Category: Uncategorized

Tips and Tricks for Japan’s Go To Campaigns

October 4, 2020 / / 1 Comment

UPDATE 10/13: Funding for Go To has been restored back to 14000 yen/night per person in discounts, and the region coupon remain at the same limit of 6000 yen/night per person.

UPDATE 10/11: It seems like Go To is running out of money, the maximum you can get off the hotel rate is 35% up to 3500 yen/night per person, but you can still get 15% up to 6000 yen/night per person in regional coupons.

Due to coronavirus severely impacting Japan’s tourism industry, the Japanese government kicked off various campaigns titled Go To stimulate domestic travel while tourists from outside Japan were not allowed in the country. Continue reading →

Moving to Japan during a Pandemic Part 2: Finding a (Software) Job

September 16, 2020 / / 4 Comments

Previously, I wrote about my motivations for moving to Japan. Here, we will talk about how I found a job that would let me stay in Japan.

There are various ways to obtain a visa to stay in Japan. The subreddit r/movingtojapan is a great resource especially their visa wiki. If you are lucky and have Japanese citizenship or are married to a Japanese national, well, you’re lucky and can ignore all of this and move onto the practical aspects when you are on the ground. Another path that might be good, especially if you aren’t confident in your language skills, is to go into a full-time Japanese language school for at least 6 months (minimum 6 months to get a student visa), then apply for jobs on the ground while in school. Continue reading →

Moving to Japan during a pandemic, part 1

July 18, 2020 / / 5 Comments

This is not entirely travel related, but it’s something I’ve been meaning to write. In March of 2020, I moved to Japan, right before the coronavirus pandemic really hit either Japan or the United States. Moving here was something I’ve intended on for a long time, and I maintain that it was one of the best decision in my life, despite complications from the pandemic. This will be a multi-part post, from the background motivations, to the processing moving there, and then practical tips for others making the move. Continue reading →

Lugging your stuff around

December 26, 2019 / / 0 Comments

TL;DR the lugg app is easy, reasonably priced, insured way to move. Download the app here and use promo code LU765311 for $10 off.

In preparation for moving to Japan, I needed to move all the things I wasn’t sending over to my parents’ place. So began the usual process of messaging a bunch of moving companies on Yelp and Thumbtack.

The annoying part of this is they will quote an hourly rate, but it’s hard to tell what extras are being charged and compare them reasonably, such as base fees, gas charges, whether or not the time to drive to the pickup or drive back from the destination is charged, whether you will be charged double drive time or not, or material costs. After asking a bunch of companies, I was getting quoted anywhere between $240-$450 dollars. To compare, the last time I did this with slightly more stuff, it ended up being around $400 dollars. Furthermore, scheduling is all done through the conversation, and you don’t always know whether a company is available or not, and it’s hard to control what time they come. Continue reading →

DEM Flyers guides to Osaka and Bangkok!

December 25, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Hot off my recent trip, I have a few new recommendation guides! I’ve been to Bangkok a couple times before, and combined experience from those trips with some new research. We’re always open to suggestions though!

Guide for Bangkok

This was perhaps my 3rd time to Osaka, but I really never got a good feel for the lay of the land until this time. I spend 2.5 days wandering around to the best restaurants, bars, and cool places to see, so I think I have a decent handle on it now! Continue reading →

Don’t use JUMP bikes/scooters

December 12, 2019 / / 0 Comments

TL;DR the reservation system is absolutely unreliable, and without the Uber Pass, is just not worth it.

I’ve been using JUMP bikes and scooters with the Uber Pass for a few months now, and the free 30 minutes a day absolutely made it worth it for me. There were a couple of issues though. Frequently I would encounter bikes with non-working e-assists. Even more annoying though, I would go up to bikes and scooters (I would check that they were available on the app), try to reserve them, and get hit with mysterious errors that they weren’t reservable. The issues seemed to have gone away over time. Continue reading →

The State of Payment for Foreigners in China, November 2019

November 28, 2019 / / 3 Comments

Using China’s cashless alternatives like Alipay and WeChat has always been a hassle or impossible for foreigners without Chinese residency or a bank card to use. Given that China is moving to an increasingly cashless society, but without widespread acceptance of foreign credit cards, being unable to use either of these methods made being a tourist fairly inconvenient. You could still pay a normal taxi with cash, or pay small amounts with cash if the merchant took it, or go to higher end places that could take card, but plenty of merchants wouldn’t accept anything other than mobile pay or wouldn’t have the proper change. Continue reading →

JUMP Scooters now operational! (and are also included in the ride pass)

October 17, 2019 / / 0 Comments

I wrote before about riding JUMP bikes for free, up to 30 minutes a day with the Uber ride pass. JUMP scooters have recently been added to the network, and it seems like they are also included in the free 30 minutes a day with a ride pass. The 30 minutes comes out of the same pool as the bikes. So far, there seems to be no reservation fee on the scooters, just a $0.33 per minute charge (beyond 30 minutes that is), which is similar to how the JUMP bikes were priced for me initially. Continue reading →

A quadruple whammy for free stock trades

October 2, 2019 / / 0 Comments

After Robinhood took the consumer market by storm in 2013 by offering completely free trades, analysts predicted it would only be a matter of time until the major brokers followed suit. I personally keep a small portion of my assets in Robinhood, though they haven’t been exactly without controversy. Robinhood has been accused of possibly not providing the best order speeds and pricing, as they take revenue from sending their order flow through 3rd party market makers. There was also the botched launch of Robinhood Cash. For what it’s worth, here’s my Robinhood referral 🤣. Continue reading →

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