It’s been a while. I’ve been super busy with school and work. I have one week left of school then I should be free to work on this blog and study my Japanese. I just paid the remaining tuition for the school [it hurts]. Just when I thought things were going well enough, another problem came up: I tested positive for latent Tuberculosis. Doctor said I probably picked it up during my trip to Vietnam last year. While there is like 5% chance I’ll develop active TB, they are playing it safe and putting me on 2 pills per day for 9 months straight. That by itself isn’t a big issue for me, but the fact that I have to import such a large quantity of drugs into Japan for the duration of my stay is a major hassle. I have the options of purchasing the drugs there, but I don’t know if my insurance will cover overseas treatment. Another issue is the availablity of the drugs that I need to take. I don’t want to deal with all of that there. The best 2 options would be to do a 2-week process of snail-mailing back and forth an Import Report of Medication form so that the Japanese Ministry of Health can send me back a permit allowing me to bring the drugs into Japan without me being harassed at the airport. The other option is to bring only the allowable amount (about 1 month’s suppy) and have my family ship the rest while I’m there. I’ve gone too far to quit now but it’s really discouraging how things always come up at the last minute and kick me in the face. In any case, I’ll just rely on an old saying I used to throw around: “Nothing worth doing is ever easy.”

So right now the plan is to leave around October 5th, and return on January 1st [which falls on December 31st back here in the US] so that I can party hard TWICE. The only thing left that is undetermined is my loan process. If my school does not send me anything in a week I will go directly to the bank and request a private loan. After that I can book the flight and just wait. One last thing: I am going to set up something along the line of $5 for a post card, and $7 for a souvenier. This is purely a “I need to feed myself” tactic, no gimmicks and pyramid scheme and all that junk [ I swear ]. This can be done via PayPal or in person if you see me before then. I can probably accept a check but please contact me to work it out. Just be sure I have it before I leave if it’s in person, or before December if via PayPal so I have time to get stuff for you. I hope that’s not too much to ask, and thank you so much for the support, even if you just continue reading this .

Until next time,
Zeke