onsen and the Sea

Otitis externa is infection of the ear canal itself, and it happens when water sits in the canal until the skin lining it breaks down. Japan offers plenty of opportunity: hotel pools, onsen (温泉) and sento (銭湯), and the humidity of a Tokyo August. The giveaway is that the pain is outside — tugging your earlobe hurts sharply — often with clear or yellowish discharge.

Middle Ear Infection After a Cold

This usually arrives a few days into a cold, when congestion blocks the eustachian tube and fluid behind the eardrum becomes infected. The pain is deep and inside, often throbbing and worse lying flat, and frequently comes with fever. It is far more common in children, which matters if you are travelling as a family. If fluid suddenly gushes out and the pain vanishes with it, the eardrum has probably perforated — that still needs assessing.

Earwax — and Why Cotton Swabs Make It Worse

The bamboo ear pick (耳かき / mimikaki) is sold in every drugstore here, but most ear canals clean themselves, and pushing a swab or pick inward compacts wax against the eardrum rather than removing it. A packed-down plug produces exactly what people fear: sudden muffled hearing, fullness, sometimes ringing. It often follows water getting in, because trapped wax swells. Scraping harder makes it worse.

Pain That Is Not Coming From the Ear

The ear shares nerve supply with the jaw, throat and teeth, so a strained jaw joint, a throat infection or a dental problem can feel convincingly like ear pain while the ear itself is normal — and the treatment differs completely.

Eye Trouble: The Version That Needs Seeing Today

For the wider picture — dry eye, the enormous range of Japanese eye drops, contact lens logistics and prevention — read Eye Problems in Japan: Dry Eyes, Infections, and Where to Get Help. This section is narrower: the eye bothering you right now, and whether it belongs in a drugstore aisle or in front of a doctor today.

A Red, Sticky Eye

Conjunctivitis covers several problems that look alike from outside. Watery discharge with itching leans allergic. Watery discharge alongside a cold leans viral — and that version is contagious, which matters when you are sharing a room. Thick yellow or green discharge that glues the lids shut overnight leans bacterial and generally needs prescription drops. You cannot reliably tell these apart yourself, and over-the-counter redness drops make all three look better without treating any of them.

Contact Lens Pain

Any lens wearer with a painful red eye should treat it as urgent. Pain, light sensitivity and blurred vision in an eye that has been in a lens — particularly one slept in or worn on a long-haul flight — can mean a corneal abrasion or infection, and infections in lens wearers move quickly. Take the lens out, switch to glasses, and get the eye looked at.

Something in Your Eye

Platform dust, construction grit, a stray eyelash. Most of it flushes out. What is not routine: grit that has been there for hours, a foreign body on the coloured part of the eye, anything that arrived at speed, or any chemical splash — see the emergency section below.

Allergic Eyes in Pollen Season

Japan’s cedar and cypress pollen season, roughly late February through April, is intense enough to trigger symptoms in people who have never had hay fever anywhere else. Itching in both eyes, streaming tears and puffy lids are the classic picture, usually with sneezing and a blocked nose — which is also why ears block up in spring.

What to Do Before You Get to a Clinic

For Ear Pressure and Pain

  • Try gentle equalisation. Swallow, yawn widely, or chew gum. If the ear simply feels blocked after a flight, with no pain, discharge or fever, pinching your nose and blowing gently against it can help. Do not try it if there is pain or discharge.
  • Keep the canal dry. If the pain is on the outside, stay out of pools and onsen, and tilt your head to drain water after showering.
  • Put nothing in the ear. No swabs, ear picks, oils or candles. If there is discharge, or any chance the eardrum is perforated, anything you drip in can do harm.
  • Ordinary pain relief helps. Loxonin S (ロキソニンS) or EVE (イブ) from any pharmacy takes the edge off.
  • Stay upright. Middle ear pain usually worsens lying flat; extra pillows often make the night bearable.

For an Irritated or Injured Eye

  • Take contact lenses out — before anything else, for almost any painful red eye.
  • Do not rub. Rubbing turns a loose speck into a scratched cornea and pushes bacteria in from your hands.
  • Rinse rather than dig. Clean water or sterile saline, poured across the open eye from the inner corner outward, clears most loose debris.
  • For a chemical splash, flush first and flush long — 15 to 20 minutes of continuous running water — and get help immediately. Do not spend that time searching for a clinic.
  • Keep your towel to yourself. Infectious conjunctivitis spreads through shared towels and pillowcases.

Japanese drugstores (ドラッグストア) stock a wide range of eye drops, painkillers and antihistamines. What they cannot sell you is a prescription antibiotic, and nothing on the shelf treats a middle ear infection. Our Pharmacy Phrase Card gives you the Japanese to show the counter.

When Should You See a Doctor?

Mild — Reasonable to Manage Yourself

  • An ear that felt blocked on landing and is steadily clearing
  • Mild grittiness in both eyes that eases with rest and lubricating drops
  • A speck of dust that washed out and left no pain behind
  • Seasonal itchy eyes that pharmacy antihistamine drops are controlling

Watch which way it is heading: something easing is usually fine to leave alone, something holding steady or worsening is worth checking.

Moderate — Come and See Us

  • Ear pain disturbing your sleep, or ear pain with fever
  • Discharge of any kind coming from the ear
  • Hearing in one ear noticeably reduced and not recovering, or an ear still blocked since your flight
  • A red eye with thick yellow or green discharge, or lids stuck together in the morning
  • Any painful red eye in a contact lens wearer
  • Something in the eye that has not cleared after rinsing
  • Symptoms that are not improving, or getting worse rather than better

These are the situations a clinic visit is for. Walk in during opening hours — no appointment needed — or message us first so we know what to expect.

Severe — Emergency Care, Not a Clinic Appointment

  • A chemical splash in the eye — flush continuously and get help immediately
  • A penetrating eye injury, or an object that hit the eye at speed
  • Sudden loss of vision, or a curtain or shadow across part of your vision
  • Severe eye pain with coloured haloes around lights, vomiting, and a hard red eye
  • Sudden hearing loss in one ear with no obvious cause
  • Severe ear pain with redness, swelling or tenderness of the bone behind the ear
  • Weakness or drooping on one side of the face
  • Ear symptoms after a head injury, especially with clear fluid or blood from the ear
  • Confusion, a stiff neck, or a severe headache

In Japan the emergency number is 119, not 911. Operators can connect you to an English interpreter. Call 119 rather than travelling to a clinic yourself for anything sight-threatening or life-threatening on this list — acute angle-closure glaucoma is one of them. Sudden hearing loss is not an ambulance call, but it is time-critical: arrange to be seen the same day.

What to Expect at Japan International Clinic ASAKUSA

Step 1: Get in Touch, or Just Come In

Message us on WhatsApp, call +81-3-6824-4126, or walk in during opening hours — no appointment needed. Telling us in advance is still useful, because we know what to prepare before you arrive.

Step 2: Consultation and Examination

The doctor talks with you directly in English — no interpreter in the room, nothing lost in relay. Staff also handle Chinese, Korean and Japanese. Expect questions about when it started, what you were doing beforehand (flying, swimming, a recent cold, contact lenses), whether it is one side or both, and whether hearing or vision has changed. The doctor then examines the ear or eye and explains what is most likely going on.

Step 3: Treatment and Documents

Where prescription treatment is appropriate, medication is dispensed at the clinic, with written instructions in English — no separate pharmacy trip. You also leave with an English medical certificate and an itemised receipt if you need them. For the full walkthrough, see our First Visit Guide.

Referral to an ENT or Eye Specialist

We are a general practice — internal medicine, travel medicine and preventive medicine — not a specialist ENT or ophthalmology clinic. Many travellers’ ear and eye complaints are manageable at this level. Some are not, and the honest answer then is a specialist.

Ear, nose and throat clinics (耳鼻咽喉科 / jibi-inkōka) and eye clinics (眼科 / ganka) exist in every Japanese neighbourhood and standards are high. The obstacle is rarely the medicine — it is that consultations are usually in Japanese. When a referral is the right call, we write a referral letter (紹介状 / shōkaijō) setting out the history, the findings and what we are asking the specialist to assess, and we contact the receiving clinic ahead of you. The letter costs ¥11,000. See our Referral Network page for more.

Flying With an Ear Problem

Ears and flights are a two-way street: the flight causes the problem, and the problem makes the next flight worse. An onward domestic leg or a long-haul home coming up is a reason to be seen sooner, because a congested ear has less room to equalise on descent. On the day, stay hydrated and avoid sleeping through the descent — you swallow far less asleep. If you need written confirmation of your condition, we can issue an English medical certificate.

Cost, Payment and Insurance

The fee is ¥33,000 — consultation, examination and an English medical certificate where needed. A prescription is an additional ¥11,000. A specialist referral letter is an additional ¥11,000. Nothing else is added afterwards.

You do not need Japanese national health insurance; visits are self-pay, and we accept major credit cards. We cannot accept cash. If you hold travel insurance, keep every document we give you — insurers generally want a receipt, a diagnosis and a description of treatment, all of which we issue in English. Our Insurance Claim Guide walks through the process.

Frequently Asked Questions

My ear has been blocked since my flight landed. Is that normal?

A blocked feeling after descent is very common and usually eases as the eustachian tube recovers. What is worth examining is an ear that is not clearing, an ear that is painful rather than merely full, hearing noticeably reduced on one side, or any discharge. Be seen sooner if you have another flight booked.

Can you remove earwax or something stuck in my ear?

The doctor will examine the ear and explain what is there and what the options are. Some situations are appropriate to manage at a general clinic; others are better handled by an ENT specialist (耳鼻咽喉科 / jibi-inkōka), whose clinic is set up specifically for the ear canal. If a referral is right, we write the letter (¥11,000) and contact the clinic ahead of you. Please do not dig anything out yourself.

I wear contact lenses and my eye hurts. What should I do right now?

Take the lens out and do not put another one in. Wear your glasses. A painful red eye in a lens wearer should not be left overnight to see how it goes, because corneal infections linked to lens wear can move quickly. Bring your lenses, case and solution to the consultation — how you have been wearing and storing them is useful information.

Is my red eye contagious? I am sharing a room.

It can be. Viral conjunctivitis spreads easily through hands, towels and shared surfaces, and often arrives alongside a cold or sore throat. Until you know what it is, wash your hands often, do not share towels or pillowcases, and skip the onsen and the pool. The doctor can advise how long precautions make sense once the cause is clearer.

Do I need an appointment, and what are your hours?

No appointment is needed. We are open 9:00–19:00, seven days a week, 365 days a year, including public holidays, one minute on foot from Asakusa Station. Messaging us on WhatsApp beforehand helps us prepare. If symptoms start outside opening hours and it is an emergency, call 119 at any hour.

Get It Looked At Today

An ear that will not clear or an eye that will not settle is not something you have to carry through the rest of your trip. Walk in, be seen in English, and get back to Tokyo.

Book an Appointment

Japan International Clinic ASAKUSA
1-minute walk from Asakusa Station | Open 9:00–19:00, 365 days a year
English · Chinese · Korean · Japanese
Basic Medical Consultation ¥33,000 | Prescription +¥11,000 | Referral letter +¥11,000
+81-3-6824-4126

Related Pages