The Monday Read

Staycation Edition

Managed to take a couple of days off last week, so took a short staycation at one of our favourite ‘local’ hotels (it’s about an hour and a half away by car, on the Oshika Peninsula opposite Kinkasan).

The prefecture is running a travel promotion scheme (like the Go To ones earlier in the pandemic), so we got 5,000 yen per person per night taken off the bill, and also got 5,000 yen’s worth of vouchers each to spend at restaurants and shops in Miyagi.

It ended up being an extremely reasonable, extremely needed couple of nights away. We did nothing but go in the onsen, watch streaming movies, and eat 🙂

Kinkasan from our hotel window
Kinkasan floating after the mists rolled in on the third day
Uni bowl, free thanks to Go To style vouchers

YouTube

Thank you for your support of the RetireJapan YouTube channel.

I once again completely failed to make a video this week. I feel like I have YouTubers block or something… 😉

In my defence, I ran into some technical problems with my computer that wrecked a couple of half-finished projects, and I didn’t have the bandwidth to do them again from scratch. This is all part of the journey I am sure!

The Forum

The Forum is doing well (21,991 posts so far). Here are the latest active threads:

This week’s books

Reread Armor, by John Steakley. It reminds me of Starship Troopers, and Old Man’s War. A good read.

Also started Happy Sexy Millionaire, by Steven Bartlett, which is okay so far. I might not be its target audience!

This week’s thing

A few days ago my faithful T-fal kettle died after over a decade of service. I need my 3-4 cups of coffee a day so I jumped on Amazon immediately to look for a new one.

And ended up buying the same one again, except now it comes in red. I love it. Just looking at it or holding it (the texture is really pleasing) makes me happy. Definitely sparks joy and improved my life.

Just found this website (12ft ladder) that lets you see paywalled articles. So far it seems to work really well. If you have trouble reading any of the links give it a try!

  1. Completely agree. It’s like waiting at a red light when kids are around. Just follow the local norms if you live here: Foreigners in Japan should stop whining and put a mask on
  2. Really surprising numbers here in this article about early retirement: 「FIRE」した1000人に聞いた、リタイア時の総資産は?
  3. Seems legit (even if you are already married): How to Pick Your Life Partner – Part 2
  4. I found this interesting, more for the thought process than the specifics: Case Study #16: Helping dad with an inheritance
  5. TVs consume almost twice as much power as air conditioners. If you want to save energy: 「テレビを消せばエアコンの1.7倍の節電」　2011年の記事が再度話題に
  6. Not just playing with fire any more, but splashing gasoline around: Heat Waves Around the World Push People and Nations ‘to the Edge’
  7. Found this talk interesting: DEEP DIVE SERIES: START-UP COMPANIES IN JAPAN AND ASIA- “BOOM TIME?”, JUNE 24, 2022
  8. Craig Mod on Covid. I pretty much agree: Covid, one big sigh
  9. As an immigrant to Japan, I approve this message: Migrant
  10. These are pretty good: My Twelve Rules for Life
  11. This is kind of my conclusion. Not sure how to approach things in our new world: There Is No ‘Back to Normal’ After Covid
  12. I stopped really thinking about money once I had enough: Wealth vs. Getting Wealthier
  13. Did this with money. Need to do it with health next: Keep It Going
  14. This is a nice little thread about the Japanese pension fund (Reddit): GPIF report – the current state of the Japanese pension fund

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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6 Responses

  2. For travel I use a Bodrum? clear ‘plastic’ double walled French press. In summer I do an extra strong overnight cold soak before pressing and it’s strong enough for me to dilute to x2 americano taste and also have a few tbs to make cafe au lait for my son.

  3. In principle, I agree about the masks and following the local rules.
    And I generally follow those… but, really, walking in the park and wearing a mask doesn’t usually make sense. If there’s someone coughing behind my shoulder or in my face – I definitely need a mask, but usually there’s no one like that. Or, of course, if I’m the one coughing, then yes.

    1. Oh, I don’t wear masks outside. Stopped doing that in April, unless it is a crowded street.

      That is also what the government is currently advising.

      But I’ll put mine on if I go inside, or talk to someone, or it is busy.

  4. #2 – So most Japanese early retirees have quit work with less than $150,000 in the bank? Sounds insane to me. How would this even work out? Maybe if you had a fully paid-off house and a partner who was still working… but even then…

    1. I know, right? We have… quite a bit more than that, still working, still worried about black swan events…