We “retired” when my wife was 30 and I was 33. That was nine years ago.

As Australians, healthcare is free, so that wasn’t a concern. (That being said, we also take out yearly travel insurance policies, which are surprisingly cheap compared to regular private insurance.)

That, not having kids (but we’ve met people who did a similar thing BECAUSE they wanted to spent time with kids), and living very frugally was what made it possible, and continues to make it possible. When we were working, after having paid off our small apartment, we could live on less than 20% of our combined income by being very tight.

The more you save, the more you can invest, and the less you’ll need invested to sustain yourself. It’s a positive feedback loop, and after three years of trying to be as frugal as possible, tracing every dollar, it became second nature.

After building our investments, our cost of living has gone up, but not by much. When you’re building your portfolio, being extra stingy pays off greatly. We have been slow traveling non-stop for the last nine years, because the cost of living is cheaper in (almost) every other country, even when you consider paying for short-term rentals. Next year we’ll hit 100 countries visited.

We’ve also done extra university courses, languages courses, and have a ton of hobbies. Even without work, there’s not enough time in the day if you have an active mind.

Fellow Australian, I retired at 33, which was 10 years ago now.

It’s crazy how quickly you adjust to living frugally, and spending any money just seems wasteful and unnecessary.

Healthcare is free, so doesn’t matter.

During the economic boom, Japanese people had money, but traveling overseas was still scary if it wasn’t Hawaii or Cairns, and even if they had the courage, they didn’t have the vacation time to get all the way to Newfoundland and back. Hence the many various theme parks that popped up all over the country, each more bizarre than the last. Most of them are shut now, many abandoned in various states of decay. Quite fun to explore!

We went to the mostly abandoned Anne of Green Gables theme park in Hokkaido, Canadian World, a couple months ago.

The translation of the book was done particularly well, I think. It was prescribed in schools. And the setting was attractive to those stuck in big cities.

As someone who travels a lot and has used all these sockets regularly, my vote is for Type G. The European ones seem like they would be the winner, but I’ve had trouble unplugging some devices. The recessed hole means some shitty cable designs don’t have enough to grab on to to yank out. I can imagine some people with dexterity issues having a lot of problems.

Nope, the ground is a separate wire that just dangles there and never gets connected. Over the last 25 years I don’t think I’ve ever seen a utilised ground wire.

We’ve been living out of backpacks on the road for the last ten years, so it’s easy to keep track of your stuff… Only item in our bags that hasn’t changed is a zip-up flannel towel. It’s perfect for keeping your toiletries in order, light-weight and washable, doubles as a flannel on the rare occasions you need such a thing, and has Hello Kitty on it.

Since the bags themselves have been replaced, it’s the clear winner. 2nd place is a Tony the Tiger colour-changing spoon from a bag of Frosties in 2016.

Chuffed

Yes, very pleased or satisfied. Like, you’d be chuffed if you made a great pavlova, or parents got you a Megadrive for Chrissy.

For English sources probably the best book is Tokyo Noir by Jake Adelstein

If they are built and maintained correctly. And meltdown isn’t the only problem that could occur.

I don’t have much faith in a corrupt, self-regulated industry, with strong yakuza ties, to do things 100% the correct way, especially given everything we know about the industry post 2011. Knowing how much local political power the company has, I know they could literally get away with murder, as no politician or police would want to be on their bad side.

Don’t get me wrong, the missile was still the biggest threat, but I do believe the power plant isn’t necessarily safe. An engineering and/or scientific understanding of a modern power plant doesn’t mean shit if you don’t consider the political and capitalist systems the that underpin their construction and maintenance.

We were in this scenario last year, when NK launched a missile towards Hokkaido, and we were on the west coast, just next to a nuclear reactor.

After getting the altert, we put on clothes, went downstairs to the sturdiest room, stuck on the TV to the NHK news, and waited. The missle plopped into the ocean off the coast, and we had tempura for lunch.

There’s really nothing you can do in these situations but stay calm and do the small, sensible things.

Many people saying ‘live for the now’, which is totally valid, but there’s an alternative as well, which is the path I followed - devise a concrete economic plan for your life (5 year plan, 3 year plan, etc), and track ALL your spending until you have a strong grasp on how you like to spend your cash.

It’s hard to make more money, so do everything you can to reduce spending in your life. No only will you increase how much can put away, but you’ll need less to sustain yourself when you reduce how much you earn, due to the cultivation of a spendthrift life.

the sole reason I stay in this cold dreary backwater of a country.

You do know you can get crumpets in any supermarket in sunny Queensland, yeah? You can even get Marmite (but why would you when Vegemite is superior).

I’ve only spent a couple months in France, but I agree from my experience. I think that foreigners that complain about the French being rude were just expecting special treatment, didn’t put in any effort themselves to be friendly, then shocked that the storekeeper/waiter wasn’t kissing their ass, even though they didn’t even manage to say ‘bonjour’.

Heh, we do the same. I appreciate that Changi airport has bottle-filling fountains at every gate.

I really appreciate Haneda airport for having bottle scanners, so you can just bring your filled bottles through security. Saw this at an airport in Europe, too, but can’t remember where (domestic Athens maybe?).

Yeah, this kind of thing. We have pocari sweat powder.

As a frequent flier I’d say the most important thing is what you do before and after your flight, not during. Go in well hydrated (get those electrolytes!) and well rested. If you’re flying far east/west, adjust your eating and sleeping ahead of going, to make sure the adjustment is not so hard on arrival. If you’re arriving in the morning, try to sleep on the plane… if you’re arriving in the evening, don’t sleep on the plane. Additionally, when you arrive, wait until the appropriate time to sleep/eat as not to prolong jet lag.

Operation: Inner Space

Yes, to me, the nuance is what’s important here.

“You’re welcome” implies you did something good, and you know it. “I am good for doing this for you. You owe me!”

Whereas “no problem” implies it didn’t cause you any trouble. “Doing this for you was not detrimental to my life. You owe me nothing.”