The Monday Read: Hobbling Around

Welcome to The Monday Read, RetireJapan’s weekly collection of content, musings, and links related to personal finance and life in Japan.

Way better than hospital food: hiyashi tantanmen from Suiken in Sendai

Well, I am still lounging around at home being lazy this week, but due to go back to work tomorrow. The knee is surprisingly good -mostly pain-free unless I forget what positions are unsafe, then it reminds me.

(bending the knee past 90 degrees is a no no, as is putting any weight on the kneecap, or any kind of impact on that leg -basically I can walk around slowly and deliberately, like an elderly tortoise)

But I was really impressed with the keyhole surgery.

Just two very small incisions on each side of the kneecap, so it looks more like I fell and grazed it rather than I had surgery ten days ago. Amazing.

Everyone who has visited us over the last couple of weeks (from Tokyo, Yokohama, Osaka, Fukushima) has said the same thing: Sendai is more humid and unpleasant than wherever they came from.

This does not bode well for my long-term residence plans.

What are you looking forward to right now?

My next fun thing is we’re planning to take my granddaughter to Okinawa in October to get her diving license. I used to dive (got my Rescue Diver license in 2001) but haven’t been for a while, so I’m looking forward to showing her the ropes.

Having something to look forward to and get ready for is really important, I am finding now that I have more time and fewer commitments.

What is your next thing? Leave a comment below 🙂

RetireJapan TV

This week’s RetireJapan TV is our series one finale. Join us live from 20:00 (Monday September 28th) to ask questions and join the chat on YouTube, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

YouTube

Thank you for your support of the RetireJapan YouTube channel. We published one new video this week:

Japan’s kaigo hoken: compulsory long-term care insurance

Unfortunately I had to shoot it at home and the sound is bad, but you can use the closed captions to follow along!

Please watch, share, like, and subscribe 🙂

The Forum

The Forum is doing well (29,436 posts so far). Here are the latest active threads:

This week’s books

I’ve been rereading Alex Hormozi’s $100m Offers before reading the new book $100 Leads. Really good stuff.

Also started reading The Lords of Discipline, by Pat Conroy, a novel set in a US military academy in the 1950s (don’t just search for the title on Amazon by the way, make sure you include the author name too). Really reminds me of Kipling’s Stalky and Co, which I loved as a child.

This week’s links

  1. This is so true: The status quo is very good…
  2. A good reminder: Cash and bonds are different investments
  3. Pretty sure this won’t happen to us: Can YOU afford your ideal retirement? Nearly half say they need more cash than expected
  4. Cal Newport on Threads and Twitter: We Don’t Need a New Twitter
  5. Really enjoyed this (YouTube): An Honest Conversation with Ali Abdaal
  6. Mixed results here: Japan’s Huge GDP Beat Driven by Exports as Domestic Demand Falls
  7. Hubris: Why Vladimir Putin’s Luck Ran Out
  8. How to be at peace: You are – What you think about (Recession, Economy, Stock Market)
  9. I think I’m the luckiest generation: The Luckiest Generation
  10. Damn, that is an angry blog post: Tell Me a Story

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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15 Responses

  1. Any chance you could make an option to only get nvestment/pension/investment-related information in your newsletter? Your personal life and what you read, while I hope it’s perfect for you, is not really relevant to the rest of us.

    1. Ha, ha, that is what the Monday Read looks like right now. It’s what I want to write, it’s what people have been reading since 2018.

      If you don’t like it, you can skip the bits you don’t like or not read it.

      The YouTube channel or the forum (some of the other blog posts?) might be more to your liking.

  2. Agreed with the Sendai weather. I can’t remember there being a string of 30~35c days this long in the last 3 decades here. We’re out in the Ogawara farmlands where AC is frowned upon, if you sweat enough and have a strong enough fan, you can actually approach something resembling sleep. Unfortunately the Japan Meteorological Agency has said that we won’t see fall weather until early November. Not sure how I feel about that. Stay safe all and from an old time NAUI MSD (1977), enjoy the water.

    1. Oh, it’s terrifying. Summer used to be 2-3 months of discomfort, now it’s going on six months? What’s it going to be like in 20-20 years’ time?

  3. #9 – the luckiest generation…

    Retirement is a relatively modern figment/invention, and yes, some folks have been fortunate in that they hit the sweet spot, for one reason or another, or due to a clustering of reasons.

    Cross your fingers, say whatever incantation you want, but while you may be safe, going forward it may not last.

    1. ‘Hope for the best, plan for the worst’ has been etched onto my bones at this point…

  4. Hi Ben,

    I always enjoy reading reading your posts and you often seem to be giving away more about yourself than others would.

    Good the operation went well.

    I am closing in on 60 and my retirement. Still thinking about if a can and want to do something work related after that date.

    I was also thinking about reviving some old hobbies. As you, I also used to dive. Also got my Rescue Diver certificate more than 2 decades ago. Probably not worth a lot now. Anyway, still thinking about doing a course, but where I live it is not possible to rent gear for my size (192 cm and added on some 体脂肪 over the years). Let’s see how this goes. Maybe better to re-start in Okinawa or outside Japan?

    お大事に.

    Hans

    1. Hi Hans

      Your license is still valid (I got PADI to reissue my card as I had lost it) and they do a half day refresher course for people who haven’t dived for a while. Just go in a pool with an instructor and review the basics.

      I’ll post about how our diving in Miyako goes ^-^

  5. I for one enjoy hearing about what you are up to. It often relates to finance too. Carry on.

    1. Thanks! 200+ Monday Reads in, I’m not planning to change anything too drastically 😉

  6. Hi Ben,
    Glad to hear you are getting around…although at tortious speed.
    Remember…rehab is your friend! Don’t blow off the rehab!

    What am I looking forward to right now?
    A brother & brother-in-law upcoming visit to Japan!!

    Thanks
    kp

  7. I also one enjoy hearing about what you are up to, its good to see the experiences of a fellow foreigner in Japan
    Also other finance blogs that are missing this personal touch, I find a bit sterile and get bored with them after a while.

  8. Sort of #10 — I read that but then clicked back to his previous post:
    https://www.profgalloway.com/head-of-the-class/

    I guess I would wonder what the M/F teacher ratio is here in Japan. Has anyone ever seen anything on this–anecdotal or more concrete?

    (ps: wondering if this will even get noticed here–maybe copy it over to a forum post?)