Praying to the Gods for Money yet again Edition

This weekend my wife and I are back at Kinkasan off the coast of Miyagi, at the Koganeyama Shrine. Legend (or, more likely, the priests at the shrine) say that if you attend the annual ceremony three times in a row you will never want for money again.

There is always an interesting crowd at the ceremony. Lots of company presidents, often with entourages, from all over Japan.

This is our third attendance, BUT two years ago when we tried to come a typhoon resulted in the boats to the island and the ceremony being cancelled. So we have only done two in a row.

I suspect choosing to have the annual ceremony in late September (bang in the middle of typhoon season) was deliberate 😉

If all goes to plan next year we’ll achieve the coveted triple status. Mwa ha ha.

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This week’s books

Started reading The Ink Black Heart, by Robert Galbraith/JK Rowling. It’s… pretty bad. Poorly researched, badly written. I’m struggling a little to get through it. Do not recommend unless you enjoyed the first five Strike books, and even then with a pinch of salt…

This week’s links

  1. Hurrah! Passive vs active investing: why passive wins
  2. Enjoyed this long read about technology: Indistinguishable from magic
  3. I think they should just scrap the project at this point: Make Mine Maglev (3)
  4. Over half in cash??? Japanese household assets stand at ¥2,007 tril as of June
  5. Getting quite geeky now, but still interesting: Designing a New Old Home: The Elements
  6. Agree with this. Being in charge of your work, while more stressful at times, is much more satisfying: You weren’t meant to have a boss
  7. I wonder if this holds up to scrutiny? Bestseller In Japan: “Degrowth Communism” As The Answer to Climate Change, Part I
  8. NISA improvements seem increasingly promising: Kishida pitches Japan’s permanent investment tax break at New York bourse
  9. More links from Undervalued Japan: J-links of interest
  10. Who didn’t see this one coming? Japan to launch domestic travel subsidy program on Oct 11

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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