Happier New Year edition
How was your New Year’s break? Hopefully you had one, and it was restful and enjoyable. We went to the in-laws’, watched kohaku, and ate and drank a bit too much. All good.
I was also awarded my blue belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu last week -quite a big deal. Took me almost two years of hard training, but now that I have it nothing has changed… just need to carry on training. There’s a lesson there methinks.
Every year my family has a tradition where we write our kanji for the new year out -normally something aspirational.
I chose 労 this year. For various reasons I took it easy in 2019 and basically coasted by work-wise. This year I’ve decided to ramp things up a bit and try to get more return for my time (and maybe speed up that FI stuff a bit). Wish me luck!
Here are this week’s links
- I hope they do crack down on visa and working condition violations: Japan’s immigration chief optimistic asylum and visa woes will improve in 2020
- I enjoyed Peter Lynch’s One up on Wall Street. Just ordered his second book: Peter Lynch: The Barry Sanders of Investing
- And yet we still wave a long way to go, it seems: Student’s death reveals dark side of Bhutan-Japan exchange program
- And this is excluding dividends: Charting the World’s Major Stock Markets on the Same Scale (1990-2019)
- It’s not all bad news: From dementia to jobs, does Japan’s ageing society hold the secret to growing old gracefully?
- I’ve seen a lot of this firsthand: Why so many Japanese children refuse to go to school
- Japan could be kinder to refugees, especially as it is having trouble attracting other foreign workers: What Happens When Japan Stops Looking ‘Japanese’?
- Perhaps. The Bill Gates documentary had some interesting stuff on nuclear: IS NUCLEAR POWER WORTH THE RISK?
- I like the idea of a depth year: Michael’s Depth Year 2019 – The Final Review
- This debate on financial independence and early retirement was quite interesting (there were actually five posts): Debating FIRE: The believer vs the sceptic vs the drop-out (Round 1)
- Was happy to see this on new year’s eve. Hope the publicity leads to changes, but not holding my breath: Carlos Ghosn, ousted Nissan boss, says he has fled ‘Japanese injustice’
- A good question: Where Are You Still Using Single-Ply?
- Now I feel old: It’s 2020 and you’re in the future
- Welcome to the new normal: Global Apathy Toward the Fires in Australia Is a Scary Portent for the Future
- Best to keep your head down: Op/Ed From Ex-Prosecutor: Ghosn must respect Japanese Justice Statistics
- It’s more impressive written down than I remember it: The 2010s Market Decade in Review
- I basically do this: 7 Reasons I Wear The Same Thing Every Day
- It could and sometimes will: Everything Could Change Tomorrow
- Can’t be emphasised enough: This Is What Swedish Death Cleaning Taught Me About Life
- Nice to see Japanese building tech is good. Now to work on the minimum build requirements: Japanese builder shows off new building technology
- Time to stash some cash? Debt will kill the global economy. But it seems no one cares
Anything good in there? I quite enjoyed #13 and #17.
This week’s reading
- I enjoyed this free webcomic: Alice Grove. It is somewhat violent towards the end. Bonus points for the final dedication.
- Player of Games, by Iain M. Banks. One of my favourites from his body of work.
Congrats on the blue belt. That’s a great achievement and I’m sure your body and mind are all the better for having set and achieved your target! Thanks also for all the great information – Thanks to you I am up and running with my NISA and seeing some good benefits even in comparison to the the UK system.
Good to hear! Always great to hear that the site is helping 🙂