It makes me happy to say that Couchsurfing is not dead. I’ve been grateful for all the friends and experiences that Couchsurfing has brought me through the years and it was unpleasant to think of it as becoming irrelevant and a dying platform. It still might, but for the moment at least, my faith is…
I find myself quite alone in my house in Otaru – and in general in the town of Otaru, on the island of Hokkaido, and in Japan. It wouldn’t be accurate to say that I find myself alone in the world as there are people I communicate with on a regular basis via the social…
It took me a while to figure out that Amazon.jp works well here but you need a new Prime membership if you want the free shipping. Once I cancelled my U.S. Prime and changed to Japan, life suddenly got a lot easier. I don’t plan on having a car so being able to have things…
I’ve always wanted to be a home-owner and up to this point, I’ve been thwarted by economics. I could never get enough to make a decent offer in the beautiful places I’ve lived – or to qualify for a mortgage with my self-employed hustle lifestyle. When I finally did manage to get enough money together…
I didn’t take pictures of this – because of basic respect for strangers on holiday – but I hope my words can convey how strange and awesome it is staying in a Japanese tourist hotel in a resort town during a holiday. I’ve written about the onsen (hot spring) and the unfortunate (for me) rule…