The Monday Read: Health is wealth

An unpleasant reminder of mortality

Somehow I have shingles AGAIN. I first had it about five years ago, and on Sunday last week noticed my face felt tight and slightly painful.

Then on Monday the first sores appeared, and my wife suggested I might want to go to the dermatologist.

On Tuesday morning my doctor was commenting on how strange it was to see someone get shingles twice in such a short period of time.

Seems to be a lot milder this time, or maybe I caught it and started taking the necessary drugs early enough. I got away with headaches, nasty sores on my face (I looked like a diseased chipmunk for a while), moderate ear pain (shingles can attack your ear and eye nerves apparently), and fairly severe fatigue. That last one might have been a side effect of the drugs though.

The worst seems to be over, I am just hoping that the face sores don’t scar this time and that I don’t get shingles again anytime soon…

Seems that stress and a reduced immune system can contribute to shingles (the cause is dormant chicken pox virus that remains in your body forever!), and I have been a bit busy this month and did not get enough sleep. Something to be careful about going forward.

I will be taking the shingles vaccine when I get to age 50 and become eligible for it here in Japan.

Take care of yourselves! Wealth is pointless without health 😉

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Here are the latest active threads:

This week’s books

No new books this week. Still enjoying the Murakami book on writing.

This week’s links

1. I favour a moderate fee for visa on arrival and tourist visas (maybe 100 USD). This would bring in an extra 3 billion USD a year, and most visitors wouldn’t even notice that kind of fee: Japan Struggles to Implement Dual-Pricing for Foreign Visitors
2. When your spending sparks joy… Japanese superfan with Olympic-sized wallet eager to make new memories in Paris
3. Wonderful: Dispatch from Herman Melville’s Farm
4. Carpe diem: How a brush with death shaped my long game
5. My wife’s business is likely in this category: not quite big enough to be viable, but might be worth taking over. Japan finds a ‘stealth’ cure for zombie businesses: Let them fail
6. I think Japan is getting better at dealing with diverse Japanese citizens, but there is still some way to go: 98% with mixed Japanese heritage experience microaggressions: survey
7. Probably a good thing: Japan Inc. shows signs of faster rejuvenation
8. Really interesting Reddit thread on what to do to retire early once the money is taken care of: FIRE in Japan – Steps to Take
9. I love Paul’s videos (YouTube): How 7-Eleven Japan works
10. Great news. Let’s hope this keeps accelerating: Why the era of China’s soaring carbon emissions might be ending
11. This sounds impressive but the headline is misleading (my wife owns shares in 23 different companies, for example): No. of individual shareholders in Japan tops 70 mil. for 1st time

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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