I went blood donation this afternoon in Shinjuku, Tokyo. I haven't donated blood for more than 10 years, so many things have been changed.

you can stay and relax at the lounge as long as you like and have free drinks (any softdrink, tea, coffee , cha of cold or hot) and free snacks. sometimes humburger, doughnuts, ice cream. you can borrow video and watch movie or read many kind of magazines or comics.

there is an free event everyday like quick massagae, palm reading, nail coloring, color-therapy, mental-therapy. today's event was hair and sclup check. Of course i had my sclup checked and the guy gave me the print out of the close-up picture of my sculp. he printed out on a postcard! 555 this is cool.(who want to receive a postcard with the photo of someone's sculp?)

If you get some rest and have some drinks in Tokyo but dont want to pay to expensive cafeterria,(most expensive hot coffee is 800 yen=280 and the cheepest is McDonald 100yen coffee= 35 baht) you just go to donation-center and get these service and food for free!!

by the way, in JP, regular donation amount is 400ml, how about in other countries? I guess the amount depends on the average body size of each nation.

I last tried to donate it in Ireland, but I got turned down because they thought I might have mad cow disease.

oh, yeah i was asked before donation whether i have ever been to UK since 1985 even for a one night. they beware of BSE quite much.

Damn! I'm going to stop bying lunch and instead just take an extra half hour and give blood every day. That should be about a week of free lunches before I have to get admitted to hospital for a refill.

I gave blood many times in my life...a full pint once a year for 12 years...Now look at me, the twitching will not stop...hahaha

@Mike

hey, donation interval should be around 12 weeks for 400ml. if you do it everyday, you will be like dried mango!

@Lena

Yes, they say that if the pressure is too low, it will take too long to get amount and the blood would be solidified. Dont worry I give you my blood, if you like type A+.

@Thomaswd

pint means around 550cc, right? wow!

ok, i keep on donating regularly and will be like you, Tom "the Pumping Iron"!! ha ha

Yeah, I know it is a pint in the US, which I think is 16 fluid ounces. 1 Fluid ounce is about 30 ml. so the answer should be about 480 ml = 16 ozs. * 30 mls./oz.

orgin of pint is pingere, which mean the paint to measure a capacity of container. Yes, melasinsh, you are right. Pint inUS is 473 ml and 568 ml in UK, according to my dictionary. its 1/8 gallon and equivalent with 16 ounces.

pound, ounce, inch, foot, yard, mile, acre......

Oooh, imperial system gives me headache!!