Yep, Happy Birthday Midton; forty-two eh! That number is the answer to life, the universe and everything, according to Douglas Adams in Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy (the Trilogy in Four Parts).
Anyway, it was me who suspected you were living in Japan; I'm half Japanese (yes a half-Japanese Geordie (they used to call me 'Whey-Aye-Banzai' when I was in the army; though the Americans here won't get that joke)).
I was born in Maizuru, near Kobe, my Dad (a Geordie alcoholic) was building ships there in the late 60s. I've lots of Japanese family in Kochi and another wadge of them in Nagoya (there's a great monkey park there).
Anyway, good luck, eat lots of sweet stuff when/if you' crave; I also found sweet fruit juices usefull to. Oh, a change of routine is good. If you've got a set time when you start drinking (mine was 2.00 pm on a weekday, and midday on a weekend) plan to do something at that time, since that's when the cravings will start. I used to go to town, get a haircut, call into the library, or just mince about the shops and avoiding pubs wasn't really a problem; I wasn't a pub drinker (I drank alone);anything different to kill time.