Fukuoka calling
Finally (with a little help from our friends) we have the Fukuoka events nailed down. There will be a JALT workshop in Kitakyushu on March 21st, and a RetireJapan Seminar in Fukuoka on March 22nd. After the seminar, we’ll probably hang out a bit and go to lunch. That afternoon we may have a few coaching slots available for in-person coaching. Please drop me a line if you are interested in that last one.
It’s all very exciting.
If you’d like to attend, or you have friends that might benefit from one of the sessions, please sign up as soon as possible. Look forward to seeing you there!
This week’s links
- Ignore the noise: Putting the Next Market Downturn into Perspective
- Ruh-roh, Raggy: Climate Models Are Running Red Hot, and Scientists Don’t Know Why
- I never wanted to be famous: 11 Reasons Not to Become Famous (or “A Few Lessons Learned Since 2007”)
- How con artists work: The Man Who Tried to Sell the Eiffel Tower (Twice)
- The problem is when people get locked out of the system: ‘I wasn’t allowed to buy my burrito with cash’
- A ‘credit card’ for foreign residents… might be okay if you can’t get anything else: J Trust Card
- Tough sell: Japan tries to explain to embassies merits of releasing Fukushima water into ocean
- Er, no thank you: NEC to provide facial recognition technology for Mitsui Fudosan hotels
- Maybe as a stopgap: Nuclear Power Can Save the World
- I predict we will take no meaningful action on climate change in the next decade: WHAT WILL ANOTHER DECADE OF CLIMATE CRISIS BRING?
- Advisory laws only, of course: Japan to amend laws to help elderly work until 70
- This could be… better: Japanese society warms to asylum-seekers despite the government’s cold shoulder
- I’ve been donating to charity:water for a few years now: Our standards are going up—and so are our numbers
- This is a good idea: Edward’s Analog January
- This is pretty heartbreaking: Bullied out of Japan
- These are great: Nobody told me
- If anyone goes to this please send me your notes: Seminars on how to buy a home in Japan as a foreigner and how to get the best financing terms
- It’s not a profit unless you sell: Government Pension Investment Fund posts ¥7.4 tril profit in third-quarter
- Definitely going to look for boring investments: The Sexy Investment Premium: Opportunities in Boring Assets
- This has a real Wait But Why vibe to it: Money Is the Megaphone of Identity
Phew! Twenty links this week 🙂 Anything good in there? I was impressed with #3, #15, and #16.
This week’s books
I’ve been reading a lot of comics on Kindle this week. They are fairly cheap, easy to read on the Kindle interface, and painless to return if you don’t like them 🙂
- Southern Bastards (vol 1) There Was a Man. This was pretty good, and I will continue reading the series. It’s a fairly violent comic set in a small US town in the South, dominated by American Football.
- Moonshine. This was okay, but I didn’t bother buying the second one. A supernatural noir comic set in Appalachia and prohibition New York City.
- Into the Fire, by Greg Hurwitz. This is the latest Orphan X novel and so far I am enjoying it quite a bit (I’m about half-way through).
- Joker, by Brian Azzarello. This is a graphic novel about the Joker being released from Arkham. It was okay, but I somehow bought volume one and volume two. and they were identical so I returned them for a refund.
Re: 17, it looks like they’re running the first seminar again on Saturday the 22nd, so I’ve decided to attend then. Granted, I’m still at least a decade out from purchasing a home, but I’m gonna go so that I have an idea of what to keep in mind when the time comes.
If they have notes or slides, I’ll be sure to send them your way!
Fantastic, thanks!
Re #8: I clicked through eight pages of FAQs, but apparently “what interest rate do you charge?” is not a frequently asked question.
The answer was well hidden in Article 48 of the T&Cs on the application page. They charge 18% (the legal maximum) on their revolving line of credit, despite holding a cash deposit as security.