The Monday Read: You Win or You Learn

the coast near Kinkasan is my favourite place in Miyagi

I learned something last week.

(that’s the positive way to look at it, and I’m a fan of seeing the positive in every situation)

I booked three nights in one of my favourite hotels. It’s an old school place on the coast of Miyagi near Kinkasan, about an hour and a half drive from where I live. It’s really quiet, the views are out of this world (that photo above was taken from my room), the food is decent, and the bath is really good.

Perfect for a few days away from the world.

I was hoping to get a lot of work done, but just like when I was in Miyakojima earlier in the year, it didn’t happen.

I got a lot of thinking done, and it was restful, but no work.

And it was useful to learn this. Basically to work I need to be at home, with my normal routine, and my work setup, and a deadline.

I was mistaken to think I could work while traveling, or while staying somewhere.

And it is good that I know that now. I won’t bother even trying to work on future trips. I’ll just enjoy the trip, relax, and save it up for when I get back.

Understanding yourself better allows you to optimize things.

RetireJapan TV

And we’re back! RetireJapan TV Season 2 Episode 2 is today (Monday 11th) at 20:00 today. We’re talking about cool trains with the funky Sim from Twitter, Xmas and New Year traditions, RetireJapan stories, and what the rest of Season 2 might look like.

Join us live on YouTube, Facebook, or LinkedIn 🙂

YouTube

Thank you for your support of the RetireJapan YouTube channel. We published two new videos this week:

This ONE small adjustment will transform your finances -the RetireJapan hierarchy of spending

RetireJapan REACTS: living on a state pension (nenkin) in Japan… WOULD NOT WANT TO TRY TO DO THIS

Our first reaction video, and not only was it really easy to make, it seems to have gone down quite well. Will probably make more of these (please send me interesting videos to comment on).

Please watch, like, subscribe, and share with other people!

The Forum

The Forum is doing well (31,513 posts so far). Here are the latest active threads:

This week’s books

No new books this week, but I finished three old ones. More next time, maybe.

This week’s links

  1. Someone else likes my favourite Disney film. Had no idea about the backstory (YouTube): The December Comfort Watches, Day Two: The Emperor’s New Groove
  2. Ours is quite a bit larger, but at least we stopped doing presents for adults: Avg. budget for kids’ Christmas gifts in Japan declines for 4th year in row
  3. No no no no no: Beware the Bed Bugs on Your Next Japan Trip
  4. I’m so impressed with Chris’ documentaries (YouTube): What Life in Fukushima’s Nuclear Exclusion Zone is Like
  5. Disgraceful: 1+1 = 3. How Japan’s renewable underestimates are impacting Asia’s energy transition
  6. I love the rental economy. Makes so much sense to borrow or rent things you only need occasionally, or to buy second hand: ‘I’m not buying new stuff any more’: the young people getting into ‘degrowth’
  7. This article is infuriating, the situation seems far worse than I had thought it was: NHK program challenges Japanese education’s squeamish approach to the birds and the bees
  8. The third-rate combini? (YouTube) Lawson C-Stores: Influence of Mitsubishi & Overview
  9. This is going to be interesting: Japan’s 2024 problem? Trucker overtime curbs risk an economic pileup
  10. These little band aid responses are not going to solve the problem: Expanding labor shortage pushes Japan to find new ways to fill jobs
  11. This is why our course is called Your First Million Yen (YouTube): Why Net Worth Goes CRAZY After $100k!
  12. Horrible. More support for kids needed both at home and in school: Japan sees record-high 514 school student suicides in 2022
  13. Would love to see wages going up in Japan: How Low Wages Made Japan A Deficit Addict
  14. This Twitter thread is so interesting: Up to the 1990s, raw salmon sushi was not eaten in Japan
  15. Dark times? Japan won’t be swaggering on the world stage any time soon
  16. This is on my doorstep. Maybe I will walk it next year: The story behind Japan’s epic 600-mile Michinoku Coastal Trail
  17. Loved these little interviews with naturalised citizens: How did you become a Japanese citizen?
  18. I hope she wins, I don’t think she has much of a case (this strikes me as something that needs to be fixed with a new law, not a court ruling): Japan-born U.S. national Yuri Kondo continues dual citizenship fight
  19. I love love love these little glimpses of Derek’s life. Kind of reminded me of my trip last week (I stayed in an old, slightly deserted hotel) but we approach staying at places quite differently I think! (I have never shown ID to a hotel) Shizuoka Mind Meandering
  20. Got a lot out of this Ali Abdaal self indulgent rambling: Everything’s Changing – Life Update

What do you think? Anything interesting in there?

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2 Responses

  1. The ongoing case of Yuri Kondo.
    JT>”The 76-year-old lawyer became a U.S. citizen in 2004, and filed the lawsuit in 2022 after being flagged by government officials as having more than one nationality, putting her Japanese citizenship status in limbo.”

    She naturalized as a US Citizen in the US.
    Article 11 of the Japanese Nationality Law is clear. On that day she relinquished her Japanese Citizenship
    https://www.moj.go.jp/ENGLISH/information/tnl-01.html
    “(Loss of nationality)
    Article 11.
    1. A Japanese national shall lose Japanese nationality when he or she acquires a foreign nationality by his or her own choice.
    2. A Japanese national having a foreign nationality shall lose Japanese nationality if he or she chooses the foreign nationality in accordance with the laws of the foreign country concerned. ”

    At the time she was flagged, she only had US nationality.
    Any failure on her part to file the correct paperwork to report the fact to the Japanese Embassy does not change the fact. Her Japanese citizenship was not in limbo. It was non-existant, revoked from the minute she naturalized in the US. She and the Japanese government just didn’t know it yet…

    Some Immigration Official erroneously wrote in her passport “Dual Citizen” (see picture), but she was never a Dual Citizen. The minute she took US Citizenship, she relinquised Japanese citizenship.

    This has absolutely no bearing on Dual Citizens by Birth, and is a complete misrepresentation of the facts.

    JT> “In its most recent estimate from 2018, the Justice Ministry said that around 925,000 people potentially had dual nationality. Kondo believes that if the figure is correct, there may now be over a million people at risk of losing their Japanese citizenship as she did.”

    Really? 1,000,000 ex-Japanese Citizens who have taken other nationalities by Natutralization? They are not at risk of losing their Japanese citizenship. They have already done so. They just may not know it yet.

    So long as you are Dual Nationality by Birth, and DO NOT take another citizenship by Naturalization, your Japanese Citizenship is not (currently) at risk.