The Monday Read: I’m on a boat

It was relaxing, interesting, and fun, but I don’t think I’ll do it again

This Golden Week my wife and I went on a cruise from Yokohama to Taiwan and Okinawa and back again.

I’d never done it before (my wife had once, in Europe, and thought I might like it).

I’ll be doing a blog post about the experience at some point, but the TLDR would be it was fun but I didn’t like it enough to want to do it again.

We did manage to have a very relaxing ten days, eat a lot of food, do a fair bit of exercise (the gym was pretty decent) and almost no work at all, win a number of trivia quizzes, and spent more time wearing a suit or dinner jacket than I have in the last 20 years or so.

How was your Golden Week this year?

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The Forum

Speaking of which, the Forum is doing well (41,373 posts so far). The forum rules are here. In essence, they are:

1. Be nice
2. Ask any question you like
3. Only answer questions when you have relevant knowledge or experience

Here are the latest active threads:

This week’s books

I am still on my Terry Pratchett binge! Bought all of his Discworld books on Kindle and am now reading I Shall Wear Midnight (38/41). Still like the Tiffany Aching books the most this time round.

This week’s links

1. I’ve been doing this recently (not looking at my phone until I leave the house): How to Stop Eating Candy for Breakfast
2. Great story (I would love to find 100m yen and get to keep it): The Remarkable Culture of Return: Why Japan Excels at Finding What’s Lost
3. Eeeek. This is why we save and invest: Reform of Japan’s pension system will stall without a long-term perspective
4. This is such a classically cool Japanese thing: ‘It’s done wonders’: trading card game featuring middle-aged men revives Japanese town
5. So true: Give Now, Not Later
6. I visited Chongqing in 1997, and it did not look like this: Chongqing, the world’s largest city – in pictures
7. UK specific, but an interesting look at the thought process: What’s the safe withdrawal rate danger zone?
8. Enjoyed this (subscribed): Always Invert
9. This was extremely thought-provoking: The many fallacies of ‘AI won’t take your job, but someone using AI will’
10. Six minutes: How Do Individual Investors Research Stocks?
11. Great background on the home loan tax deduction (which expires this year): A pox on your tax
12. What a bizarre article. Of course there is a difference between an asylum seeker in Japan legally and someone who came in on a tourist visa and stayed illegally: Overstayers in Japan face criminal stigma
13. Not as common nowadays but still happens a lot it seems from the comments: Copying ID at Japanese hotels
14. I loved Dire Straits when I was 12: Mark Knopfler on Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing: ‘I wrote it in the window display of a New York appliance store’
15. Was surprised to see this last week: Scams on Wise
16. Derek gardens too: Mowdicum
17. I approve: Japanese Government and Business Stiffen Resistance to Trump
18. 7% sounds good too: 10% Returns in the Stock Market
19. So much more of this please: ‘World’s largest’ electric ship measuring 130 metres launched by Tasmanian boatbuilder
20. Interesting background on the history of the dominant Japan messaging app: LINE ‘Em Up
21. Good: A TV Scandal Shows “Japan Inc.” Is No Longer Okay With Sexual Misconducts

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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