Was on vacation in Hokkaido and saw an artist doing name poetry and really wanted one. Given my foreign name and face I was a bit nervous, but the artist was super friendly and asked how to spell my name and if I have a kanji name plus offering some kanji name ideas. He ended up really liking a kanji name given to me by a friend many years ago and wrote some poetry using my foreign name plus the kanji name wishing me best of luck for my future in Japan. He did his best to explain his poetry to me in simple Japanese too. I was worried he would reject me because of my foreign name and assume I can’t speak Japanese (my Japanese isn’t amazing but it’s serviceable) but instead it was such a nice experience 😭. The art is so beautiful and I love it so much. Now to figure out where to put it in my house….
I got paid for consulting, first time to be paid in USD in a while. Felt soooo good to be on the other side of that exchange rate. Now I just motivation to keep on the grind, its not hard work but doing it means I can’t do anything during the 2-3 hours I’m free in the day 🙁
Made garlic confit for the first time last night, entire kitchen smelled like garlic but I know it’s worth it as soon as I tasted a clove. I’m probably gonna buy one of those 1kg peeled garlic bags next time I go to gyomu.
Matsuri this weekend is going to be good. First time they have fully put it on in 3 years and looking forward to seeing local friends and enjoying the dancing. Community is a beautiful thing.
Our twins were born safely on Tuesday, with minimal complications for both babies and mother!
Luckily I was on summer vacation from Friday to Wednesday. On Tuesday morning as I was getting our of the shower I heard a phone buzzing. I was ready to be annoyed if it was my work phone, but it was my private phone and 慶應大学病院 代表 popped up on the caller ID which only meant one thing.
My wife was ready to battle through for a few more days or weeks, but at the advice of the doctors (in effect they basically decided for us but I was completely on board with their opinion) we scheduled the c-section for that afternoon.
I spent almost the entire day sitting by myself in a tiny 相談室, but in the end it all went well and I got in to see the boys that night.
Shout out to all the doctors and nurses at Keio. If I’m being extremely picky I would have preferred more updates throughout the day, but mother and babies were all taken care of well.
Also shout out to national healthcare, my wife was in the hospital for almost 2 months and it looks like our out of pocket costs will be around 100k *total*. Which I actually laughed at and could barely believe when I saw it. (Non Americans, feel free to insert your jokes here making fun of us Americans, we’re used to it) Especially nice when my wife has supplemental health insurance which pays out 10k a day for the hospital stay and another 100k for the c-section, so we’re coming out way ahead on the whole thing (Well aware that this money will just get immediately incinerated on baby related expenses, but its still nice).
Praise for my wife, who has been through a lot the last few months but has been a trooper the whole time. I like to think my care packaged and cards helped, but she’s a champion.
Biggest shout out to the babies, who started out with breathing tubes and IVs but are already breathing on their own moving on to drinking from a bottle. The little dudes still have lots of work to do but they’re awesome.
Climbed my first V3 at the gym. Then I climbed another one after that on the slab wall.
* looks like i have a bit of work ahead of me finally, will be good to get some income flowing in * bank guys came the other day to check if i’m actually working as i stated, but things are looking good and i’ll officially get a new bank account for my business next week * learned a bit how to do my accounting/bookkeeping and understand the final tax return thing a bit more. a fun challenge and good to learn so far, but definitely hiring a professional next year (or use Freee) * caught up with a good friend after so many months, really happy for her news
Now, to deal with this restlessness and start sleeping better
After lurking here and on r/japanfinance for a while I finally made my first ‘retiring in Japan’ post and am already getting some great advice!
I haven’t had a “I freaking love Japan” moment in a while but I had two recently over Obon.
First, we went camping along the Seto inland. As if grilling and taking it easy under stars wasn’t enough, the campsite was next to an onsen that stays open late. Cut to me having a whole open air bath to myself, looking out at the seas, and seeing all the little flickering lights of ships and coastal towns painting the horizon. Just made me feel eternally grateful for everything.
Skip ahead a few days, and we’re in rural Kyushu at my wife’s grandfather’s house. Turns out he has an outdoor pizza oven no one knew how to use, save for me. Which leads to me relaxing on the porch outside, beer and umeshu in hand, picture perfect night sky, wildlife is chirping, and playing pizza chef for the entire family. Damn that was a moment of happiness. And the pizzas turned out great too.
Last year my residence card change application took a very long time to process, and I received it after my My Number card expired. That was a pain.
This year I got my residence card renewed in time, and renewing my My Number card went a lot smoother this year.
Made and ate some chilli with ground chicken and fish. Was delicious and worth the 1k+ yen I spent on ingredients
3 days till the school gym reopens
3 night shifts this week. Love it. Am getting better at speaking to customers when they initiate conversation, and doing more things on my own. Answered a phone call too that other day
I’m still alive. Things will be fine. Somehow.
Praise JR for their handling of lost/forgotten items on the train. It went like this:
Forgot my bag on a JR train on Monday from a trip
Forgot what number of train I rode so they cant secure my item right away, was told to wait for them to be inputted in their system (went home for the day)
Lost and found office pointed me to JR 忘れ物チャット site, input the details
Got everything sorted by Wednesday as my bag was also found according to the operator, set the delivery to my house as it was on a far station
Got my bag today via delivery
Paypay finally recognized my Katagana name! Now I’m finally able to top up Paypay with my Resona account!
after going through a mountain of depraved smut for an entire weekend, here’s to you, guy selling a cookbook of what to do with your Furusato Nouzei at Comiket, for restoring my faith that humanity can indeed be saved.
More than a month into working haken in a large company. It’s been great for my mental and physical health, also my bank account. AND I have time to do freelance work that pays in USD. I can’t really believe I had put up with working for a small traditional company for years doing 3 people’s jobs, in an industry with no prospects.
Sometimes I stop and worry about what happens when my contract runs out – but God knows what would happen if I didn’t quit that place.
Is the heat wave ending? Praise the lord of the skies, Raijin!
16 comments
Was on vacation in Hokkaido and saw an artist doing name poetry and really wanted one. Given my foreign name and face I was a bit nervous, but the artist was super friendly and asked how to spell my name and if I have a kanji name plus offering some kanji name ideas. He ended up really liking a kanji name given to me by a friend many years ago and wrote some poetry using my foreign name plus the kanji name wishing me best of luck for my future in Japan. He did his best to explain his poetry to me in simple Japanese too. I was worried he would reject me because of my foreign name and assume I can’t speak Japanese (my Japanese isn’t amazing but it’s serviceable) but instead it was such a nice experience 😭. The art is so beautiful and I love it so much. Now to figure out where to put it in my house….
I got paid for consulting, first time to be paid in USD in a while. Felt soooo good to be on the other side of that exchange rate. Now I just motivation to keep on the grind, its not hard work but doing it means I can’t do anything during the 2-3 hours I’m free in the day 🙁
Made garlic confit for the first time last night, entire kitchen smelled like garlic but I know it’s worth it as soon as I tasted a clove. I’m probably gonna buy one of those 1kg peeled garlic bags next time I go to gyomu.
Matsuri this weekend is going to be good. First time they have fully put it on in 3 years and looking forward to seeing local friends and enjoying the dancing.
Community is a beautiful thing.
Our twins were born safely on Tuesday, with minimal complications for both babies and mother!
Luckily I was on summer vacation from Friday to Wednesday. On Tuesday morning as I was getting our of the shower I heard a phone buzzing. I was ready to be annoyed if it was my work phone, but it was my private phone and 慶應大学病院 代表 popped up on the caller ID which only meant one thing.
My wife was ready to battle through for a few more days or weeks, but at the advice of the doctors (in effect they basically decided for us but I was completely on board with their opinion) we scheduled the c-section for that afternoon.
I spent almost the entire day sitting by myself in a tiny 相談室, but in the end it all went well and I got in to see the boys that night.
Shout out to all the doctors and nurses at Keio. If I’m being extremely picky I would have preferred more updates throughout the day, but mother and babies were all taken care of well.
Also shout out to national healthcare, my wife was in the hospital for almost 2 months and it looks like our out of pocket costs will be around 100k *total*. Which I actually laughed at and could barely believe when I saw it. (Non Americans, feel free to insert your jokes here making fun of us Americans, we’re used to it) Especially nice when my wife has supplemental health insurance which pays out 10k a day for the hospital stay and another 100k for the c-section, so we’re coming out way ahead on the whole thing (Well aware that this money will just get immediately incinerated on baby related expenses, but its still nice).
Praise for my wife, who has been through a lot the last few months but has been a trooper the whole time. I like to think my care packaged and cards helped, but she’s a champion.
Biggest shout out to the babies, who started out with breathing tubes and IVs but are already breathing on their own moving on to drinking from a bottle. The little dudes still have lots of work to do but they’re awesome.
Climbed my first V3 at the gym. Then I climbed another one after that on the slab wall.
* looks like i have a bit of work ahead of me finally, will be good to get some income flowing in
* bank guys came the other day to check if i’m actually working as i stated, but things are looking good and i’ll officially get a new bank account for my business next week
* learned a bit how to do my accounting/bookkeeping and understand the final tax return thing a bit more. a fun challenge and good to learn so far, but definitely hiring a professional next year (or use Freee)
* caught up with a good friend after so many months, really happy for her news
Now, to deal with this restlessness and start sleeping better
After lurking here and on r/japanfinance for a while I finally made my first ‘retiring in Japan’ post and am already getting some great advice!
I haven’t had a “I freaking love Japan” moment in a while but I had two recently over Obon.
First, we went camping along the Seto inland. As if grilling and taking it easy under stars wasn’t enough, the campsite was next to an onsen that stays open late. Cut to me having a whole open air bath to myself, looking out at the seas, and seeing all the little flickering lights of ships and coastal towns painting the horizon. Just made me feel eternally grateful for everything.
Skip ahead a few days, and we’re in rural Kyushu at my wife’s grandfather’s house. Turns out he has an outdoor pizza oven no one knew how to use, save for me. Which leads to me relaxing on the porch outside, beer and umeshu in hand, picture perfect night sky, wildlife is chirping, and playing pizza chef for the entire family. Damn that was a moment of happiness. And the pizzas turned out great too.
Last year my residence card change application took a very long time to process, and I received it after my My Number card expired. That was a pain.
This year I got my residence card renewed in time, and renewing my My Number card went a lot smoother this year.
Made and ate some chilli with ground chicken and fish. Was delicious and worth the 1k+ yen I spent on ingredients
3 days till the school gym reopens
3 night shifts this week. Love it. Am getting better at speaking to customers when they initiate conversation, and doing more things on my own. Answered a phone call too that other day
I’m still alive. Things will be fine. Somehow.
Praise JR for their handling of lost/forgotten items on the train. It went like this:
Forgot my bag on a JR train on Monday from a trip
Forgot what number of train I rode so they cant secure my item right away, was told to wait for them to be inputted in their system (went home for the day)
Lost and found office pointed me to JR 忘れ物チャット site, input the details
Got everything sorted by Wednesday as my bag was also found according to the operator, set the delivery to my house as it was on a far station
Got my bag today via delivery
Paypay finally recognized my Katagana name! Now I’m finally able to top up Paypay with my Resona account!
after going through a mountain of depraved smut for an entire weekend, here’s to you, guy selling a cookbook of what to do with your Furusato Nouzei at Comiket, for restoring my faith that humanity can indeed be saved.
More than a month into working haken in a large company. It’s been great for my mental and physical health, also my bank account. AND I have time to do freelance work that pays in USD. I can’t really believe I had put up with working for a small traditional company for years doing 3 people’s jobs, in an industry with no prospects.
Sometimes I stop and worry about what happens when my contract runs out – but God knows what would happen if I didn’t quit that place.
Is the heat wave ending? Praise the lord of the skies, Raijin!