So I’m back home from Japan. It’s Thanksgiving Day, a holiday here in the states. Usually family and friends gather and eat. Not Me and Nikki (my partner) though. She’s sick and has lost her voice and I’m on a self imposed quarantine until we both 100% (I’m currently at like 99.9) prepare yourself for a read, this one may be long.

So if you follow me on the gram (@buckwhite) then you know that about 5 days into my 20 day trip I got sick with what I assume was the flu. Here’s a brief article from The Asahi Shimbun about the severe flu outbreak happening in Japan currently.

https://www.asahi.com/sp/ajw/articles/16175605

Now I want to be clear and say that I was a good tourist and got vaccinated for both covid and the flu 2 weeks before my trip (as did Nikki). So anyway once it hit, it started with a sore throat and severely stuffy nose and slight fatigue and that lasted for 3 days. I only left the house to eat and walked around masked up outside for a few hours, but basically I was indoors in my Airbnb those 3 days. At this time Nikki had not yet arrived in Japan.

Then all hell broke loose. And by hell I mean my asshole. Without getting too descriptive, everything that went in, came out immediately. I had a fever, I was cold and hot and hot and cold. This went on for 2 days. Then Nikki arrived. I was so scared to get her sick, so we masked up and she went out with my homies most of the next few days. So I’m on like day 6 or 7 of being sick and even though I was turning a corner, there was a concern I had that I won’t state here so I went to a clinic to have a doctor check me over for my health. Nikki went with me she’s a sweetheart.

The doctor said I was good to go and should will be fine. So now, with about 1/3 of my trip gone and having to cancel plans with friends I barely get to see and not go places I barely get to go… I had only one option: give up on my all my plans and just go go go. Fuck it. So me and Nikki go out and do us. Things are looking up. Some days go by and we on the move…

This is when Nikki starts feeling sick. I knew my vacation was ruined and over when I got sick, but when she got sick it was worse cause she had only half the time I had in Japan and now she’s going to lose time. It sucks. Also, it felt like my fault because she probably caught it from me. Luckily, Nikki symptoms never got as severe and she was a trooper and able to get back out there after only 2 days basically indoors.

At this point I feel totally fine, my stomach wasn’t acting up anymore, and even then my nose was still boogery and even today I still am coughing (rarely, but still coughing). Nicole says she’s about a 7 out of 10 right now so all in all I think by Monday we will both be past this flu shit.

So what am I thankful for this year. I’m alive. Nikki still wakes up everyday and decides she loves me which is amazing. My family, my friends, you know the usual. I think I want to use the rest of this blog to vent though, because I think it’s also ok to be unthankful.

I’m unthankful to the flu, fuck you virus. Our vacation was ruined. Most of our time was wasted. Experiences we were looking forward to, not experienced. People we were excited to see, unseen. I was in a place I love, my second home, and all I wished for was that I wasn’t there and that I was home and could reset the trip. I’m not trying to be all woe is me, but woe is me man.

I got travel insurance, I’ve made a claim for my healthcare expenses out there. We will see how that goes, luckily Japan has great healthcare so it was very inexpensive. I’m thankful for that lol.

I have more to say about some things, but I’ll save it for a happier post I’ll write tonight and into tomorrow. It’ll probably be the longest and most picture filled post. Thanks for reading. Love yall.