What if you didn’t have to do it, but rather got to do it
I have it pretty easy in life.
I got a good start, have been more than averagely lucky, and have made a few good moves.
I wake up when I want, pretty much do what I want, and have very little stress.
And yet sometimes I find myself whining internally about something that I have to do.
If I catch myself in time, all it takes to make the situation better is to change that expression to something that I get to do.
Exactly the same task.
Exactly the same conditions.
But it feels completely different.
I have a favour to ask
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This week we published a video about setting very specific goals.
Do you know exactly what you want?
The Forum
The Forum is doing well (33,566 posts so far). Excitingly, we now have over 2,000 registered members (2,091 currently). The forum rules are here. In essense, they are:
- Be nice
- Ask any question you like
- Only answer questions when you have relevant knowledge or experience
Here are the latest active threads:
This week’s links
- This really reminds me of those ‘ancient Japanese art of…’ things: How I embraced ‘Niksen’, the Dutch concept of doing nothing
- I will not be getting a combined My Number/zairyu card voluntarily. I am sure there are going to be all sorts of issues to begin with: 「外国人在留＋マイナンバー」一体の新カード発行へ
- Loved this article. ‘When are you going to spend all that money?’ ‘Never.’ What Lies Beneath
- Not sure I want to be rich. Comfortable? Sure. But I don’t need or even want rich. (I should probably define rich, eh? For me, over $10m) The 3 Ways to Get Rich
- Plus ca change? The Heisei era is over
- Oh, I want to see this film now: Perfect Days review – Wim Wenders’s zen Japanese drama is his best feature film in years
- Interesting debate on Japan’s future: Koll Vs. Katz On Japan’s Economic Trajectory
- For me it’s Thai. Have wanted to learn it for decades now: Esperanto, Toki Pona, Swahili, Indonesian
- This is horrendous: Media watch: Citizens group billed for destruction of memorial it didn’t want removed
- This is really tragic: Dying Out of Sight: Hikikomori in an Aging Japan
- 0-250m yen in 13 years? Fascinating interview in Japanese (YouTube): 【テンバガーコレクター】分散投資で億を稼いだ男登場!どのように資産を築いてきたのか解説！愛鷹
- Damn, just realised I could realistically still be alive in 2070: Japan’s new births fall to record low as demographic woes worsen
- Really enjoyed this interview with the guy in last week’s interview (YouTube): Entrepreneurs Masterclass: AI Takeover, Business Trends and Philosophy – Daniel Priestley
- This is pretty outrageous (Reddit thread): Was told “no foreigners” by a clinic
- We need a plan to transition rather than putting effort into revitalizing areas that are doomed anyway: More than half of all municipalities in Japan defined as ‘depopulated’
- Good news: public student loans will become available to non-Japanese children soon. 外国籍の子に奨学金、拡充へ 「家族滞在」ビザ所持者にも
- Even worse than Japan: South Korea’s fertility rate hits another all-time low
- An interesting Reddit thread from someone who opened a cafe with his wife, then closed it down a couple of years later. Lots of learning moments in there… Ask Me About My Cafe
- Sounds similar to Japan: Why South Korean women aren’t having babies
- I don’t understand why this is not a criminal matter involving the police: Kishida offers himself to the ethics council
- This Reddit thread about how people are self-employed in Japan is fascinating: Those who are self-employed and don’t run English schools/teach English
- What are your three small things? How to Feel 20 Percent Better
- I really like this idea. Give everyone a head start in life. 18-year olds too, give them some starting capital to put towards education, training, a home, etc. Tory peer calls for £10,000 ‘citizens inheritance’ for all 30-year-olds
What do you think? Anything interesting in there?
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– The number of subscribers to the blog/mailing list has not grown much over the last couple of years.
Honestly? The forum gives me 99+% of the help and information need. I come to this site because it’s about retiring in Japan. In the forum, the financial info has been priceless as well as the nitty gritty stuff about living in Japan. Like many people, I suspect, Millionaire Teacher has set me up well; which I learnt about here. That changed my (future) life. I got all this from Retire Japan. But the weekly newsletter doesn’t really help me. News about NISA/iDeCo, etc., etc., will always be well appreciated. Otherwise, the newsletter just gives me more on the internet to scroll and life lessons I don’t need to read. And I’m sure most people that need it have subscribed to your YT channel. If I were running this site, I would send out a newsletter when there was something to broadcast, not on the clock.
Of course, some will reply that they love your weekly newsletter. Glad to hear it. But if the number of subscribers is not increasing, maybe other things need to be considered.
So I guess the final answer is that maybe people are more interested in the forum?
That isn’t meant as a snub; I will always be grateful for what RJ has done for my family.
It’s a good point. I still kind of enjoy writing it though and enough people like it to carry on. We’ll see if we can grow those lists a bit though!
#6. Watched Perfect Days at the cinema last month. It is superb. Such a simple story but absolutely wonderful.
#6 — saw Perfect Days maybe 2-3 weeks ago, excellent.
Interesting about self employed guys. What a variety! I myself was thinking of opening fresh juice bar or importing a couple of juice squeezing machines , but thanks to Covid could move to seaside and work remotely, so my work no longer involves a troublesome long commutes and I am at my comfy pace and level of income. So, the plan has been scrapped, but I think this niche has some potential.
#14 – Thanks for posting this Reddit thread. I’ve been rejected at multiple clinics in Sapporo because I’m a foreigner. They also use “communication” as the excuse, but the funny thing is that we were communicating fine when they were communicating that they wouldn’t take me.
This is pretty outrageous (Reddit thread): Was told “no foreigners” by a clinic
I will say as a person who worked in the medical field, we would always ask for a translator. So I understand the clinic’s perspective but in this case, if the person can communicate in Japanese, then there is no reasonable medical reason to deny a consultation. My guess is the clinic might have had a bad experience where communication/diagnosis went wrong with a patient ( possibly). There is, sadly, also a financial reason for the clinic to deny a consultation. Time and money! The clinic could easily squeeze in a couple of other patients at the same time, it would do to do a single three-way consultation in whatever language. I have been on the other end of this, where some people who lived in my own country and couldn’t even speak a single word. So it would take a very very long time to do that consultation and come up with a diagnosis. So I do understand the issues from the medical point of view. However it does depend on the level of Japanese, and to be honest the doctor should also bring his Japanese DOWN to a level that the patient can understand. This would also be the same for a Japanese patient. Some doctors sometimes like to use jargon in front of patients. Yes, it’s outrageous, but I also get it from the clinic’s point of view. sometimes I don’t understand every single word my doc says. Best thing to say is YOUR JAPANESE, and wait for the head tilt.