So who's actually retired in Japan?

[goodandbadjapan]

Ground golf is the game of choice around here, I can see myself joining in at some point, looks fun. Might cause a bit of a stir in the local community, not many foreigners round these parts.

I believe ground golf is the new name for gateball as gateball had a bit of an old-fogie stigma about it and ground golf sounds a bit more hip!

At the risk of sounding super nerdy, I think the rules differ. Gateball is more like croquet.

Right, am off for a lie down…

Ah, ok - sorry, I thought they were the same! Not sure which it is they play near me then.

[TJKansai]

I play bball with two groups, one 25-50, one 15-60. It does do some damage physically though, and not sure how long I'll be able to keep up with the 30 year olds.

Table tennis is the sport to keep you spry in your old age. Plenty in their 70s, and 80s are active in Japan.

The author Pico Iyer writes about it as well in "Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells," which of course fits this thread.

[RetireJapan]

I play bball with two groups, one 25-50, one 15-60. It does do some damage physically though, and not sure how long I'll be able to keep up with the 30 year olds.

Table tennis is the sport to keep you spry in your old age. Plenty in their 70s, and 80s are active in Japan.

The author Pico Iyer writes about it as well in "Autumn Light: Season of Fire and Farewells," which of course fits this thread.

Table tennis is a good call. I do jiu-jitsu, which is absolutely brutal on the body. Not sure how much longer I'll be able to keep it up so starting some TT on the side might be a good hedge

[Gulliver]

If you can’t do a lot of physical exercise, photography is a great way to keep fit and meet people.

Many people shy away because they think it’s too expensive but if you slowly build up your gear overtime it’s not bad and nowadays you don’t have to pay for developing costs since everything is digital.

If you hang out in an area for long enough taking photos or videos, you will notice photography otaku’s coming out of the woodwork jealously eyeing your kit. Perfect conversation starter.

For me there is endless in the subject matter to capture here. And when you’re looking for photos to take, you find things that you would normally pass by without a thought. I find myself walking farther than I normally would if I didn’t have a camera.

[captainspoke]

Photography is a nice meditation. As a hobby, it has come and gone a few times in my life. This week I've been working on some ancient slides that date from the early 70s, trying to copy/transform them into digital form. So, once upon a time... slides (ektachrome and kodachrome) and also black and white. Main cameras then were a couple pentax spotmatic bodies/lenses, tho I tried nikons a little, too.

But these days I've gone digital. While I do have a nice mirrorless (X-T2) and a few lenses, I'm mostly an iphone shooter, and that big, heavy, bulky stuff almost always stays home. There are a couple of axioms, almost photographical proverbs, that I've found to be really true. One of those is "f/8 and be there", the other goes something like "the best camera is the one you have with you". Which reflect photography as being there in the moment. I almost never take pictures that show something about japan, instead I seem to "see" little things (often when out with the dog). Also, I like old things (dead, or nearly so, discarded, etc)--one of these is of a compost pile (which someone called a "rustic still life"), I have a whole series like that one...!

These attachments are all iphone shots.

[captainspoke]

Two more

[captainspoke]

And before you snicker at this one , back in the 30s there were some (pretty famous) photographers in california/bay area that went by the name of Group f/64. This is one of my tries at mimicking some of their work.

(compare the B&W flower above, to an Ed Weston shot)

[hbd]

[quote=SARS post_id=15423 time=1625212801 user_id=2440]
To me this speaks to exactly my point about being isolated in Japan. Language is one issue, but so is not having relatives and very close friends nearby who can form a supportive community when necessary.

That was more or less the observation (yours), which kicked off this rich thread. Yes, there are plenty of people with dementia of various degrees who continue to enjoy the freedom of living at home due to the presence of those friends and rels nearby. Many of 'us' who are or will retire in Japan won't have the latter, so we need to ensure that we have the former - a community of friends, not just polite acquaintances. As for the poor father of that poor fellow who posted a plea for help to Reddit, he's left all that too late by relying on his Japanese spouse for language aid and social connection, and of course he simply won't be able to live in a Japanese-language institutional environment. Hence the importance of some of the issues we began to explore earlier in the thread, which will doubtless be revisited as we hear of or even experience comparable difficulties.

On another tack (and if you're out there Tkydon), I really appreciated the prompt for us to explore a 'music community', in response to which there are now 2 sets of replies about Jamulus on the Music thread! My tastes are eclectic, and my technique perhaps sufficient to enable flexibility, so I hope to hear more there from more of 'us' . We're all amateurs, so no one should hesitate to jump in and just start playing. 'From little things, big things grow.'

[beanhead]

I had a drive around there when I was considering Chiba for a holiday/transition to spending most of the year there in old age place.
The used places are affordable for what you get. It's a bit hilly but you might snag a decent view as a result.

Went to Onjuku myself recently and, like MM, drove around.

Impressions:
1) very hilly
2) no convenience stores close by
3) no supermarkets close by

Due to 1,2 and 3 above, I think a car would be needed if living here. So, once you can't drive/are a menace on the roads...

Of course, we just wandered around a bit checking out the houses. We could not see any community activities, which would be one of the major benefits of this kind of 'resort'. Climate was also noticeably better than Tokyo, just a few km away.

[Jed331]

One thing to seriously consider is how close shops and medical facilities are …. I know for me I don’t plan to drive once I am passed 70.