2022 Roundup
All in one place Once again there will only be one roundup post this year. Here is the 2021 post if you want to see what that year looked like. 2022 was… really quite different It was a year of massive change, much of it positive. On a personal level: my university job contract finished, […]
Progress Report 2022
The Progress Continues This year once again I am publishing my personal progress report post. You can see last year’s post here. I find it useful to go over my accounts and think about them, and hope this will help you see how you can invest over time here in Japan. We’re going to cover […]
The Monday Read: Contentment?
I had to cover for one of our teachers this week. In one way that was a huge pain, as I had a bunch of work I was planning to do (including coaching sessions I had to reschedule), but it was also nice to teach again. Seems I’m actually not bad at it, and I […]
Guest Post: The Road Not Travelled
Leaving Japan to retire Today we have a new guest post from Mason Dixon, this time about retiring not in Japan. I am currently planning to stay in Japan indefinitely ,but it is always interesting to hear from people who are further along in the journey, and I am a big fan of learning from […]
Japan Pension Update 2022
And now for something completely different! Everyone paying into nenkin should receive an annual update, called nenkin teikibin (ねんきん定期便). This will either arrive by post, in the form of a postcard, or (if you have selected the option) will only be delivered via the nenkin website. Personally I opt to receive the postal version as […]
Energy, Climate change, and long-term investing
A really thought-provoking guest post Today’s guest post is by a reader who got in touch and offered to explain a few things about the implications of climate change. I found the conversation so interesting that I asked him to write about it for the blog, and he came through in spades. Take it away, […]
Digital Detox
Taking a day off the internet I’ve had a fairly serious internet addiction for many years now. I have had other addictions in the past, most of which I dealt with by going cold turket -just shutting off the behaviour completely. I’m very much an all or nothing person: I find it much easier not […]
The Monday Read
Retirement Round Two Edition Regular readers are probably tired of me whining about working as an emergency replacement teacher at my wife’s school from March. I am too! So it was with some degree of anticipation that I welcomed my replacement last Wednesday. I am tentatively going to ease into pseudo-retirement now, doing a couple […]
The Monday Read
Heat Edition Here we are, breaking heat records again. I am a fairly optimistic person, but climate change worries me. I have felt Sendai’s climate change in the 22 years I have been here. Everything I read or learn indicates that things are going to continue getting worse going forward, unless we hit a tipping […]
The Monday Read
Elementary School Sports Day Edition My granddaughter had her school Sports Day this weekend, and although I wasn’t able to attend, I was really pleased to see her school continue with the ‘new style’ of sports day. In the past, sports days ran from morning to mid-afternoon, but recently due to Covid and climate change […]