Name: Hersheal D. Shabba Age: 20 Height: 6’0 Weight : 189 lbs Devil fruit: Saru- Saru no mi (Ape-Ape Fruit) Model: Stone Monkey Affiliation: Straw hats pirates, (True Mono Disciples) Positions: Lookout Epithets: Monochrome Gangsta Personality: Likes to talk to himself, sing to himself, Dance when he thinks he’s alone, Easily distracted by something obscure or minor (ADHD), ADD Neutral: street smart, hard headed, spiritual, artistic Positive: Humble, loyal, generous, passionate Negative: Short Fuse, awkward Appearance: half Lunerian white and black hair Afro Twists, slits in eyebrows, Red eyes, yellow camouflage zip up , Gold dripped headbands, Asterisks like scar on left cheek, Mini Black wings Height: pre-time skip 5’11 post time skip: 6’0 Build: pre time skip: Skinny lean and toned out with some muscle Post time skip: Hero built like BaKi Hanma Dream: To be The world’s strongest man, finding out the secrets of the celestial dragons and taking down the celestial dragons powers and techniques : Immense Strength Enhanced Speed Enhance Senses (especially sight) Enhanced Acrobatics Healing Factor Invulnerability Shape-shifting Cloning Cloud Manifestation Ape-like Practices Primate Communication Wizard form (Black Fur) Lunarian form(White Fur) True Monkey King (Golden Fur) Victorious Fighting Monkey King Conqueror’s Haki (Advanced) Observation haki (Advanced) Armament Haki (Advanced) Monkey King style Roast Session Hawk Arrow Eagle Kick Atom Smasher Twin Atom Smasher Divine Breaker(Atom Smasher + Advanced Conqueror + Advanced armament haki) Buster Cannon (Combined Atom Smasher) Great Sage Devastation (Combined Divine Breaker) Able to Travel Dimensions 72 earthly transformations Laser Eye beam Musical Attacks Spirit Geyser Heavenly Ragnarok Big Steppa One inch Punch Fourth wall awareness Immortal elixir Immortal peach Protagonist Summons Weakness: standard Devil fruit weaknesses Traveling to dimensions gives him splitting headaches till he passes out Magical Golden headband
Ruyi Jingu Bang: Divine Hawk Arrow Strike raid Supra Twister Great Sage Festival Longinus slash Calamity Falls Mega Flare Lethal Flame Raging Storm Holy rain White Horse Dragon Flame Great Sage Meteor Zettaflare Exoflare Terraflare
Clones: •Triple Power Bomb •GSDD (Great Sage Death Drop) •Gravesite Finisher •Replicamikaze •5 k Shabba Barrage •Roly Poly Slam •Poetry in Motion
Universal Transponder Snail

27 female UK - got dysautonomia (really bad heart symptoms) and gastroperisis (bad digestive symptoms) - 2 central nervous system disorders, from REALLY MILD COVID 2 years ago.
I've now been dealing with quite severe COVID for 7 days now. More than just cold symptoms. Arms going numb, visual hallucinations (I've never had these), in and out of fever like nightmare dreams, can't sleep for more than 6 hours, fever was 38.4 on the 6th day but not at the moment, conjunctivitis, headache that hasn't gone the whole time but was really severe day 3/4, teeth have killed for a week like all of them are so painful only co-dydramol is helping, can't stop blowing nose like 2 box of tissues in one day, cough becoming painful. Had worst sore throat, that's fine now though but has turned into painful cough, short of breath at times.
What's concerning me is the non-cold like symptoms, none of which my friend has. I.E conjunctivitis, arms going numb, hallucinations. Plus, the high fever so late into it on day 6. The fact I'm not getting better, wake up day 7 with conjunctivitis and friend has already completely cleared COVID, never got conjunctivitis or severe runny nose/headaches etc.
My friend caught it same time, and at day 5 she was better, no signs of it now - at day 7 I'm just getting worse. She had it much milder than me from the start, but we caught it at the same place the same night, fell ill the same day a few days after, but she likened it to a cold whereas I feel like it's literally attacking most parts of me, going deeper than a usual cold. Her teeth never hurt, she never got numb arms, or anything. I've done a lot more to get better, she was eating fish and chips, drinking alcohol, not taking vitamins, and she's fine now. Ive been eating mostly just fruit and veg, drinking electrolytes with vitamins in, zinc lozenges every 5 hours, taking 3 different vitamins throughout the day, tumeric tea, ginger shots, vaporrub on chest etc (for nose and head). And I'm actually getting WORSE on day 7.

27 female UK - got dysautonomia (really bad heart symptoms) and gastroperisis (really bad digestives symptoms) - 2 central nervous system disorders, from REALLY MILD COVID 2 years ago.
I've been dealing with severe COVID for 7 days now. Arms going numb, visual hallucinations (I've never had these), in and out of fever like nightmare dreams, can't sleep for more than 6 hours, fever was 38.4 on the 6th day but not at the moment, conjunctivitis, headache that hasn't gone the whole time but was really severe day 3/4, teeth have killed for a week like all of them are so painful only co-dydramol is helping, can't stop blowing nose like 2 box of tissues in one day, cough becoming painful. Had worst sore throat, that's fine now though but has turned into painful cough, short of breath at times.
What's concerning me is the non-cold like symptoms, none of which my friend has. I.E conjunctivitis, arms going numb, hallucinations. Plus, the high fever so late into it. The fact I'm not getting better, wake up day 7 with conjunctivitis and she has completely cleared COVID, never got conjunctivitis or severe runny nose/headaches etc.
My friend caught it same time, and at day 5 she was better, no signs of it now - at day 7 I'm just getting worse. She seemed to have it much milder than me from the start, but we caught it at the same place the same night, fell ill the same day a few days after, but she likened it to a cold whereas I feel like it's literally attacking most parts of me (I wish it just felt like a cold, lol.) I've done a lot more to get better, she was eating fish and chips, drinking alcohol, not taking vitamins etc. ive been eating mostly just fruit and veg, drinking electrolytes with vitamins in, zinc lozenges every 5 hours, taking 3 different vitamins throughout the day, tumeric tea, ginger shots, vaporrub on chest etc (for nose and head).

Swollen tongue with cold symptoms
28F, 5’8”, 145lbs. Never smoked, no drinking or drugs.
UCTD (treated as lupus) Selective IGM deficiency. daily medications: plaquenil, Keflex, and adderall.
Hi! I’m having a bit of a panic because my frequent common cold has come with a fun new symptom: swollen, sore tongue.
I catch a cold once a month, maybe every 2 months. And it’s always pretty standard. Sore throat, cough, insanely runny nose, high fever, malaise, headache. Dayquill and 2 days off takes care of me.
I started getting my normal symptoms yesterday morning, and by last night it was full blown. This morning however, I noticed my tongue doesn’t fit in my teeth anymore. Ive trained myself to rest my tongue in my lower jaw because I have an overbite and I don’t want to make it worse. But today my tongue doesn’t fit in either my upper or lower jaw. Also, the sides are very sore, like when you eat too much sour candy. It isn’t causing any difficulty breathing but i literally can’t close my teeth and it’s exacerbated my sore, dry throat.
I’ve been taking dayquill and added in naproxen when the fever stopped declining (highest has been 103.1 and won’t go lower than 101) I took a Zyrtec when it was suggested by the minute clinic that the tongue thing could be an unrelated allergy; but it hasn’t gotten any better.
I tested negative for strep, flu, and Covid.
I had an uncomplicated wisdom tooth removal 4 days ago; and have had no pain, swelling, bleeding, or sign of infection since. But I wanted to add in case that’s relevant.

Synopsis:
An engineer in another world—blending science and magic to achieve greatness in a world where skills and levels reign supreme.
—
Ethan was just a plain old engineer, but everything changed when he was reborn into a world of skills, levels, and magic. With his advanced knowledge far ahead of the time period he finds himself in, this new reincarnated life will be much different than his last, especially because he can construct, deconstruct, and reconstruct runes—something no one else can do.
But with royal politics, looming tax collectors, a mountain of debt, dungeon incursions, cults, and hostile fantasy races mixing together into a cocktail of bullshit that threatens to bury his dreams; Ethan must bridge the gap between steel and sorcery to grow stronger. — Runecrafting is slow burn. — What to Expect: - Weak to very strong progression - Hardcore wish fulfillment - A balance of action, kingdom building, and runecrafting. - MC will trigger an industrial revolution, revolutionize magic, modernize agriculture, communication, commerce, textile production, education, transportation, sanitation, weapons manufacturing, leisure & entertainment, and medicine.
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Chapter 04

-1-
Ethan's heart thumped in his throat as he looked at the arrow's head glinting. Fortunately, Roland had grabbed it in an instant. The arrow hadn't hit Ethan, and it likely wouldn't have. Roland threw the arrow aside as Ethan heard a muffled grunt and glanced out the window to the right. An arrow had pierced the side of their driver, right between the shoulder and chest. Ethan whipped back into his seat just as another projectile smashed against the other side of their carriage, denting it. Roland immediately stood up with a calm demeanor and unsheathed his sword. "Lord Theodore, please remain seated. This inconvenience will be dealt with shortly."
Ethan blinked up, nodded, and clasped his hands around his knee while resting his head against the window ledge as Roland got out. Situations such as this weren't anything he'd ever dealt with back on earth, but he had plenty of experience keeping himself in check when fear took hold. He'd been a boxer, after all. Ethan tapped his finger on his knee, again and again.
"Die, you shits!" a voice yelled, then a meaty crash was followed by a pained groan. It was clearly someone falling over. Moments later, footsteps approached from the other side. A man swung the carriage door open. "Get—"
Before he could say much else, a sword pierced through his chest. He slumped and hit the ground without a word, revealing Roland standing with a blank expression. His eyes were different than anything Ethan had seen since his transmigration—Roland looked nonchalant even after taking a life, which was understandable given that the man had likely taken a lot of lives. Ethan closed his eyes, refusing to look at the dead body.
More footsteps grew nearer. Two sets. They stopped beside their carriage. "Well fuck, what a piece of trash." one man said, then lurched at Roland with a bloody shout.
The fight was over in an instant.
Roland simply disappeared from his position before Ethan. Reappearing behind the two bandits flanking him, he delivered an equally lethal strike to each in turn. Simultaneously, a sharp crackling and whooshing sound made Ethan tense. Spreading out on the floor before the carriage, a dark blue magical glyph buzzed like electricity, sending sparks of electricity slamming into the bandits.
Then, the bandits' bodies split in two halves, their blood sprayed across the dirt before they even began collapsing with electricity sizzling on their bodies.
Just as he'd felt movement in the air through [Magic Perception], a man materialized right in front of Ethan. Tensing, Ethan didn't know what to do
Roland shouted from outside. Adrenaline rocketed through Ethan's veins. Hand moving, he grabbed the bandit's hand and twisted it. The bandit tackled him, and with the tight space, Ethan felt the tip of a knife nicking the side of his cheek. The wound stung badly, and with it, Ethan's mind blanked and his instincts kicked in.
Roland swiftly spun, but not in time to stop the man from pinning Ethan against the bench.
However, it wasn't needed. Ethan used [Elemental Spells] and summoned fire all over his palms. A sizzling sound erupted as the bandit cried out and went for Ethan's eyes with his free hand. Ethan bit the bandit's hand, and only got half a mouthful of skin and cloth. The bandit reeled back and leapt backward from the sudden burning pain, crying out as he crashed. Ethan lunged at him, grabbed and force-flipped the bandit's hand, and plunged the knife into his throat with an aggressive grunt. There was a short, gurgled cry, before the bandit tried swinging the knife towards him. "Cunt... bastard..." his bloody mouth formed the words, his eyes staring fearfully, but Ethan pushed the knife aggressively.
Blood sprayed and gushed onto Ethan's mouth.
Then, finally, the man stilled.
The corpse's weight fell onto Ethan, hot blood spilling out of the bandit's throat and filling the air with an acrid odor. Ethan felt it on his face. Hot. Metallic smell. He saw it dripping down the bandit's throat, all across his clothes, even in his hair. It was heavy, almost. Layer upon layer, the heavy cloak of the man's life weighting down on his spirit.
System notifications flashed but he ignored it given that bile rose in Ethan's throat. His vision darkened, and a rush of blood roared in his ear as his heart thumped like thunder. A violent urge to vomit rose within him, his entire body twitching. He had never seen a man die in front of him like this before. Disgusting as it was, he gulped everything down, even the reality he had found himself in, the death, the violence, it all set in at that moment. However, he had no time to delve on it. Even though he felt like someone had squeezed his windpipe, like a bullet was tearing through his skin, he needed to act. Now.
Ethan flipped the man aside and sat on his knees, pulling out the knife from the bandit's neck. From his place on the ground, he glanced at Roland engaged with three bandits.
One slipped past Roland and made it to Ethan. They're trying to get a hand on me. Why? The answer was simple. Oh, right... I'm a noble, they can just put a knife on my throat and demand shit...
Instead of giving the bandit the upper hand, Ethan took a breath. Once. Twice. Now or never, thinking so, he raised the knife and dove headfirst toward the approaching enemy. Caught by surprise, the bandit merely moved his free hand to counter attack. His fingers grasping the bandit's arm, he twisted it away, giving him room to go straight for the eye.
With a meaty sound, Ethan plunged the knife through the man's eyes. Blood spurted with a slick sound. The bandit wasn't fast enough to make a full reaction, as a sort of instinctive scream of terror got stuck halfway and died out. Then, as the feeling of having ended another life settled within him, Ethan retracted the dagger and stepped back. His back slamming against the carriage, he slid down and pressed a hand against his forehead. His cheek hurt. He smelled sweat and blood.
Fuck... Fuck... Breathe. This is... I can't... Breathe.
A chill ran down his spine and his heartbeat roared. He took a breath, adrenaline still surging through his veins. The sick feeling didn't leave his stomach, his entire body twitched as if electrocuted every once in a while, and his eyes started going hazy, unclear. Black spots in his field of vision. Sticky warmth all over. Hot metallic odor in his nostrils.
"Lord Theodore!" Roland's voice acted as a way for Ethan to reorient himself into reality. Roland looked ashen, not because he was tired but most likely because he'd let Ethan get into such a vulnerable position. Roland glanced at the corpse, then Ethan, then back at the corpse again, looking tense, lips tight and hands clutched into fists. "Are you alright, my lord?"
"Yes, of course," Ethan said as he studied the wound on his cheek. I need a healing skill. However, he noticed the visible distressed Roland was having and continued. "I'm fine. Don't worry. It's no big deal. For the moment, we need to clean up this mess."
Ethan could tell Roland was uncomfortable with the situation and Ethan's complete indifference, but the warrior dutifully obeyed his lord's commands. Ethan slumped onto his seat and looked through the notifications.
Your race, [Human], has leveled up — Lvl 0 -> Lvl 1!
Your class, [Mage], has level up — Lvl 0 -> Lvl 1!
[Unranked Mage] -> [Initiate]
[Elemental Spells] — Lvl 5 -> Lvl 6!
A [Quest] approaches!
Hmm, this is the second time I see the message 'A [Quest] approaches'... What is it? Why doesn't the system just give me the [Quest]? Are there conditions? Regardless, it seems that [Elemental Spells] just needed some use in battle instead of just plain old practice. Curious.
Ethan leaned back with a sigh. Now that his heartbeat wasn't drumming in his ear, the fear slowly ebbed away. All things considered, this turned out well, given the situation. However, now that he'd calmed somewhat, his eyes landed on the corpse right beside him, and that fresh scarlet blood seeping into the floorboards. The heavy coppery scent, the unmistakable smell of death. It all came crashing into him and he could no longer deny what he'd done. It had all gone so quickly.
No theatrics, the knife had just flown in, and the bandit had struggled, then stopped struggling.
Ethan stared at the corpses. With his hands on his lap, he gazed vacantly. For a single, stretched-out moment, the only thing he was aware of were the lifeless bodies right next to him, the sensation of having one less enemy standing in the way. One of the bandits had his jugular slashed. Another had a knife poking into his eyes. Ethan had killed them. Him. It was nauseatingly easy, taking another's life. It felt good. Ethan was disgusted at that thought, but damn did it feel good. I—I... I won. He wanted to grin, but he didn't.
Soon, the bandits were dealt with. Not a minute was wasted, and they cleaned up and got moving in a hurry, before Roland could throw the corpse inside the carriage out, Ethan stopped him.
He'd been staring at it, sitting there, silently. Bile would rise to the tip of his throat before he'd swallow it, a stone in his gut making his movements stiff. It felt unreal. When he took that step to make sure the bandit was dead, his eyes met with those of the corpse—with glassy black pupils that appeared frozen mid-realization that he was dying. Fearful, horrified eyes. Human eyes. Ethan stared into them, felt every fiber of his body clench, saw the smears of blood across the man's mouth where his desperate breaths had made him cough up, to live.
Ethan stared, not because he was a masochist or someone who derived pleasure from other people's misery. Rather, it was because he wanted this to never happen again. His reaction. It hadn't been optimal. He just knew he'd need to kill and spill blood if he was to survive, and thus, he needed to familiarize himself with the sight of death—death caused by his hands.
His thoughts were a little less orderly than he liked. That needed to change, fast. It would always be a burden, so he simply chose to stare, knowing he was staring down his weakness—at his fear.
After a solid five minutes, Ethan turned around. Roland's gaze met Ethan's. For a brief moment, the gaze was averted, the warrior showing clear guilt. Ethan placed a hand on the man's shoulder. "Roland, don't blame yourself. I understand you must have felt cornered and unable to react. Just know I appreciate you. Don't beat yourself up for it. There have been no casualties on our side."
Roland bowed his head. Ethan smiled, though it was strained. Roland had been standing there for a while now but hadn't wanted to interrupt Ethan's self-reflection time, despite being tense himself. The guards had burned the corpses. Soon, the men Ethan killed were taken out, too. Then they left for the woods.
A guard who appeared to be a [Mage] that had a spell called [Cleanse] walked to the carriage, and placed his hands near the gore-splattered interior. In mere moments, a rune flickered into existence, then, mana got sucked out of the guard, seeping into the rune—soon, the blood and even the smells were swept clean and everything returned to being a neat and tidy.
The guard staggered a little before his comrades stabilized him. Must be quite demanding, Ethan noted, nodding appreciatively as the guard stepped out of the carriage. "That's quite the useful skill," Ethan said, examining the results.
Roland gave a silent nod, no doubt feeling pretty damn bad about his failure.
The guard, on the other hand, bowed with a smile, clearly appreciating Ethan's recognition. "It's a pleasure to be of service, my lord. This humble guard has had this skill ever since he became a mage."
Ethan made an impressed noise. "I see."
The guard beamed, then bowed even more before walking over to his fellow guards, who patted his backs at a job well done. Then, the horses pulled the carriage, and the carriage resumed moving. As soon as his back had settled into the cushion of the seat, an exhausting wave rolled over Ethan's body.
Before everything, however. I saw the rune. Ethan grinned a little, then willed mana into the shape of the rune.
It sputtered.
Ethan tried again, connecting different parts of the rune. One. Two. Three. Four. And as the rune sputtered again.
Throughout the journey to Deadwoods, Ethan kept at it.
He failed every time—
—and he didn't know why.
An immense headache assaulted him, and he had to stop his attempts.
-2-
The Deadwoods proved to be just what he'd expected. Dead. Charred branches and crumbling trees lay spread throughout. Roland looked around solemnly. Ethan was more interested in what kept this place the way it was. This land was, to put it simply, the most horrific location in the entire barony. It was a huge portion of a forest that appeared to be dead, thus why it had gotten the name Deadwoods.
Leaves crunched underneath Ethan's feet, and he studied his surroundings with morbid curiosity. The trees, branches and leaves were all dark in color as if something had scorched them. Many creatures lived here, animals like the usual game of deer, wolves, and foxes and sometimes there'd even been bears spotted. The dangerous thing, however, wasn't that the animals existed, it was that they were magical beasts. Mutants.
"Lord Theodore," Roland said, hand on his sword, eyes darting around in caution. "It is dangerous to be here—"
"Peh." Ethan waved his hand nonchalantly, much to Roland's shock at such an uncharacteristic behavior. "It will be worth it."
After all, I'm gonna have fun hunting monsters, leveling up, and finally, finally finding some goddamn tree ash.
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Patreon Discord

(F20) I will try my best to keep this as short and to the point. My mom got sick a couple of weeks ago and I got sick starting 3 days ago after visiting a relatives house.
I have been struggling to breathe, gasping for air, walking even 2 steps winds me and I have to recover, coughing up mucus, throwing up, nausea, not eating, chest pain, back pain, cough, diarrhea, throat pain, headache, stomach pain, everything but a fever (as far as I'm aware. I didn't keep checking)
On Saturday I woke up literally gasping for air with 8/10 chest pain. I went to the ER and got 2 antibiotics. Had tests done and came back with pneumonia. I went home. Continued to struggle while waiting for antibiotics to kick in and I kept taking a bunch of meds my mom suggested (sudafed, mucinex, ibuprofen, Tylenol, vaporub etc) but nothing helped and she wouldn't really believe me.
I kept struggling and groaning in pain and while walking so much that my dad kept yelling at me to shut up about it and told me to get out, cussing me out and then he called out of work and told my mom he's not going to work because of me. Then I started feeling really sorry.
On Monday its been 3 days of taking antibiotics and I am still gasping for breath. I called my PCP’s Nurse hotline and she basically was threatening (not really but just very concerned) to call me an ambulance but I know that would make my mom very angry.
The nurse had me straight up give my phone to my mom to try to convince her to take me to the hospital but my mom was not having it. I'm aware and sympathetic that she is feeling sick as well, but at least she was breathing and able to sleep. I was constantly gasping for air, but since I could get out sentences sometimes she did not believe me. I eventually stopped being able to get out sentences. I seriously don't know how to get anyone to take me seriously.
She took me to the hospital very mad and frustrated and it showed and I felt more sorry and I just kept apologizing. She said that she will quit her job and that she should just quit. She started screaming and stomping. (F50) (she has PTO, I don't, so I will not be getting anything) (she also submitted my medical papers for her to miss work)
I kept telling her she doesn't have to take me and I will find someone else but she insisted but continued to keep blowing up on me.
I go and wait for about 4 hours then I come back with asthma and bronchitis with the pneumonia. I didn't know I had asthma prior. They sent me 6 medications to take.
I can now breathe currently after respiratory therapy. I'm still nauseous and in pain though.
We got home and I apologized to her, then she started yelling at me and then I cried (I always cry because I'm weak and sensitive) and then she says I need to go to a crisis center, get help, get back on my medication (I got off of it because it was messing up my body. Now I'm only just in therapy) and that my depression is ruining her mental health. I continued to cry and I called my sister then my sister told me how she's tired of hearing from us (my parents get drunk every night and they got drunk a couple nights ago and had a nasty fight and I was also targeted because my mom overheard me crying in my room because they were fighting long story)
My sister says she understands how my mom feels.
My mom denies anything that I say that she has ever said or done, even if they said or done that thing 3 seconds before. She blacks out and scares me.
I don't know how else I was supposed to get to the hospital besides calling an ambulance because she would be mad then. But I couldn't call anyone else for help (I don't have anyone) and the nurse wouldn't send me a ride because my condition was too severe I guess.
She only takes about herself and how I affect her and I feel like garbage for it.
She didn't stay with me or anything, just dropped me off and picked me up. There isn't an ER in my network that is nearby in walking distance.

(F20) I will try my best to keep this as short and to the point. My mom got sick a couple of weeks ago and I got sick starting 3 days ago after visiting a relatives house.
I have been struggling to breathe, gasping for air, walking even 2 steps winds me and I have to recover, coughing up mucus, throwing up, nausea, not eating, chest pain, back pain, cough, diarrhea, throat pain, headache, stomach pain, everything but a fever (as far as I'm aware. I didn't keep checking)
On Saturday I woke up literally gasping for air with 8/10 chest pain. I went to the ER and got 2 antibiotics. Had tests done and came back with pneumonia. I went home. Continued to struggle while waiting for antibiotics to kick in and I kept taking a bunch of meds my mom suggested (sudafed, mucinex, ibuprofen, Tylenol, vaporub etc) but nothing helped and she wouldn't really believe me.
I kept struggling and groaning in pain and while walking so much that my dad kept yelling at me to shut up about it and told me to get out, cussing me out and then he called out of work and told my mom he's not going to work because of me. Then I started feeling really sorry.
On Monday its been 3 days of taking antibiotics and I am still gasping for breath. I called my PCP’s Nurse hotline and she basically was threatening (not really but just very concerned) to call me an ambulance but I know that would make my mom very angry.
The nurse had me straight up give my phone to my mom to try to convince her to take me to the hospital but my mom was not having it. I'm aware and sympathetic that she is feeling sick as well, but at least she was breathing and able to sleep. I was constantly gasping for air, but since I could get out sentences sometimes she did not believe me. I eventually stopped being able to get out sentences. I seriously don't know how to get anyone to take me seriously.
She took me to the hospital very mad and frustrated and it showed and I felt more sorry and I just kept apologizing. She said that she will quit her job and that she should just quit. She started screaming and stomping. (F50) (she has PTO, I don't, so I will not be getting anything) (she also submitted my medical papers for her to miss work)
I kept telling her she doesn't have to take me and I will find someone else but she insisted but continued to keep blowing up on me.
I go and wait for about 4 hours then I come back with asthma and bronchitis with the pneumonia. I didn't know I had asthma prior. They sent me 6 medications to take.
I can now breathe currently after respiratory therapy. I'm still nauseous and in pain though.
We got home and I apologized to her, then she started yelling at me and then I cried (I always cry because I'm weak and sensitive) and then she says I need to go to a crisis center, get help, get back on my medication (I got off of it because it was messing up my body. Now I'm only just in therapy) and that my depression is ruining her mental health. I continued to cry and I called my sister then my sister told me how she's tired of hearing from us (my parents get drunk every night and they got drunk a couple nights ago and had a nasty fight and I was also targeted because my mom overheard me crying in my room because they were fighting long story)
My sister says she understands how my mom feels.
My mom denies anything that I say that she has ever said or done, even if they said or done that thing 3 seconds before. She blacks out and scares me.
I don't know how else I was supposed to get to the hospital besides calling an ambulance because she would be mad then. But I couldn't call anyone else for help (I don't have anyone) and the nurse wouldn't send me a ride because my condition was too severe I guess.
She only takes about herself and how I affect her and I feel like garbage for it.
She didn't stay with me or anything, just dropped me off and picked me up. There isn't an ER in my network that is nearby in walking distance.

(F20) I will try my best to keep this as short and to the point. My mom got sick a couple of weeks ago and I got sick starting 3 days ago after visiting a relatives house.
I have been struggling to breathe, gasping for air, walking even 2 steps winds me and I have to recover, coughing up mucus, throwing up, nausea, not eating, chest pain, back pain, cough, diarrhea, throat pain, headache, stomach pain, everything but a fever (as far as I'm aware. I didn't keep checking)
On Saturday I woke up literally gasping for air with 8/10 chest pain. I went to the ER and got 2 antibiotics. Had tests done and came back with pneumonia. I went home. Continued to struggle while waiting for antibiotics to kick in and I kept taking a bunch of meds my mom suggested (sudafed, mucinex, ibuprofen, Tylenol, vaporub etc) but nothing helped and she wouldn't really believe me.
I kept struggling and groaning in pain and while walking so much that my dad kept yelling at me to shut up about it and told me to get out, cussing me out and then he called out of work and told my mom he's not going to work because of me. Then I started feeling really sorry.
On Monday its been 3 days of taking antibiotics and I am still gasping for breath. I called my PCP’s Nurse hotline and she basically was threatening (not really but just very concerned) to call me an ambulance but I know that would make my mom very angry.
The nurse had me straight up give my phone to my mom to try to convince her to take me to the hospital but my mom was not having it. I'm aware and sympathetic that she is feeling sick as well, but at least she was breathing and able to sleep. I was constantly gasping for air, but since I could get out sentences sometimes she did not believe me. I eventually stopped being able to get out sentences. I seriously don't know how to get anyone to take me seriously.
She took me to the hospital very mad and frustrated and it showed and I felt more sorry and I just kept apologizing. She said that she will quit her job and that she should just quit. She started screaming and stomping. (F50) (she has PTO, I don't, so I will not be getting anything) (she also submitted my medical papers for her to miss work)
I kept telling her she doesn't have to take me and I will find someone else but she insisted but continued to keep blowing up on me.
I go and wait for about 4 hours then I come back with asthma and bronchitis with the pneumonia. I didn't know I had asthma prior. They sent me 6 medications to take.
I can now breathe currently after respiratory therapy. I'm still nauseous and in pain though.
We got home and I apologized to her, then she started yelling at me and then I cried (I always cry because I'm weak and sensitive) and then she says I need to go to a crisis center, get help, get back on my medication (I got off of it because it was messing up my body. Now I'm only just in therapy) and that my depression is ruining her mental health. I continued to cry and I called my sister then my sister told me how she's tired of hearing from us (my parents get drunk every night and they got drunk a couple nights ago and had a nasty fight and I was also targeted because my mom overheard me crying in my room because they were fighting long story)
My sister says she understands how my mom feels.
My mom denies anything that I say that she has ever said or done, even if they said or done that thing 3 seconds before. She blacks out and scares me.
I don't know how else I was supposed to get to the hospital besides calling an ambulance because she would be mad then. But I couldn't call anyone else for help (I don't have anyone) and the nurse wouldn't send me a ride because my condition was too severe I guess.
She only takes about herself and how I affect her and I feel like garbage for it.
She didn't stay with me or anything, just dropped me off and picked me up. There isn't an ER in my network that is nearby in walking distance.

(F20) I will try my best to keep this as short and to the point. My mom got sick a couple of weeks ago and I got sick starting 3 days ago after visiting a relatives house.
I have been struggling to breathe, gasping for air, walking even 2 steps winds me and I have to recover, coughing up mucus, throwing up, nausea, not eating, chest pain, back pain, cough, diarrhea, throat pain, headache, stomach pain, everything but a fever (as far as I'm aware. I didn't keep checking)
On Saturday I woke up literally gasping for air with 8/10 chest pain. I went to the ER and got 2 antibiotics. Had tests done and came back with pneumonia. I went home. Continued to struggle while waiting for antibiotics to kick in and I kept taking a bunch of meds my mom suggested (sudafed, mucinex, ibuprofen, Tylenol, vaporub etc) but nothing helped and she wouldn't really believe me.
I kept struggling and groaning in pain and while walking so much that my dad kept yelling at me to shut up about it and told me to get out, cussing me out and then he called out of work and told my mom he's not going to work because of me. Then I started feeling really sorry.
On Monday its been 3 days of taking antibiotics and I am still gasping for breath. I called my PCP’s Nurse hotline and she basically was threatening (not really but just very concerned) to call me an ambulance but I know that would make my mom very angry.
The nurse had me straight up give my phone to my mom to try to convince her to take me to the hospital but my mom was not having it. I'm aware and sympathetic that she is feeling sick as well, but at least she was breathing and able to sleep. I was constantly gasping for air, but since I could get out sentences sometimes she did not believe me. I eventually stopped being able to get out sentences. I seriously don't know how to get anyone to take me seriously.
She took me to the hospital very mad and frustrated and it showed and I felt more sorry and I just kept apologizing. She said that she will quit her job and that she should just quit. She started screaming and stomping. (F50) (she has PTO, I don't, so I will not be getting anything) (she also submitted my medical papers for her to miss work)
I kept telling her she doesn't have to take me and I will find someone else but she insisted but continued to keep blowing up on me.
I go and wait for about 4 hours then I come back with asthma and bronchitis with the pneumonia. I didn't know I had asthma prior. They sent me 6 medications to take.
I can now breathe currently after respiratory therapy. I'm still nauseous and in pain though.
We got home and I apologized to her, then she started yelling at me and then I cried (I always cry because I'm weak and sensitive) and then she says I need to go to a crisis center, get help, get back on my medication (I got off of it because it was messing up my body. Now I'm only just in therapy) and that my depression is ruining her mental health. I continued to cry and I called my sister then my sister told me how she's tired of hearing from us (my parents get drunk every night and they got drunk a couple nights ago and had a nasty fight and I was also targeted because my mom overheard me crying in my room because they were fighting long story)
My sister says she understands how my mom feels.
My mom denies anything that I say that she has ever said or done, even if they said or done that thing 3 seconds before. She blacks out and scares me.
I don't know how else I was supposed to get to the hospital besides calling an ambulance because she would be mad then. But I couldn't call anyone else for help (I don't have anyone) and the nurse wouldn't send me a ride because my condition was too severe I guess.
She only takes about herself and how I affect her and I feel like garbage for it.
She didn't stay with me or anything, just dropped me off and picked me up. There isn't an ER in my network that is nearby in walking distance.

(F20) I will try my best to keep this as short and to the point. My mom got sick a couple of weeks ago and I got sick starting 3 days ago after visiting a relatives house.
I have been struggling to breathe, gasping for air, walking even 2 steps winds me and I have to recover, coughing up mucus, throwing up, nausea, not eating, chest pain, back pain, cough, diarrhea, throat pain, headache, stomach pain, everything but a fever (as far as I'm aware. I didn't keep checking)
On Saturday I woke up literally gasping for air with 8/10 chest pain. I went to the ER and got 2 antibiotics. Had tests done and came back with pneumonia. I went home. Continued to struggle while waiting for antibiotics to kick in and I kept taking a bunch of meds my mom suggested (sudafed, mucinex, ibuprofen, Tylenol, vaporub etc) but nothing helped and she wouldn't really believe me.
I kept struggling and groaning in pain and while walking so much that my dad kept yelling at me to shut up about it and told me to get out, cussing me out and then he called out of work and told my mom he's not going to work because of me. Then I started feeling really sorry.
On Monday its been 3 days of taking antibiotics and I am still gasping for breath. I called my PCP’s Nurse hotline and she basically was threatening (not really but just very concerned) to call me an ambulance but I know that would make my mom very angry.
The nurse had me straight up give my phone to my mom to try to convince her to take me to the hospital but my mom was not having it. I'm aware and sympathetic that she is feeling sick as well, but at least she was breathing and able to sleep. I was constantly gasping for air, but since I could get out sentences sometimes she did not believe me. I eventually stopped being able to get out sentences. I seriously don't know how to get anyone to take me seriously.
She took me to the hospital very mad and frustrated and it showed and I felt more sorry and I just kept apologizing. She said that she will quit her job and that she should just quit. She started screaming and stomping. (F50) (she has PTO, I don't, so I will not be getting anything) (she also submitted my medical papers for her to miss work)
I kept telling her she doesn't have to take me and I will find someone else but she insisted but continued to keep blowing up on me.
I go and wait for about 4 hours then I come back with asthma and bronchitis with the pneumonia. I didn't know I had asthma prior. They sent me 6 medications to take.
I can now breathe currently after respiratory therapy. I'm still nauseous and in pain though.
We got home and I apologized to her, then she started yelling at me and then I cried (I always cry because I'm weak and sensitive) and then she says I need to go to a crisis center, get help, get back on my medication (I got off of it because it was messing up my body. Now I'm only just in therapy) and that my depression is ruining her mental health. I continued to cry and I called my sister then my sister told me how she's tired of hearing from us (my parents get drunk every night and they got drunk a couple nights ago and had a nasty fight and I was also targeted because my mom overheard me crying in my room because they were fighting long story)
My sister says she understands how my mom feels.
My mom denies anything that I say that she has ever said or done, even if they said or done that thing 3 seconds before. She blacks out and scares me.
I don't know how else I was supposed to get to the hospital besides calling an ambulance because she would be mad then. But I couldn't call anyone else for help (I don't have anyone) and the nurse wouldn't send me a ride because my condition was too severe I guess.
She only takes about herself and how I affect her and I feel like garbage for it.

19F, 172cm, 66kg, on Qlaira, no underlying health conditions, don't smoke, barely drink.
I've been having a mild cough since a couple of days, it's worse at night. Yesterday I went on a trip but was very short of breath and didn't feel great (headache, shortness of breath, chills, exhausted). This morning I woke up with a lot of pain in my throat and the feeling like something was "obstructing" it very klein my throat/chest area. I could breathe but it just felt like a large chunk of food or something. So I started coughing and coughed up a very hard chunk of green stuff, ever since I've been coughing up chunks of it every time I cough, sometimes hard sometimes not. It smells and tastes horrible and makes me gag, and I need to spit it out. I need to go on a trip with my college class today to Friday. Is there anything I can do to stop this? It's highly embarrassing. And also, should I let a doctor know?

So during the holidays, it’s almost certain I will get very sick I (21M) had fever, body aches, went couple days without eating, heavy congestion with bad coughs and headaches and stayed in bed for about a week
During that week it also happened to be my gf (20F) and I anniversary of being bf/gf for a year
So as I mentioned I was REALLY SICK, didn’t even shower, couldn’t get up from my bed that felt like a coffin and my gf is upset that I did not mention or say anything about our anniversary I feel like it was very selfish of her to be upset she said I could’ve at least sent a message or something But I really couldn’t be on my phone and she knows that I was resting and away from my phone The last thing I wanted was to be on my phone I had ZERO energy to think or to move I wanted to recover from whatever I had
I wasn’t feeling myself at all I was not in a good physical and mental state
What do you guys think?
it’s been a few months since this happened but sometimes I think about it

I spent a lengthy amount of time in Japan this past year, 2 months in September and I just got home from another two months March-May. I spent quite a bit of time in lesser-known areas and wanted to share some of my favorite spots if you are looking to experience Japan with fewer tourists.
Some quick details about me:

• -I (18F) stayed mainly in hostels, with a $60-70 budget a day. I think I stayed in four or five hotels the entire trip.
• -I speak an intermediate level of Japanese and can read the majority of menus, signs, etc.. without problem. This really came in handy when reading because when you get FAR in the countryside, there sometimes is no service AND no English translations/no English speakers.
• -I visited 27 prefectures over a collective 108 days in Japan with the two trips.

Overall favorite prefectures:

• -Hokkaido: so much nature, incredible skiing, not touristy, SO much snow even into April. I bet this would be amazing to escape the July heat!
• -Aomori: there isn’t much to do in the city of Aomori, but taking a road trip an hour outside gets you to a lot of really amazing places (Takayama Inari Shrine, tsuru no maishashi bridge, Cape Tappi)
• -Fukuoka: I loved this place so much because I visited during full bloom of cherry blossoms. Truly a stunning sight.
• -Fukui: arguably my #1 favourite. I think I noticed one other foreigner during my entire time there, and the attractions there are so unmatched. This prefecture is dinosaur-themed, with huge statues of dinosaurs outside Fukui station, since it has the most dino bones than any other part of Japan.

Favorite foods:

• -Soup curry, Hokkaido (it will change your life if you’ve never had it)
• -The Full Full Hakata (a bakery in Fukuoka, truly the best in the country imo)
• -Okonomiyaki (of course, I loved the ones in Osaka)

Unique indoor attractions only in Japan that are totally worth it:

• -Art aquarium in Ginza, Tokyo
• -Nebuta Museum Wa Rasse, Aomori
• -Observation decks were my FAVORITE! Tokyo Skytree, JR T38 in Sapporo, and Fukuoka tower were my top 3.

Places that you CANNOT MISS if you want to see real Japan (a bit of a long list):

• -Echizen Daibutsu, Fukui: it houses the largest inside statue of Buddha in Japan, and it took my breath away. The temple grounds are beautiful and you can get a bird’s eye view of Fukui from the pagoda.
• -Lake Toya, Hokkaido: renting a car for this IS WORTH IT! It is a two hour drive from Sapporo. Toya is a volcanic caldera lake and the sights were, literally, some of the best I’ve seen in Japan. There is tons to do around the lake, and my day trip consisted of hiking, waterfalls, ropeway, Hokkaido milk gelato.
• -Mount Aso, Kumamoto: I did this with public transportation from Kumamoto city, but renting a car would save both time and a headache. Aso is an active volcano and while the hike to get up close to the volcano is closed (due to activity), you can get pretty close enough to it. Close enough to breathe in the volcano fumes and uncontrollably cough, along with everyone else there, for the next thirty minutes. Several hiking trails around it are open though, and a few lakes, and it is very pretty. I was there from about 10am-3pm and did three hikes, pet some horses, and got ice cream.
• -Matsushima Bay, Miyagi: Known as one of the top 3 views in all of Japan, it is 260 small islands off the coast of Miyagi. I did the Oku-Matsushima trail, which is a 10km hike that takes you all around the area through bamboo forests, a cemetery, wetlands, unique rock formations, beaches, etc.. at the end it takes you up the mountain to get an incredible view of the bay. Such a cool hike and I literally did not see a single person during my time there.
• -Michinoku coastal trail, Aomori: there is tons of info online, but if you have specific questions feel free to ask. It was a gorgeous hike along the ocean.
• -Sakurajima, Kagoshima: an island right off Kagoshima with an active volcano.
• Toyama: typically an over-looked destination, it has a ton of fun things to do that make a perfect day trip. Glass museum, castle, temples and I was there during a festival.

Lastly, just a few places I do NOT recommend:

• -Okayama: just, no. Personally, I found the town to be quite depressing and the locals to not be very nice. Okay for a day trip but there is literally nothing to see in the city other than the castle and the garden. Plus, the castle wasn’t anything special.
• -Kyoto in the spring. I absolutely loved it in the fall, but the amount of tourists in the spring literally destroyed the experience for me (there was an astonishing amount of disrespectful foreigners). Please consider visiting less popular destinations that still have the same charm as Kyoto during March/April.
• -Tokyo DisneySea: It is significantly smaller than Disneyland but in my opinion not as fun. Sure, it's the only DisneySea in the world, but there really wasn’t anything crazy special about it. If you’re a die-hard Disney fan, then 100% sure, but I am a “go once for the experience” type girl.

I hope this inspires any Japan travelers to get to know the lesser-known destinations :) the golden route is beautiful but I would take these destinations over Osaka and Kyoto any day! (obviously you can't miss Tokyo).

I spent a lengthy amount of time in Japan this past year, 2 months in September and I just got home from another two months March-May. I spent quite a bit of time in lesser-known areas and wanted to share some of my favorite spots if you are looking to experience Japan with fewer tourists.
Some quick details about me:

• -I (18F) stayed mainly in hostels, with a $60-70 budget a day. I think I stayed in four or five hotels the entire trip.
• -I speak an intermediate level of Japanese and can read the majority of menus, signs, etc.. without problem. This really came in handy when reading because when you get FAR in the countryside, there sometimes is no service AND no English translations/no English speakers.
• -I visited 27 prefectures over a collective 108 days in Japan with the two trips.

Overall favorite prefectures:

• -Hokkaido: so much nature, incredible skiing, not touristy, SO much snow even into April. I bet this would be amazing to escape the July heat!
• -Aomori: there isn’t much to do in the city of Aomori, but taking a road trip an hour outside gets you to a lot of really amazing places (Takayama Inari Shrine, tsuru no maishashi bridge, Cape Tappi)
• -Fukuoka: I loved this place so much because I visited during full bloom of cherry blossoms. Truly a stunning sight.
• -Fukui: arguably my #1 favourite. I think I noticed one other foreigner during my entire time there, and the attractions there are so unmatched. This prefecture is dinosaur-themed, with huge statues of dinosaurs outside Fukui station, since it has the most dino bones than any other part of Japan.

Favorite foods:

• -Soup curry, Hokkaido (it will change your life if you’ve never had it)
• -The Full Full Hakata (a bakery in Fukuoka, truly the best in the country imo)
• -Okonomiyaki (of course, I loved the ones in Osaka)

Unique indoor attractions only in Japan that are totally worth it:

• -Art aquarium in Ginza, Tokyo
• -Nebuta Museum Wa Rasse, Aomori
• -Observation decks were my FAVORITE! Tokyo Skytree, JR T38 in Sapporo, and Fukuoka tower were my top 3.

Places that you CANNOT MISS if you want to see real Japan (a bit of a long list):

• -Echizen Daibutsu, Fukui: it houses the largest inside statue of Buddha in Japan, and it took my breath away. The temple grounds are beautiful and you can get a bird’s eye view of Fukui from the pagoda.
• -Lake Toya, Hokkaido: renting a car for this IS WORTH IT! It is a two hour drive from Sapporo. Toya is a volcanic caldera lake and the sights were, literally, some of the best I’ve seen in Japan. There is tons to do around the lake, and my day trip consisted of hiking, waterfalls, ropeway, Hokkaido milk gelato.
• -Mount Aso, Kumamoto: I did this with public transportation from Kumamoto city, but renting a car would save both time and a headache. Aso is an active volcano and while the hike to get up close to the volcano is closed (due to activity), you can get pretty close enough to it. Close enough to breathe in the volcano fumes and uncontrollably cough, along with everyone else there, for the next thirty minutes. Several hiking trails around it are open though, and a few lakes, and it is very pretty. I was there from about 10am-3pm and did three hikes, pet some horses, and got ice cream.
• -Matsushima Bay, Miyagi: Known as one of the top 3 views in all of Japan, it is 260 small islands off the coast of Miyagi. I did the Oku-Matsushima trail, which is a 10km hike that takes you all around the area through bamboo forests, a cemetery, wetlands, unique rock formations, beaches, etc.. at the end it takes you up the mountain to get an incredible view of the bay. Such a cool hike and I literally did not see a single person during my time there.
• -Michinoku coastal trail, Aomori: there is tons of info online, but if you have specific questions feel free to ask. It was a gorgeous hike along the ocean.
• -Sakurajima, Kagoshima: an island right off Kagoshima with an active volcano.
• Toyama: typically an over-looked destination, it has a ton of fun things to do that make a perfect day trip. Glass museum, castle, temples and I was there during a festival.

Lastly, just a few places I do NOT recommend:

• -Okayama: just, no. Personally, I found the town to be quite depressing and the locals to not be very nice. Okay for a day trip but there is literally nothing to see in the city other than the castle and the garden. Plus, the castle wasn’t anything special.
• -Kyoto in the spring. I absolutely loved it in the fall, but the amount of tourists in the spring literally destroyed the experience for me (there was an astonishing amount of disrespectful foreigners). Please consider visiting less popular destinations that still have the same charm as Kyoto during March/April.
• -Tokyo DisneySea: It is significantly smaller than Disneyland but in my opinion not as fun. Sure, it's the only DisneySea in the world, but there really wasn’t anything crazy special about it. If you’re a die-hard Disney fan, then 100% sure, but I am a “go once for the experience” type girl.

I hope this inspires any Japan travelers to get to know the lesser-known destinations :) the golden route is beautiful but I would take these destinations over Osaka and Kyoto any day! (obviously you can't miss Tokyo).

Hey guys.
Been trying to find answers about this around online, but keep find articles upon articles of quitting cold turkey. However, for almost the past two weeks I've been taking a slower approach to quitting, and am being anxious about it due to random symptoms.
Quick backstory:
Past few months, was eyeing finally quitting. Been vaping for about 3 years, and noticed I had gotten to the point where I was taking a puff literally every 5-10 minutes...too easy access to just snatch it while gaming, mindlessly puffing away. Was going through 80%-100% of a Vuze pod every day on average, and that trend lasted about 6 months.
Couple weeks ago I had a somewhat related event that led to me pulling the trigger. It was slightly unrelated, but gave me the "dang...I need to ditch that too." motivation. Basically long story short, got ahold of a bad delta8 pen, and it spiraled into horrendous symptoms for two days that almost landed me in the ER. BUT the symptoms gave me anxiety about nicotine vape too, so I figured "alright...it's time. It all goes, before you end up going instead."
But I was afraid of going cold turkey, so instead I've been doing a heavy weening.
I went from the above 80-100% of a vuze pod, down to now about 20% of a pod per day on average. Today was even less...woke up this morning with only about 10% of the pod remaining, and it's still got a few drops in it after a full day.
So overall still motivated. Figure after this week, I'm going to try the cold turkey route. At that point I would be having so little per day that it'd be moot to continue it.
However what worries me:
I've got a doctor's appointment to go over this stuff too, so don't think I'm trying to WebMD this...but it would be helpful to get some personal stories too, if anyone else has experienced this.
My biggest worry at this point is "Am I quitting too late? Is something majorly wrong with me and what I felt a couple weeks ago that started this whole thing wasn't a delta8 pen, but rather something more serious like cancer or vape-related lung injuries?"
I've also got other possible causes in mind that I'm trying to either support theory on or eliminate. I moved back into my mother's place in September to help her after my dad passed away. There's some mold in the house that we are cleaning out, so I fear exposure to that could be a cause. Then also this is my first Spring living here in over 8 years. So I also wonder if these symptoms could be me readjusting the pollen here. I also drastically cut back on drinking over the past month...went from being able to have a full bottle of sake or wine any given night to now I won't drink anything over the level of a hard seltzer.
So basically I got slapped with "Too many variables changed, and too many possible unknown variables in the mix, and now I'm wondering if something's actually wrong with me, or it's just things to push through."
Symptoms that I have been feeling:

• Stiffness in my lungs some mornings. Will wake up and just feel a general tightness deep in my chest. Not like hypertension tightness, as I know what that one feels like. I'm talking deeper...like inhaling and you feel some achy resistance to the deep breath. I have no problem holding my breath once I get a full deep breath in, but it's just annoying that that feeling lasts for a few hours...sometimes all day. It's almost like the lungs being stuck together or tacky...like when you have wet elmer's glue on your fingers and try pulling them apart.
  • Is this supposed to happen this shortly after cutting back (stressing/highlighting that, to remind that this wasn't a cold turkey quit...just slammed on the brakes over the course of a week, but still hitting here and there daily). I knew that this type of feeling would come eventually, but most places online said it was more like week 2 and 3, maybe 4, because your lungs essentially start cleaning themselves off, operating more efficiently, etc. and some of the feeling is even your own mind getting used to your lungs controlling themselves at fuller capacity.
  • But this happened on week one for me...is that normal?
• Neck stiffness all over. Similar to when you're getting over a cold, it's like my lymphnodes are quite angry with me right now. Have felt a general soreness all the way up and down the left and right side of my neck along where doctors normally poke when they're checking your nodes. I've also felt stiffness in the back of my neck, radiating up my head around my ear, leading to my temple...this one's a bit more explainable I think, as that sounds like a tension headache, which is to be expected with nic withdrawal. My main concern has been the lymphnode areas being sore, because that can also be indicative of more than just withdrawal symptoms (lung infection or, worse, cancer).
• Phlegm, but from my nasal passages? Similar to the above: Like getting over a cold, you hit that point where your sinuses drain...but I didn't expect it with this. I keep feeling lumps of phlegm go down my throat when I sniffle sometimes. I expected it to happen with the lungs and I'd cough up phlegm (that hasn't started yet), but the nasal passages?
• "Waking Drowning": Some nights lately when I go to bed, Soon after I fall asleep, I snap awake gasping for air with my heart racing. Usually within the first 5-10 minutes of falling asleep. Lately this has led to a couple sleepless nights. Although I'm rational enough night-to-night to not fear falling asleep over it just because it happened the previous night, once it happens the first time on a given night, THEN I become afraid to fall asleep for that night.
• A feeling of physical disconnection: This one may be caused by the neck stiffness, but some days I wake up and I feel like my head is actually detached from my neck and just floating there. It's weird...feels like being high without all the fun parts, and that feeling lingers all day.
• Feeling annoyingly rundown: I've been having issues focusing at work and whatnot. Thankfully I work from home and can somewhat play it off, but the past few workdays I've had to sneak naps on lunch.
• Shaky feeling without the shake. Sometimes my hands will tremor for a moment or two, but that's it as far as visible shakiness. However I have had moments where I'm sitting here feeling like I'm vibrating in random parts of my upper body. Will even look at that body part closely to see if I actually am...but nope still as a can be, yet still feels vibratey lol.

The weird thing about all of the above is that they're being random day-to-day. Either I wake up perfectly fine and have a great day. OR all of the above hits me at once and then disappears again the next day. There doesn't seem to be much "in between."
Overall, though, none of this is stopping me from quitting... I know anxiety is part of "the experience" of quitting, so I've been careful about not letting it convince me to reset. If anything it's spurred more motivation, because I'm never letting a chemical have this level of a hold again. Thankfully, although as you can see anxiety is getting channeled into the above, mood hasn't shifted much in terms of everything else. I've had moments of depression, but not much out of the normal, and the anxiety seems to be more focused on helping me quit rather than convincing me to puff more. But it would be nice if the anxiety would stop trying to convince me that I'm dying, hence me wanting to just gather more info that I'm not finding online.
In advance though, thank you, and I look forward to hearing about anyone else who's experienced the above, and if you know of any remedies that'd be greatly appreciated. Feels good to be finally kicking this after having stupidly picked it up 3 years ago.

I completed pep 5-12 and got tested 5-18 (4th gen) while seeing a new doctor. He said it’s a good sign that it came back non reactive since I’m 5 weeks post exposure but to come back at 3&6 months for confirmation.
But I keep reading different recommendations. Some say PEP delays seroconversion and others say that it doesn’t matter. Recently I’ve been having some tension headaches, dry cough, and small rashes that disappear after a few minutes. I’m hoping it’s just stress related as there are spontaneous…
Should I take this non reactive result at 5 weeks post exposure as reassurance?

period: april 28th to May 14th 2024.
Nights spent in: Tokyo - Sendai - Fukushima - Koriyama - Nagoya - Hakata ( Fukuoka ).
If it's really off the beaten path or not you'll decide, some destinations visited are really particular, other are way more popular even if usually not what you'll visit in your first trip to Japan. let's say i've been to japan last summer and did all the usual things one do the first time he's there, probably even something more: Tokyo - Kyoto - Osaka - Nara - Nikko, Fukuoka, Matsumoto, Himeji, Miyajima. pretty much what almost anyone does for their first time if they have the opportunity.
Given the weak Yen and having still some time ( and money ) i could spend i decided to come back less than a year later, this time at the end of April up until half may in order to explore less popular destinations. I'll avoid to provide the usual tips anyone provide, like how to move from narita, how to get a Suica or how to book a train seat, how to operate a toilet and such things.
SOME TIPS
Concerning Suica: contrary to what most people suggest, i didn't buy one neither last summer or this time and frankly i've never missed not having it. I use my mastercard credit card, most places in japan accept it with zero problems and for the rest you can get Yen at any ATM machine that you can find in any combini with it and pay cash wich japanese still very much use
Concerning the period of the year: last year i went in August. I can confirm that moving around in April/May is so incredibly much better. The heat in august is some day even unbearable. This time the weather was mostly fine, got only one day of rain even if the temperatures were still a bit on the cold side overall. Unfortunately this year Sakura came early and I missed it by a week or two. But still apart from the cherry trees all the plants were blossoming and it was so nice to see flowers everywhere compared to the pain of the humidity and the torment of cicadas you have during summer.
Concerning golden week: one of the two weeks i was there was the golden week. I didn't book anything in advance but, maybe because of the fact i was moving off the beaten path, i almost never had problems booking trains or hotels during golden week ( i said almost, more details later ). Cant tell what's the effect when trying to book hotels in places like Kyoto.
concerning planning: my usual planning method goes the following: i book the plane, obviously. I buy JRP ( yes i still bought it even after the price increase ) and i book two days of hotels. The rest of my trip i have an idea of what i want to do and where i want to go but i book hotels and such, while going along. This gives me the flexibility to change my itinerary or react to bad weather ( last summer i run away from a typhoon with this trick ) or unexpected problems ( last summer i got food poisoning and i had to delay my program booking an hotel for three more days than expected: had i booked all nights in advance it would have been a huge problem ). I only book hotels using the booking website app and i can only say good things about it. I travel alone, maybe for couples or families this isn't as easy as it was for me.
Warning: I like to walk and I walk a lot. So if you need tips to move around, I’m not probably the right person because what you might want to do using a bus or a taxi I would probably do by walking. I’ve walked on average of 20 km a day and probably more and if a place is like 3-4 km from where I am I walk there without even looking if there’s a better option with a bus or something else.
I will give a vote to the places I’ve visited according to two parameters:
How off the beaten path it really is, judging by how many foreign tourists I met there. And an overall vote telling how worthy I feel the place is to visit. To make it short I will call them “OTBP VOTE and OVERALL VOTE”

SO LET'S START WITH THE ACTUAL TRIP REPORT:
Day 1: landing in Tokyo at midday in Narita. After finishing all the immigration process i moved to my hotel. This time i decided to book it for two nights in Omiya/Saitama. The place is less than half an hour from Tokyo Station and was the opportunity to see something different. I haven't seen much of the place but the area around the station was very lively, lots of restaurant and lots of people moving around. It was full of decoration with squirrells and a football team, i guess they were either promoting it or they won something cause decorations were everywhere, honestly didn't ask about. Well apart from checking in, recovering from the flight, looking for something to eat and checking a bit the areai didn't do much.
day 2: in the morning i took the train to Ashikaga Flower Park. I've seen picture of it online and according to the informations i gathered i might have been late for the sakura but the Wisteria were in full bloom and they had a lot of them in this park.
So i took the train, it was around an hour ride and Omiya was strategically on the way. I realized my trip plan was proably a good one when, once reached the Ashikaga flower park station ( there's a train station dedicated to this park ) all the people on the train got off. A little walk, ticket and i was in. The place, given the right time of the year, was AMAZING, UNBELIEVABLE. I can't begin to tell you how cool and how huge the wisteria plants were. they were in full bloom, and was something out of this world, it looked like something you see in the movie avatar. Like three or four wisterias as big as a basketball field if not even more, of different colours and kinds, plus a lot more of regular sized wisterias and a lot more flower plants of all kinds. Had to say, for some reason with all the flowers the air wasn’t at all full of their scent. I even got a wisteria flavoured ice cream, wich was probably a wisteria coloured ice cream cause it didn’t have any real particular taste. The place was packed with Japanese people and foreigners like me you could count them on the fingers of one hand. I arrived there early, so by early afternoon I was satisfied with my visit and moved away. A quick check on my train app and google maps and realized I could reach Kawagoe from there fairly easily.
ASHIKAGA FLOWER PARK OTBP: 9 OVERALL: 10
When I was on the train it stopped at the Tochigi station, it looked nice from the train so I decided to jump off and check the area a bit, because sometime I do that kind of things, and the idea wasn’t bad at all: the town itself doesn’t look anything special but there’s a canal wich was very picturesque, plus it was fully decorated with paper carps because of the time of the year and Japanese people were doing boat rides on the river on traditional little boats while singing songs. I won't say to go there specifically to see the place, but if you're on that train route or still around it, it might be worth a stop. So, once I finished checking the area I jump back on the train and finally reached Kawagoe.
TOCHIGI: OTBP: 10 OVERALL: 6 ½
Kawagoe is a small place north of Tokyo, not very far, wich is know for a small neighbourhood with old Edo houses. That neighbourhood is more far from the station that I expected, but still nice and worth a check. There’s a very cool bell tower there and one of the coolest Starbucks I’ve ever seen. I wouldn’t spend a whole day in Kawagoe if you ask me but If you’re in Tokyo and have an half day available that you don't know how to spend I’d say it’s totally worth a train ride. Had my dinner there and then moved back to Omiya where I would spend my last night.
KAWAGOE: OTBP: 7 OVERALL: 7
Day 3: woke up early, jumped on the train and moved to Sendai where I had planned to stay the next three nights. Once again Omiya was a good choice cause I could take the shinkansen right from there without having to move back to Tokyo.
Arrived in Sendai, left my luggage in the hotel where I couldn’t check in cause it was still to early and hopped on a local train in direction of Matsushima. By midday I was already in Matsushima. This is another very famous destination for Japanese people, one of the most known panoramas in japan. Have to say, the town is a typical sea town, definitely welcoming. I had one of the best Sushi I ever had in japan in a local restaurant ( check matsushima sushi kou if interested ). Visited Zuiganji temple and then walked a bit on the coast, crossed the Fukuurabashi bridge, the long red bridge that you probably have seen in some picture, and walked around Fukuurajima. Here you can have a walk around the island it’s not small but is small enough that you can walk it all fairly quickly and it has some nice spots to discover. You have to pay a small fee to cross the bridge. Then went back, checked the Godaido of Zuiganji and it’s worth mentioning that when walking along the coast I’ve stumbled across a couple of signs giving instructions on what to do in case of a tsunami and what happened back in 2011, wich I didn’t even think about up until that moment and suddenly the memories went back to what happened there more than 10 years ago. Last thing, my advice is to walk down to Oshima island. This little island is less crowded, you can reach it crossing a little red bridge and honestly to me it’s the best spot to admire Matsushima. I didn’t went for the ferry ride across the bay cause the weather wasn’t very good and I was starting to be a little short on time, so I moved back to Sendai.
MATSUSHIMA: OTBP: 9 OVERALL: 8 ½
Once back in Sendai, I went to see the sunset from the panoramic floor of the AER building near the station, wich is totally free even if finding the right elevator that takes you up might be a bit tricky, but the view is totally worth it, you can even see in the distance the big white shape of the dai-kannon and from the other side of the floor you can easily see the sea.
Talking about Sendai, I didn’t dedicate to the city the time that should have been necessary because I was always on day trips and I spend there mostly the late evenings, but my impression is that Sendai is a very nice city that should appear more often in peoples itineraries. The city is particularly vibrant and alive, lot of young people, lot of things to see and do, a covered shopping street that is almost endless full of restaurants and shops, way more green than many other Japanese cities. I’d recommend anyone who had the time and the opportunity to spend a little time here. Also it has a very distinctive identity and everything proudly revolves around the image of its founder Date Masamune who is everywhere in senday, even the penguin of the local DonQuishotte mall was dressed up as Date Masamune.
So after the panorama, I went in the hotel, finally checked in and then moved back to look for food. Walked down what I think is called ichibancho street, wich as I said before is an endless downtown road full of shops and restaurant and stopped to have a try at the most famous local dish, Gyutan, wich is grilled cow tongue. Never had tongue in my life and have to admit it, it’s not bad at all, I quite enjoyed it. Had a little more walk around then called it a day.
SENDAI: OTBP: 7 ½ OVERALL: 9
Day 4: today trip is to Hiraizumi, a UNESCO world heritage site, where you can admire some historically significant buddhist sites. You had to catch a coincidence in Ichinoseki but the whole ride is pretty straight forward and doesn’t really take much time. At 9 am I was already ready to explore. As I sad I’m a walker, so I walked the walk from the station to the Chuson Ji temple wich is around 2 km and I totally recommend it cause the town is quite nice to walk through, very small village, very cozy and intimate. Chuson Ji it’s a very beautiful complex to explore, it’s inside a forest, kinda reminds a bit of Nikko atmosphere if you’ve been there even if the buildings aren’t as spectacular. The whole wood was full of blossoming plants and here and there I was able to spot some late cherry tree still full of flowers, giving me an hint to what sakura must really be.
You stumble in the temple buildings one after another while you go deep into the wood. I reach the main building and there’s a ceremony in progress. I discovered later that the next day was planned the Fujiwara festival where all people dress up like in Edo period and do a parade in the city. The day I was there instead the children parade was planned, so it was full of kids dressed up and judging by how proud and elegant their parents were I tend to think it was a pretty big thing for them. I enjoy the situation for a while, then went back to exploring, till I reached the main attraction of the temple wich is the Konjikido, a golden pavilion that dates back to the XII century wich is amazing to see in person.
Once I finished exploring the whole Chuson Ji complex I went looking for a restaurant and had a nice ramen set, because the visit took the whole morning, then moved to the second stop wich was Motsuji Temple: as much as Chuson Ji impressed me, Motsu-ji disappointed me. The thing is, you pay to enter and in the end what you see is a place mostly empty, where the only building there are reconstructions and most places are just a bunch of rocks with signs saying “here once was this building” “here once was that building” and the main thing you’ll see there is a pond whose importance is that it dates back to the time when Japanese gardens were kinda dull compared to what they’ll become centuries later. So it’s kinda a pond that you would completely ignore in a different context. I mean, I totally get the historical importance of this place, but, honestly from the ignorant eyes of a tourist it’s really nothing you would invest your time visiting, according to my opinion.
Another place that would have been worth visiting was Takkoku-no Iwaya Bishamondo, but isn’t really that easy to reach, it’s a bit far to walk to and I was once again out of time, therefore I decided to skip it and went back to the station and to sendai where I again went to look for something to eat and had a little night stroll, nothing worth mentioning.
HIRAIZUMI: OTBP: 9 OVERALL: 8
Day 5: today I decided to go to Kakunodate. The town is a easily reachable by train from sendai but a bit far compared to the day before. Went off the station and once again started walking. The place is known mainly for its many samurai houses, all indications point to them so it’s not possible to miss them. The town itself for the little I’ve seen doesn’t really seem to offer much apart from that but the samurai distict it’s nice. Many of the houses have been converted into small museums, that you can visit paying a small fee. I entered one of them, there was a little tour showing the history of the city and the history of the family of samurai living there. Among the things you could do you had the chance even to hold a real katana ( it felt quite a clumsy and top heavy sword compared to what I had imagined ). In fairness, to my taste, there isn’t much to do apart from visiting the samurai district, yes you can visit the local museum, do some craft shopping ( I bought a very nice box made of cherry bark there wich is a typical local craft ) therefore after a late lunch I was back to Sendai. In my opinion if you want to see a Samurai district you can also go to Kanazawa and there’s much more to see there overall compared to Kakunodate, but if you like the atmosphere of a smaller village instead of a big city and you like something more “off the beaten path” then I’d say go to kakunodate.
KAKUNODATE: OTBP: 8 ½ OVERALL: 6 ½
Given i was back to sendai relatively early, that gave me the opportunity to walk ( yes I walked even there ) to see the dai-kannon. The walk was nice, it took me through some very quiet neighbourhood that you wouldn’t normally visit. When I reached the statue It was too late to go inside it but I still had a good view of it. That is a quite impressive sight, you almost have difficulty to grasp the actual size of it. The area around the statue has really nothing to offer, therefore my honest suggestion is take a ride with the sightseeing bus and use that to reach it and once you’re finished with the statue move to a more interesting spot.
And this was my last day in Sendai. My plan at this point was to book two nights at Koriyama but probably because of the golden week I wasn’t able to find a hotel to my liking there therefore I decided to book one night in Fukushima and the next night in Koriyama. These were the two more expensive nights of all my trip and still ended up spending only around 70 € a night.
Day 6: plan for the day: leave the luggage in the hotel, visit Yamadera, go back to sendai, pick up the luggage and move to fukushima to spend the night. Yamadera is truly easy to reach from Sendai and a very recommended destination if you happen to be in Sendai. The place is mostly known for a temple that is reachable walking an abundant number of steps up a hillside. You reach the town, wich Is a very little and cozy village in the mountains west from Sendai and the temple is very close to the station so it’s not possible to miss it. You can tell the whole village revolves around the temple but it still maintain an authentic spirit. Lots of restaurants and little shops to visit on the road that brings to the temple. The temple itself is very “vertical” : sets of stone stairs will lead you up the side of the hills, till you reach the main building and a couple of satellite building where you’ll be rewarded by an amazing view on the village below. If you don’t mind stairs you’ll be rewarded with a very relaxing atmosphere. Here too given the latitude and the altitude I’ve been able to enjoy a couple of late blossoming cherry trees. The weather was amazing that day and all the gardens where full of flowers, this made the whole trip particularly enjoyable. Luckly I’m an early bird because later in the day the place was really packed with visitors. Once I was finished I had a nice set of Yamagata Dashi Soba in a typical restaurant with Tatamis low tables and a beautiful view on the river that cuts in half the village.
YAMADERA: OTBP: 10 OVERALL 9
After a late lunch I jumped back to the train, went back to sendai to pickup the luggage and moved to the next stop, Fukushima. Here I had the first disappointment of my trip. As my usual I booked a hotel that was close to the main train station, wich is usally the place where you want to be. I had a walk around there and the impression I got from Fukushima was that the place was miserable, a place that has really nothing much to offer to a tourist and not even to a citizen because compared to all the other places I’ve been in japan the impression was that even the locals weren’t as lively and enjoying life that much. I hope I’m not offending anyone and for sure I can’t give a proper review of the place after just an evening spent there, but the impression I got was of one of those town, that you can find in every country you'll visit, where young people can’t wait to get old enough to run away from.
FUKUSHIMA: OTBP: 9 ½ OVERALL: 4
DAY 7: wake up in fukushima, move to Koriyama, leave the luggage at the hotel, and then visit Ouchi-Juku and Aizu Wakamatsu. If you’re wondering, the thing is doable but you need to move early. Once you reach Koriyama you take the local train for Aizu Wakamatsu. There you jump on another local train, wich isn’t entirely operated by JR so you’ll have to pay a ticket, to Yunokami Onsen station where you end up in one of the coolest train stations in japan because it’s built in the style of a traditional house with wooden interiors and a straw roof, and it has a feet onsen right outside where you can wait the train while bathing your feet in thermal water, how cool is that?
From here you take a bus and reach Ouchi Juku. On paper it sounds harder than it actually is but you have to plan your trip properly. Ouchi Juku is a post town all made of traditional houses that reminds you a bit of Shirakawa Go, I frankly don’t know how it isn’t more popular among foreigners cause it’s truly a one of a kind place. Most probably is because it’s so off the beaten path and hard to reach. Still it’s extremely popular among Japanese people because the place was crowded and, when I left, the car traffic was stuck by how many people where trying to reach the place by car. I have to tell you in all honestly the place is probably a bit too touristy because there’s not a single house that isn’t turned into a gift shop or a restaurant. But still the place is so charming and picturesque that is totally worth a visit, plus the surrounding woods, mountains and rice field really act like a frame around the most beautiful picture. So I spend the morning here and around 2 pm I move back to Aizu, because there are really not many bus runs in the evening taking you back to Yunokami Onsen and you better reach the place early.
OUCHI JUKU: OTBP: 10 OVERALL: 9
That gives me the opportunity to visit Aizu Wakamatsu. Ive heard about the city for its castle and for the legend of the Byakko Tai. I get off to Aizu Wakamatsu main station and walk across town till I reach the castle. Keep in mind it’s Saturday and along the whole walk I might have crossed three people. The city was deserted and one thing I’ve learned is, if people on a Saturday evening flee a city like that, then there isn’t much to do or see there, and that’s the impression I got, kinda like Fukushima, probably even worse. Still, I reached the castle: the park is very nice, the castle is a beautiful Japanese castle but, to my understanding it’s a modern reconstruction cause the original castle was lost during the Meiji restoration as Aizu was one of the spots that rised against the emperor. At least around the castle there were now many people. From the castle, wich I didn’t visit inside, I went back to the train station, this time I reached Nanukamachi station and I have to admit it the area there seemed more alive and interesting to stroll around than the area around main Aizu station, therefore maybe I just walked across the wrong part of the town, I honestly can’t tell.
AIZU: OTBP: 9 OVERALL: 6
From Aizu I finally moved by train to Koriyama. I really didn’t spend enough time there to have a proper opinion but the impression I got was of a laid back place, more relaxing than sendai and definitely more alive than fukushima. If I had more time I’d probably give it a shot for a day visit, it might be a surprise.

DAY 8: by this day I ended up with a terrible sore throath that I had to endure almost till my last day in japan. I never had a fever but there was definitely something going around, I kept hearing many Japanese people coughing on trains all around japan so there was definitely something going around, maybe it’s just the season changing, it happens during this season all the times to have some cold or cough. Anyway, the day I had to wake up early and move from Koriyama to Nagoya by Shinkansen, wich was a considerably long trip but at least it gave me the opportunity to take probably the best picture I’ve ever take of mount fuji, from the train. Once in Nagoya I left the luggage in the hotel ( wich, thanks probably to the fact that the golden week just ended, I happened to book for 4 nights for a whopping 25€ a night wich was a total steal even for current Japanese standard prices ). There I immediately jumped on another train and went to visit Inuyama.
The area around Nagoya is a bit tricky cause it’s full of railroads operated by a company that is not JR wich are not covered by the JR Pass but there’s a JR station a bit to the north of Inuyama that will do the job. The place is totally recommended for three reason: it’s overall nice, with the Kiso river cutting it, the castle is one of the few original ones and even if small is considered a national treasure and the whole area around the castle is very nice and worthy to spend some time on. So I visited the castle, the view from the top floor is awesome and in a clear day you can easily spot the skyline of Nagoya. Outside the castle there’s an edo style street full of shops, restaurants and street food that is nice to explore, totally recommended a walk there.
INUYAMA: OTBP: 8 ½ OVERALL: 10
Coming back to Nagoya I just had energy to look for food then I went back to my hotel for a good night of sleep.
DAY 9: a day trip from Nagoya to Ise. The trip isn’t that easy, you got to take a couple of trains if you move only by JR ( and a couple of stops of one of them aren’t even JR operated wich is a little confusing honestly ) and you end up in Iseshi station. From there I moved to Ise Jingu Geku, wich is the outer sanctuary and from there you can take a bus ( guess what, I walked instead ) to the main Ise sanctuary. If you don’t know Ise Jingu is the most sacred place in the Shinto religion and is regularly visited even by the emperor given his role in the Shinto religion. Inside the main temple one of the most sacred relics of Shinto religion is preserved.
Well, being totally honest here’s my impressions of Ise: it’s not simple to reach. The city itself, for what I’ve seen, looks like it has seen better days, meaning it looks like it’s falling apart. And the temples, there’s really not that much to see: they are in a forest, and the temples are not that spectacular, plus the most interesting parts are forbidden to visit. You can go to Atsuta Jingu without moving out from Nagoya and have a fairly realistic impression of what you would see in Ise without all the issues. I know people will attack me for what I’m saying, but that is what I’ve got from it. The most fun part was the edo style neighborhood that you can find right before entering the main Isu complex, wich looks almost like a theme park. I don’t say don’t go there, I say if you are, as you are probably, on borrowed time, with lots of places you want to visit and too few days to see them all, if Ise is in your list you might want to use the day to see something else.
ISE: OTBP: 6 ½ OVERALL: 6 ½
DAY 10: I decided to spend the day in Nagoya and take a look of the city, thanks also to the weather that was a bit rainy and really not inviting for another day trip. What I’ve seen in a day is the samurai exposition in Marunouchi. It’s free and it’s totally worth it, lots of beautiful samurai armours and swords. There’s another exposition that opened not many years ago that you can go nto too far but I didn’t visit so I can’t tell about that. From here I went to Nagoya castle. You pay to enter the complex but currently the Castle is under restoration and you can see it from outside ( it’s very impressive, Nagoya and Osaka castles are massive ) but not visit from inside. But the Honmaru Palace right beside it is open and totally worth a visit. From here took the subway ( yeah today I didn’t walk much so I got a subway day pass ) to the Osu Shotengai Shopping District, wich is the usual kind of covered shopping streets nest you can find in all the Japanese cities, and then moved again to Atsuta Jingu Shrine that, as I said, to me is a completely valid alternative to visiting Ise. The day went by without even noticing and I couldn’t see all the other places I had picked, like the Toyota museum, the tokugawa museum or the science museum, but that’s what you get when you only have one day dedicated to visit a city as big as Nagoya. Still I had time to get an impression of the city and I honestly don’t get the bad reputation it has among foreigners, the city looked to me quite interesting, nice, full of things to see and the people felt particularly laid back compared to cities like Tokyo or Osaka, it’s probably the place where I’ve seen the biggest number of tanned Japanese in all the country. To me Nagoya is totally worth at least two or three days dedicated only to visiting the city.
NAGOYA: OTBP: 5 OVERALL: 9
DAY 11: my original plan was to walk the Nakasendo from Magome to Tsumago. But the weather that day was kinda shit, I wasn’t feeling particularly In the mood of a walk because of my throath and I was starting to feel a bit tired, so I improvised and went for a day in Takayama and Gero Onsen. Takayama is pretty famous. I went there around 20 years ago and I remembered it as a very nice place. Getting back now, with all the Japanese places I’ve seen so far, I would say this: the train trip to Takayama is Spectacular, is a truly feast for the eyes. The town itself, it left me a little disappointed. The Edo style streets that its famous for, I’ve seen so many of them at that point around japan that it didn’t really leave a significant impression on me. And it was honestly smaller than I remembered it. Plus the weather, as I said, didn’t help. So overall the reality didn’t stand up to my memories and my expectations. Plus most of the houses there have now been turned in cheap souvenir shops with nothing giving you an authentic feeling. Don’t know, probably I wasn’t really in the mood that day.
TAKAYAMA: OTBP: 2 OVERALL: 6 ½
I took the opportunity on the way back to stop at Gero Onsen. Unfortunately I didn’t have the time to actually stop for an onsen cause overall the whole day wasn’t planned and I mainly improvised. Still the town is very nice and probably, having no expectations or no knowledge of it, even more worth visiting than Takayama. Had a nice walk around the town, and at least had the opportunity to “feel” the thermal water cause there’s plenty of fountains with hot spring water where you can rest your feet or your hands. It was enough to make me aware that a proper onsen there must be a very enjoyable experience.
GERO ONSENS: OTBP: 8 OVERALL: 8
And after this I went to Nagoya where I spent my last night in the city.

DAY 12: moving to Fukuoka ( Hakata ). I booked a hotel near Hakata station so I jumped on the shinkansen and moved there. The ride was as confortable as any shinkansen ride can be and I reached the place sooner than I imagined. First thing was a good look of the city from the panoramic floor in the station. Then had a walk to the Canal City mall wich is a very weirdly and interesting designed mall that is a very popular location in town. Had a walk from there to Nakasu island where I got a quick dinner considering it was already time, and had another walk around the area wich unfortunately will turn out to be my only experience of Fukuoka. I’ll spend here three nights but the following days will be so full that won’t give me any chance to visit the town more, so in the end I don’t really have an opinion on Fukuoka if not that I should probably have spent more time there, but unfortunately the days you have are numbered and there’s so much to see that you have to give up something here and there, so i won't even give a vote to the city.
DAY 13: Destination is Kagoshima that it’s easily reachable by train. I went there with no real expectation and I was totally blown away. Something clicked and I instantly liked the town, I must say that probably the fact that one of the most beautiful girls I’ve seen in japan out of the blue started a conversation with me on the train probably helped a lot in putting me in a good mood.
From the station I walked downtown till the coast. On the way I stopped shopping a bit, found a local market where local artisans that day were exposing their crafts wich I liked a lot and went to the top floor of the Centerrace Mall to get a panoramic view of the city with an amazing view on Sakurajima volcano. If you don’t know it’s the symbol of the city and it’s said to be almost always active, the whole day I’ve been there he kept puffing little clouds of smoke from time to time, it was very cool. So, once reached the cost I walked ( you should know it by now ) till I reached Sengan-En wich is the garden and the palace of a local lord and it’s very beautiful, totally worth a visit, also compared to many other places in japan, this is more modern and therefore more unique both in the architecture of the palace and the style of the garden. I’d say if you are in Kagoshima you won’t regret visiting it ( maybe don’t do like me and take a bus cause it’s more than 6 km from the station ). After visiting Sengan En I went back to the ferries and took a ferry to Sakurajima. The ferry is very cheap, 200 yen, and quick to reach it’s destination, but on Sakurajima there’s really not much to do if you don’t plan to use a bus or some other kind of transportation. Since it was already evening, I had nothing planned and I had to go back to Hakata, I just took the time to have a walk on the Lava Trail wich is a walk in a natural park that has grown over an old lava flow, wich is a quite unique thing that I enjoyed more than I expected. Then I went back to Kagoshima, had dinner and moved back to Hakata. I have to say I really enjoyed Kagoshima, the city has a unique vibe, very laid back, the people seemed to be relaxed and happy and were much more open toward foreigners than anywhere I’ve experienced. If I’ll ever be back in japan I’ll surely manage to spend some more time in Kagoshima. I took the train and I was back in hakata at around midnight so I went straight to bed in hotel
KAGOSHIMA: OTBP: 10 OVERALL: 10
Day 14: Nagasaki. Another fairly easy destination to reach from Fukuoka. The city itself is very narrow and develops around its river. As a tourist I was immediately attracted to its atomic bomb museum, wich is north from the station. I went there, you don’t say, by foot.
And later, once I’ve done with the atomic bomb part, the Nagasaki near the sea.
And here starts the tale of the two Nagasaki, because it feels like two different places in one. The north part, wich I didn’t enjoy much, felt a bit neglected and it’s mostly houses where people live. And it’s the part where you’ll see more tourists because as I said all the atomic spots are there.
On the other hand the south part near the city was to me much more alive and full of life, I’m no expert but that’s probably where the locals like to spend their free time and on the other hand you’ll see way less tourists here.
Back to the morning, I did what most tourists do, and visited the atomic bomb museum, the peace park, the ipocenter, and went also to see the half standing torii that is one of the few authentic places left as testament of the bombing, around the city. Talking about the museum, I’ve been to both thins and Hiroshima and, even if Hiroshima is bigger and with much more to see, I would suggest if one has the opportunity to visit also the Nagasaki one, it absolutely has its own legs to stand on. On a side note, out of 10 visitors, 9 were foreigners, I guess Japanese already know their history and don’t feel the need to visit such a place on a nice Sunday morning.
The peace park it’s a park, there you can see the famous statue wich is one of the main symbols of Nagasaki and that, if you ask me, is one of the ugliest statues you can find in the world, but still if you’re in Nagasaki you probably don’t want to miss it.
After lunch I moved to the sea side, here I’ve seen DeiJima wich is the former artificial island where the Portuguese were segregated centuries ago, very interesting place, kinda like a mix of an open air museum and a theme park, felt a little bit plastic but still worth some of your time.
Then had a walk to the near seaside park wich is a very nice and relaxing place where flocks of eagles fly so low over your head that if you rise your hand you can almost touch them, and pretty much ended the day there before having to go back to Fukuoka.
NAGASAKI: OTBP: 5 OVERALL: 7 ½

Day 15 – 16 - 17: my last full days in japan. I was in need of some rest at this point and I needed to move closer to Narita where I had booked my flight for day 18, so i spent more than half of day 15 to transfer from Hakata to Tokyo. I booked my last hotel for three nights near Otsuka station, wich if you ask me is a nice spot to stay in Tokyo. When I arrived in the evening there was a rose festival and all around the station there were roses bushes in flower and there were people singing and the whole station looked alive but also quiet, if you like a place to stay In Tokyo that it’s not chaotic like Shinjuku or Shibuya I’d recommend Otsuka.
The last days aren’t really worth mentioning, I’ve spent most of the time shopping for souvenirs, and recovering for all the travel i did the two weeks before. I explored a couple of places worth mentioning that not everyone ever goes to in Tokyo, like Nakano Broadway ( a weird shopping district that feels like a little Akiabara ), Nippori where there’s a little known street nice for shopping, or Chiba where there’s one of the biggest mall in japan but apart from that nothing much that you can read in the report of anyone who have been to Tokyo.
And with this, I think I can conclude my report. If you want me to upload some picture and you have a site to suggest me where it’s easy to upload and you don’t have to make an account let me know and if there’s enough interest I will oblige as soon as I’ve finished downloading all the pictures from my phone.

Zero launches his ax forward and buddha leans back and dodges
The ax head then forces into a rough edge and is jabbed towards Buddha who calmly dodges. Zero begins unleashing a flurry of blows with his misery cleaver, moving faster than most of the crowd can make out (Say gex!). The cleaver flashes into different forms and yet, none of these hits land on the Buddha as he calmly dodges and in the middle of Zero’s barrage flips up and strikes Zero in the chin with the bottom of his staff, followed up by a swift kick which forces zero to cough up a blood like substance.
Zero begins to choke and starts spitting out a blood-like substance onto his dropped cleaver.
Ares: Wh-wh-who is that? He seems pretty weak, He can’t even hit buddha.
Hermes: Buddha is a tricky opponent… Imagine how you would do, even if you predicted him correctly he’d just move before you could strike.
Ares:Still, Zero seems pretty weak. That ax is pretty odd though. Did it grow from his blood?
Hermes:His ax is one of if not the most terrifying divine weapon, it contours and grows with Zero’s hate and misery. Anything that makes him upset will only empower his next strike.
As zero sits on the ground coughing and hacking his blood turns darker and pools around the cleaver.
Zero: You should die! NOW! As the darkness yet to take form coallesses around the ax and seemingly disappears.
Zero begins screaming towards the Buddha, his misery carried in his voice, reverberating around and causing huge headaches for most audience members [Miserable Melody]
At being so close Buddha's ears begin to bleed. The enlightened one begins to be pushed back as the pure misery in Zero’s voice along with his horrible singing and the now flinging blades at Buddha who still calmly dodges despite his ruptured eardrums.
Ares: What the heck was that awful singing? Why did it have to be that loud?
Hermes: Hmmm? Oh well it was a good attack, as you saw Buddha couldn’t dodge it. Sound reflects across surfaces and with the amount of power inputted Zero was able to hit Buddha, most likely not a fatal wound but a hit on a tricky foe.
Zeus emerges: Is my alarm clock going off? Oh ho… that’s just Zero screaming…well at least he hit buddha.
The silence following is deafening and as Zero takes another breath and begins yelling again, waves of darkness rolling off of the unluckiest god underneath the heavens. At this Buddha smiles as his staff begins to glow as it morphs from a staff to a long and barbed club[Animal realm,Horse-faced Kanon] as Buddha begins slowly at first to move towards the horribly singing Zero. After a while Buddha begins leaping around as a swarm of blades tries to get purchase in his flesh and he smacks Zero straight in the throat stopping the horrible aria.
Buddha: Damn,your puberty is awesome Zero, I don’t know anyone else who could have done that.
Zero: Damn you, I’m awesome after you abandoned me for 2000 years? I don’t want to hear your excuses or lies! You don’t like me… Like everyone else… always hating me… making these impossible tasks… I’m worthless…I’m miserable…
Zero swings his ax as Buddha slides in and gets a quick and clean hit on the side of Zero
Confucius: I suppose that Buddha feels bad for little Zero…
Socrates: It’s unlike Buddha but still, it feels so wrong…
Goll: How did Buddha get in there without taking a scratch? Shouldn’t Zero be able to hit him?Where did the club come from?
Brunhilde: Buddha has a unique ability, to one who is enlightened, he sees a moment or two into the future and can use it to dodge. It is his eight consciousness enlightenment!His staff reacts to his emotions and goes a corresponding form based on one of the six buddhist realms.
Zero’s misery cleaver grows in size and splits into a cataclysmic amount of sharp blades.These then surge forward in a wave like pattern [Miserable Maelstrom] which buddha jumps back, astonished as his weapon changes into a shield[Ahimsa, Eleven-faced Kannon] which takes the first wave as buddha dodges the liquid like blades flying in from all directions, only a few scratches on buddha’s form.

So my wife has a concussion. Perhaps 5 days ago?
So far, she had a headache emerge about an hour afterward, and it shifts around quite a bit, and ebbs and flows.
Dizziness appeared mostly the day after. She saw the urgent care that day and we have some general guidelines but I mean, this wasn't covered.
And nausea the day after that.
Her symptoms are overall improving. Just a lot of "I feel good enough to go to the store" then needing to come back, but the time she can go out has been increasing well.
We've both gotten a little minor cough it seems like.
But when she coughs, it makes her headaches worse. It seems like some form of what position she is standing or sitting it does that too.
Is this common? Should we be concerned?

add about cough/possible bronchitis
My SOs health is starting to bother me
We’ve been together 2 years. She is obese. I’m no doctor; I just know she’s about 250 and is 5’5”. I understand people can be healthy at different sizes but she isn’t. She’s almost always has some kind of health problem. It seems like every week she has some sickness and/or pain. To be fair she does work kids but It’s to the point I’ve kind of accepted it as part of the norm of our relationship. She did struggle with an eating disorder before we met (still has tendency to binge currently) and does deal with dismorphomia.
Background of the eating disorder:
she was (imo) heavily abused as a kid. Her mom physically abuse, emotionally abused, and financially abused (later in life) her. Her mom also forced her to do and compete in gymnastics at near Olympic level even though she never wanted to do it at all.
Speculating: I think her childhood is why she (imo) struggles living healitly and has an aversion to exercise especially. I understand it’s up to to her and if shes happy she’s happy, but she isn’t. She is always (warrentedly) complaining. In terms of pain she has a bad back, frequent headaches, she avoids bending down, and more.
I’m understanding though. Some people have health problems. For me, as long as someone is doing something about it I’m fine, but she doesn’t and when she does it feels like she does it for me rather than for herself. I myself deal with depression and bipolar disorder, and Crohn’s disease. I’m in therapy and im taking my respective medications. I also try to watch what eat and take care of my physical health
I love her, there’s no doubt. She so generous, pretty, and loyal. I love all the fun we have together and have we’ve grown a lot together. I’m worried about how her weight will get in the way of us enjoying life together. I like walking, running, yoga, lifting, and generally keeping myself fit and healthy
Now I’m no Dwayne Johnson myself. I’m not saying these things to be condescending. I’m 5’3” and 130 and I have my flaws. I wasn’t really exercising for a long time while I was depressed and with her for the first year. However it’s always been something I’ve wanted and tried to do even when I struggled. In the the last 6 months or so I’m become medicated for my mental health, been going to therapy, and I’ve made fitness a lifestyle. I lift twice a week and run and do yoga five days a week. I know she wants to lose weight too so I’ve offered a few times for us to do it together. I’ve offered for us to do yoga together, she never wants to. I’m not pressuring her, mind you. I suggest these things only if I think it would helpful for what’s she going through and/or it’s for us to spend time together. Personally, I also try to look for what I can do and try to be positive in generally but she seems to have developed a defeatist mentality. I’ve suggested small exercises that she could do even while on the couch, she doesn’t want to. She and I have gone on a walk maybe a hand full of times since we met (ironically our first date was basically a hike and to be fair people mostly drive where I am) and each time she can’t last 10 minutes before she’s in immense pain. One time she cried because she felt so bad about not being able to do a simple walk with me for a 5 minutes without immense pain.
Her weight wasn’t a problem for me before but overtime this being a problem for her and her not doing anything about it has made it become a problem for me. I can be attracted to almost any body type, my first girlfriend was also overweight (maybe obese). I’m usually more focused on confidence in this department. She’s said herself that doesn’t like looking at herself in the mirror and she “doesn’t believe I would have pick her in real life” (we met via OLD and it is not true). I like personality more than looks; I like her generosity, I like her work ethic, I love silliness, I love her loyalty, we have such great times together, I miss her always, we communicate well, and even when we have problems we work together to address it, I love her.
She wants to have kids one day; she said would have a kid now if I wanted to too. I’m not sure about having kids but she knows this and is ok with it. I’ve started to often think “if you’re struggling with all this stuff now, how are going to handle being pregnant and everything that motherhood require of you?” Despite her health, financial struggles, and having a very toxic family she would have a kid tomorrow if she could. It’s fine to want this but during our relationship we got pregnant and we had an abortion. After that happened I only wanted to have sex with condoms and/or contraceptive but she continues to push for without and “just being careful”.
Additionally, just recently she had a bad and persistent cough. No idea what was causing. I advise her to put a pause on smoking weed because the smoke could make things worse. She didn’t do that. Its her life and she can do what she wants but I just don’t think it was a smart choice, who knows if the cough wouldn’t have last a week if she did, and overall this is another example of her not taking care of her health
In the beginning things felt so much better but idk if feels like these aforementioned unaddressed problems (coupled with depression and having a hard life) has changed her. In the beginning what attracted me to her was her happiness, her self worth, her, and her ambition. Now she’s usually stressed and or not happy, doesn’t see much value in herself, and I don’t see her ambition anymore except when it comes to our relationship in a way

M18 ive been smoking since i was 16 and have smoked 6-7 cigs a day since march of 2022. Never faced any problems till now but from the past 2 days ive been having trouble breathing and i have to take frequent breaks inbetween talking cus i feel like im running out of breath. I also cant stop coughing and i feel like theres mucus in my throat. I cant take a long breath even. It all started all of a sudden and from what ive read i might have asthma im ready to quit smoking how do i deal with this?