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Obviously seeing as there were no reports in any newspapers or on the more regularly updated blogs of my buddies, the Boy and I survived our trip to Italy and the brief one to the UK.

I managed to get a really snotty cold in Florence - but luckily found some super strength tissues to get me and my tap-nose through. Also lucky - I didn’t get struck down with headaches until the very morning I flew back.

But boy oh boy when those hit they hit hard.

I didn’t take anything when I had a cold - but after a couple of sessions of spending days lying still in a dark room, icing my head to try and get some relief from the pain - I chucked in the towel and begged the Boy to put an end to my misery and slice off my head.

No wait - that’s not right - I asked him to get me some painkillers.

Now anyone who has caught the pregnancy or knows someone close that has will recall that you can’t take many medicines at this time. After searching and cross referencing info it turns out the safest painkiller to take is Tylenol.

To an Australian in Japan this won’t mean much - but it might if I share with any fellow Australians that Tylenol = Panadol. The active ingredient is called acetaminophen in the States and paracetamol elsewhere.

In Japan it’s also known as acetaminophen (アセトアミノフェン), and since the end of 2000 has been marketed here by Johnson&Johnson, under the Tylenol brand [Japanese].

If you are thinking “Um okaaay MJ” at this point the reason I spell this out is because I have never come across Tylenol here before. Not that I’m one for taking painkillers anyway - but it was about half a year ago when I looked into finding cheaper aspirin to make face masks around this area in the pharmacies extensively and would have remarked upon seeing Tylenol had I seen it. Also with my research I found several messages from even 2006 of people trying to find painkillers here. So it was with much doubt that I sent the Boy off into the wilderness of Hiratsuka to find it.

And find it he did - 4 minutes away in the Create down the road. To my utter amazement. It didn’t get me out of lying still in a dark room icing my head, but it took enough of the pain away so that I could sit up and eat properly.

So if you are wandering the web wondering if you can get Tylenol/Panadol in Japan - fear not! Seems that it’s finally become established as a brand and is more widely available now.

Oh also the migraines seem to have been hormone related and have been tapering off. As has the constant nausea. Which is of course a very good development.

• Whoa just what I needed. I have been trying to locate Tylenol for awhile now and wondered if I had to travel with my suitcase full of the drug. Thank the Lord it is here now.

  Jimmy Dalehouse
  Location: Japan
  08/02/08 03:19 PM