The Monday Read: Shikoku Calling

All work and no play makes Ben…

It’s my 20-year wedding anniversary this year. We had a ridiculous trip to NYC and Iguazu Falls for our 10-year anniversary, and were planning an even bigger trip for this year but… life got in the way.

Rather than a Star Alliance round the world ticket in business class, we are going to Shikoku for ten days.

Still really looking forward to it. Going to laze around and enjoy the scenery. Hopefully the weather cooperates!

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The Forum

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This week’s books

No new books this week. Still reading The Algebra of Wealth and The Invisibles.

This week’s links

  1. Excellent as always (I have no debt other than my mortgage, which is around 4% of our net worth): How I Think About Debt
  2. Beware of special deals that seem too good to be true: The Silent Fraud: How A Brunei Group of Conmen Swindled Japanese Nationals for Years
  3. I quite fancy buying my own depopulated village someday: Abandoned homes will be a big part of Japan’s future
  4. This does worry me, although I hope advances in technology will at least help with the medical side: 80% fear worker shortage in medical, elderly care sector
  5. New Craig Mod pop up newsletter. Please sign up immediately: Pachinko Road, One More Time
  6. I’ve seen some unpleasant examples of this in convenience stores. I like to go and look at the claimer -it puts some of them off. Even in Japan, the Customer is Not Always Right
  7. An unanticipated danger for many: These Couples Survived a Lot. Then Came Retirement.
  8. Just put prices up: Japan’s Gastronomic Paradox: Booming tourism yet skyrocketing restaurant bankruptcies
  9. Ruh-roh: 1 in 5 people aged 65 or older in Japan will have dementia by 2060
  10. I love the dopamine culture graphic in this: The defensive arrogance of TL;DR
  11. AI has not (so far) helped me produce valuable work: Do We Need AI to Revolutionize Work?
  12. That is a lot of 75 year olds… Japan’s Population Declines Again: Seniors 75 and Over Top 20 Million for First Time
  13. Hoping to see smaller, cheaper EVs in Japan soon: I Went To China And Drove A Dozen Electric Cars. Western Automakers Are Cooked
  14. This is so important. Put in the effort now so you don’t need to do it later: Scrimping and saving to start your snowball rolling
  15. Mainichi editorial: It’s time the gov’t said it loud and clear: Japan is now an immigrant nation
  16. Fantastically useful summary of Japan tax treaties with various countries (Reddit wiki)
  17. I love e-readers, might grab one or both of these: New Pop-up Walk, Reading Digitally in 2024
  18. I found Die With Zero incredibly useful: Memory Dividends, Time Buckets, and Maximizing Net Fulfillment
  19. It’s a really clever organization from the point of view of the leaders: Tokuryū, the shadowy criminal groups taking over from yakuza in Japan
  20. I am astounded that we have still not seen any meaningful action on this: Record-breaking increase in CO2 levels in world’s atmosphere
  21. Needed to read this today: Do literally anything
  22. Sensible health stuff from Dan Go: Things I’m Doing At 44 To Avoid Regret When I’m 74
  23. I spent a few days in Buenos Aires ten years ago, doing touristy things: Walking Buenos Aires
  24. This is a disgrace: Why Japan is struggling to kick its coal dependency
  25. Higher US interest rates likely means a weaker yen (YouTube): Much Higher Interest Rates for Much, Much Longer || Peter Zeihan
  26. This is why I buy world index funds: Most Investments are Actually Bad. Here’s Why.
  27. Somewhat encouraging: Renewable energy passes 30% of world’s electricity supply
  28. Unlike this: Japan’s real wages fall in March for record 24th month
  29. It’s a tiny sample, but it’s the best the government can come up with it seems: 10% of permanent residents failed to pay taxes: Japan immigration sample survey
  30. Be careful out there! If someone approaches you, it is likely a scam: Tokyo police warn against costly roofing scams

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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10 Responses

  1. #1: Larger investment returns?
    #6: Why accept that? It’s not part of your job description. Just get angry back. j/k. It’s Japan. You’ll learn at some point.

  3. Thanks for introducing the Star Alliance Round The World ticket, Ben. I’ve been happily playing around with it on their website and it’s great fun trying to build a dream trip. Oneworld have one too which is pretty similar. Some things I have found:

    1. The minimum price for an economy ticket is just under 50 man. This is using major hubs and not many stops.
    2. However, a more exciting trip with more stops and continents is only about 5 man more!
    3. Star Alliance and oneworld are pretty much the same price.
    4. Business class is about 35 man more than economy? (I didn’t explore this much)
    5. You can get airmiles for the flights you take but I don’t think you can buy the ticket with airmiles.

    Regarding cabin class, my thinking is that it doesn’t make much sense splashing out on business class unless your time is tight and most of the legs are long. I would rather make the legs shorter (more stops) – which means less need for sleep and less jetlag between stops – and spend the money I’ve saved on accommodation and food instead.

    This is definitely on my bucket list now. Just got to find some time to do it!

    1. It’s very very nice, eh? I’ve been wanting to do that for a very long time.

      The reason I would go for business over economy is that (for a maxed out trip) it doesn’t change the price so much but makes a huge difference to the comfort and fun of the trip.

      You also get the miles and status points for each leg. This means you could probably get top tier elite status (Diamond on ANA or similar) for a fairly reasonable price. You’d also get enough air miles to book a couple of trips as well.

      Just need 2-3 months off now!

      1. Hmm, I must have missed the mention of the Star Alliance RTW ticket–which sounds interesting.

        Can someone point me to it, a link/page, or something?

  4. Shikoku is beautiful. Seto-Nakai is the ‘Med of Japan’. Great fresh seafood, some lovely sights, onsen, cycling if you are feeling energetic.

  5. Just saw about your visit to Shikoku.
    I’m in Kagawa and as I’ve been retired since 2018I have, of course, more time than I know what to do with.
    If you’d like to meet send me a PM with some info about your itinerary and I’ll see if it would be possible to take you a few of my secret places.

    1. Thanks Michael! A very kind offer. We’re mainly relaxing on this trip (20th anniversary trip, we do one of these every ten years) but I’m sure we’ll be back in the area again and looking for the inside scoop in the future 🙂