The Monday Read: Toyota has no cars
Manufacturing issues, incompetence, or a cunning plan? We have four grandkids in Sendai now (and two abroad) so my wife has decided she wants to get a minivan. I had to agree, even though they are not my favourite class of car. Recently we took a ski trip to Appi with one(!) grandchild, and we […]
The Monday Read: Myaku Myaku Fever
Is the Osaka Expo going to be a huge bust? I saw the other day that the Osaka Expo is starting in less than three months. Is anyone planning to go? The website to buy tickets is a complicated mess (you need to book in order to enter a lottery in order to book?). I […]
The Monday Read: The future of Japan
Is likely to be different to how it is now Just spent a few days at Appi Ski Resort in Iwate with my wife and granddaughter. We’ve been coming here for a few years now and there have been some massive changes during that time. The first big one was when the hotels were rebranded […]
The Monday Read: Brighter Skies Ahead
Sometimes all you need is a bit of perspective This week I published a slightly gloomy blog post. I was feeling a bit down, feeling like I wasn’t making progress, feeling frustrated. I got a lot of nice comments and suggestions, which helped me look at the situation from a new perspective. And I also […]
The Monday Read: More and more
Medical hijinks and a scam artist I had more new interesting medical experiences this week (just some tests, nothing serious) which I may write up on the blog in the future. And my wife received a call from the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare informing her that she was suspected of buying illegal drugs […]
The Monday Read: Influenza
That’s when I knew I messed up Last Sunday I got back to Japan after the tiring and very stressful study abroad trip to The Philippines. Finally I could relax. Big mistake. On Tuesday my granddaughter was crying in the morning. I asked her what was wrong but she didn’t answer. We checked her temperature. […]
Sort your finances out in 2025
It’s easier than you might think Happy New Year! I hope 2025 brings you happiness, growth, joy, and excitement. You probably have some resolutions or goals for this year. I do too. One of my biggest goals since I started RetireJapan in 2013 is to help as many people as possible to learn more about […]
The Monday Read: Tadaima
What doesn’t kill you… makes you very tired indeed I’m still helping my wife with her language school (mostly admin or special tasks). One of those tasks was to accompany ten students on a trip to Cebu in The Philippines to study English. Reader, it almost killed me. First, we got to Narita and went […]
The Monday Read: Memento Mori
Sometimes life gives you a little nudge Last week I had a bit of a wake up call: talked about it in this YouTube video last week if you haven’t seen it already. Like the Roman emperors of old, I got a reminder that I am not in control of things, no matter how much […]
2024 Roundup
One post to rule them all… This is the RetireJapan roundup post for 2024. We’ll be going through some successes and failures, as well as my lists of favourite blog posts and videos. Here is the 2023 post if you want to see what that year looked like. 2024 was the year of reps I […]