60cm for Sea of Japan Coast

[Thunderpants 0]

DearDear Britan

i'm siting less than 300 km from all the good stuff. and i can't move beyond the door to the appartment due to my broken leg, THAT SUCKS!

Right now my wife and i are thinking about moving back to europe, but it is a difficult decision.

In Japan we have snow, waves and money.

In Denmark we have England style weather, less money, no waves, but more holiday and in general more freedom.

life's full of difficult choices...

atb

TP

[mogski 0]

Anyone got any photos of this wonderful storms aftermath?

[mattlucas 0]

Kind of sucks for us weekenders as the storm hit in the early part of the week

 

But alas. That is life.

[Plucky 0]

At least the efficiently built houses won't collapse in pieces. They'll just all go down at once! Enjoy the insulation mother nature brings, because Japanese code won't allow warmth by man-made means!

 

Big snow storm here too recently. 2 feet in two days. I'm glad Japan is finally getting some good snowfalls. I'm looking forward to seeing some video and pictures. Wild winter so far....

[sunrise 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Dear Britain:

you have to get mad

Dear Dear B,
I think you might be due for some extended leave. It sounds like your life is killing you at the moment, without much sign of it letting up. Is money worth that much? Haven't you got enough tucked away and enough skills in making more to seriously think about shifting lifestyles even though it's not quite enough for you to retire yet? Surely you could land on your feet elsewhere. You are used to having and generating lots of money around you, thus you are very capable of generating it again using different means besides the job you're doing now. You've got a good brain you could easily go into business for yourself in the financial field.
Seriously - you are in the running for a heart attack or stroke. Or at the very least - continual low level depression and unhappiness. Find a way to make good cash while following your path with a heart. You have the brains and skills to be able to do that, whether this means investing from home and riding/surfing all day, or bringing your business closer to doing the things you love. It may take you longer to finish raising the cash you require for your financial independence, but you will be far happier as a result. And - remember, if it doesn't work, you can always return to the financial office in the future. Money for money's sake without happiness or fulfilment, especially if it's killing you, may not be worth it. You might die before you retire, even if that's only a few years away. Then what?

Of course who am I to say anything worth listening to? I'm certainly not what someone in your field would call wealthy, so my opinions on this subject may not count for much, but I have to say that from your posts I wonder if I enjoy my day-to-day life more than you enjoy yours. You will feel far better once you are creating richness in your daily life, as well in your pay packet. The money after all, is only a means to an end.


By the way, you and I were hanging out in a dream I had last nite. Somewhere in the Blue Mountains. No snow but it was beautiful there (purely platonic, of course).

[sunrise 0]

Ooops, I should have addressed that to Dear 34 Guest(s).... (okay, looks like Britain is no longer dear... now, what's with the 34 guests? There's only 13 up there now.

[KlingKlang 1]

There's 98 on the main page.

[damian 0]

Hell yes, the luxury of a centrally heated and insulated house in winter. After 2 years of living like I was camping, it is good to be comfortable in my home again.

 

Thunder - you win the "it sucks" prize .

 

Sunrise - I never understood the origins of the adjective 'platonic', but I am, sure we were . But thanks for dreaming about me. You know in Tokyo I was walking out of a small inexpensive but yummy French eating place last year and there was a lady having lunch with a guy and for absolutely no reason as I walked past the table I thought "I bet that is sunshine from SJ, why would she be in this dull part of town". You were having lunch with a black guy. The chances are zero but I always wondered why such an odd though would flash through my mind.

 

Regarding your thoughtful post and appreciated, I am not at the edge, just putting a lot of pressure on myself. I have high expectations from life and a day not adding another paragraph to the book of my life which will be written in the future is a wasted day in so far as that book is intended to be well worth reading. To write a new paragraph beyond the singular thing I have managed to achieve to date (career) requires me to live in that ideal place where I can earn money and have the required environment and geography at the same time. The final challenge is the nationality. All can easily be solved, but not quickly and 3 weeks without progress is three weeks wasted. My challenge is I am looking at 3 years of this when I know that is is not the optimum that is possible in the world. Lots more I could say on this and certainly plenty of what you said is part of the plan. I have zero to grumble about, I am just a perfectionist that doesn't understand "better than nothing". More importantly, I hope you are getting some of this snow! I just got a keitai email from a friend who is as I type on the shink to yuzawa. I can almost taste the onigiri and yucky crust-less tonkatsu white bread sandwich that I would eat on the train having bought it on route that morning along with my mikan. That would be followed by a smooth riding shinkansen snooze with hat pulled over tired eyes only to painfully wake up and get off the train to -5C, heaps of fresh snow and a rush for the resort bus with a stomach full of excitement.

[gamera 0]

Hi Thunderpants

 

Hum.. less freedom and holidays in Japan and more freedom but less money, wave and snow in Denmark.......Hard choice.

When I got on a ferry from Helsingor(Denmark) to Helsingberg(Sweden), I saw big waves in the sea, is it not usual?

 

Do you mean a lot more " should not do" and "have to do" than expected in Japan?

Exactly sometimes it feels tight to live on in this country though.

 

Uhm... no comment for sunrise vs guest34, a lot unknown words for me lol...

[Thunderpants 0]

I know this discussion don't belong in snow talk, but

waves in denmark are rare, and when we have waves they are always from local storms, so surf is pretty much out of the question. The weather is pretty much always bad, winter with little or no snow, and short, rainy and cold summers

Highest "mountain" in denmark is 166 m above sea level.

 

Gamera, when did you go to denmark, I can't imagine why someone would want to go there.

 

 

Denmark has 37 hr, working week, 5 weeks of paid holiday whenever you want + national holidays.

 

Japan is full of "should not do" and "have to do"

My boss (maybe former) told me that i can no longer go surfing or snowboarding anymore because of my accident. whenever there is a national holiday in this country, boss cuts the following weekend one day short. that i just the japanese mentality

i make good money, but working in japan feels like beeing in a golden cage. If we continue to live here, i will be able to take my wife on that 3 week surftrip to (insert nice destination here) when we retire...

I NEED FREEDOM, NOT A NEW TOYOTA

denmark, on the other hand... no i will not start

 

ATB

Tp

[gamera 0]

Hi Thunderpants.

 

It was in 1982 when I visited there.

Please don't say you were not born in yet!

Why? - you know everyone wants to visit somewhere else where they have different culture from their own. It's always new and interesting.

Perhaps you just don't notice there's a lot of attractive things around in your country.

Funny thing was Denmark and Sweden had similar coins, Krone for Denmark and Krona for Sweden?

Hard to judge which was which when I needed to pay some for public toilets.

I always asked like

"Excuse me sir, which is your currency?"

in public toilets lol...

Because I visited both Denmark and Sweden so in my wallet there were both coins.

 

 Quote:

Originally posted by Thunderpants:

My boss (maybe former) told me that i can no longer go surfing or snowboarding anymore because of my accident. whenever there is a national holiday in this country, boss cuts the following weekend one day short. that i just the japanese mentality

ATB

Tp

Does your boss do it to every worker or just to you? Is that the office regulation of the company you work for?

I hear many companies do the same or similar - cutting following weekends part.

Bosses should notice what brings workers to become interested in!

 

I think the point is not how long you work, but how good you do your job. Many Japanese bosses don't notice it or maybe have already noticed it but can't change it following the old custom which says something like the longer you work the better business goes which I think doesn't make any sense.

[NoFakie 45]

 Quote:

Originally posted by Plucky:
At least the efficiently built houses won't collapse in pieces. They'll just all go down at once! Enjoy the insulation mother nature brings, because Japanese code won't allow warmth by man-made means!

I don't think the building codes stop you having insulation or central heating. In fact, what the code does now is to enforce (on paper) people to install 24-hr ventilation systems since new energy-efficient homes are so airtight as to pose a perceived health risk.

http://allabout.co.jp/glossary/g_house/w002491.htm

More pertinent factors with Japanese houses being cold are low-cost construction (possibly in a vicious circle with house depreciation), high humidity, and a strong tradition of point heating (everyone in the kotatsu).

Japanese building codes strike me as extremely slack and a lot of the time are not even enforced. Look at the hodge podge of colours, styles and materials in your average neighbourhood.

[Thunderpants 0]

 Quote:

Originally posted by gamera:
Hi Thunderpants.

It was in 1982 when I visited there.
Please don't say you were not born in yet!
Why? - you know everyone wants to visit somewhere else where they have different culture from their own. It's always new and interesting.

Hi Gamera, Oh no, i was born in 1969
..and i know that Denmark has a lot of nice things to offer, both for the tourist and it's residents.
but if you are into sunshine, surf and snow, Denmark is not the place to live or visit

My boss let's everyone work on those extra holidays.
the "problem" with my boss is that he is such a good person, he has helped me in my life here so i almost feel like his 2. son.
how can you walk out on him??

anyway, we are way off topic here.
here's to another 60 cm
atb
Tp

[gamera 0]

Yeah.. Thunderpants exactly way off from the topic subject.

 

We can't see sun night here in Japan that's why I visited there

[sunrise 0]

Mr 34,

 

Greetings. I must admit I threw in the word platonic to pre-empt any possible smart replies from other forum members. Of course I figured you'd realise without needing to add it

 

Yeh, it was probably me in that restaurant Well, you never know - since I have been known to dine with African American and/or African musician friends at times. Now, if it were Good Honest Grub it almost certainly would have been me. I thought I saw you once on the street - I have a vague memory of what you might look like from some of the SJ pics. I yelled out "db" but "you" totally ignored me

 

At any rate I'm glad to hear that you're not as close to plummeting as your posts had me start to wonder about. Hmmm, maybe you tend to tell the forum a lot of the bad stuff... I'm glad that great things are in your future plans and that you are confident of surviving the interim (somehow). It must be sh!tty to not be geographically where you want to be to do some of the stuff you love doing in the meantime.

 

As for the skiing - I got a few days in just after Xmas, but, ah, I missed out on the Nozawa crew hookup, but I'll be off next week for my Club Med trip , looking forward to it once I get my boot liners sorted out. By the way, I like the new skis. They're fine for piste and powder that's not too deep. But a pair of fatties are definitely on the list for next season.

 

I may wind up in London sometime later this year. If so my local artsy-fartsy-type friends can hook you up with some excellent eating places that you expats might not know about.