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Van Life in Japan
101–110 of 231 posts
Re: Van Life in Japan
#102Used to live in Oita and totally agree that prefecture, Miyazaki, and I'd throw in Kagoshima, are all great for seaside (or otherwise) free camping. Used to putter around on my bicycle or in my tiny car to sleep at beaches, out-of-the-way parks, Michi No Eki: wherever I could find privacy and not bother anyone. Frequent onsen make cleanliness a breeze and a joy. Great times, those!
Re: Van Life in Japan
#103Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not that hard really, I recommend it. RV rentals are a thing in Japan. I am from USA, so I went to a local shop here that offers International Driver's Permits. All they do is look at your driver's license to ensure it's valid, and then stamp a little paper brochure that has a bunch of translations of what your country permits with a driver's license. You can get as many of these as you want, it's not an actual…
> language barrier isn't really an issue day to day. Most people in the huge urban centers (such as where you'd pick up the RV) speak English well. This is not the general experience in Japan, and advising people to expect English speakers is misleading :) That said, you will certainly still get by, and if you're nervous about it there are definitely other (more expensive) rental options with strong English language…
Good point, not a precise statement from me. I personally did not want to use one of those more expensive options so I called around to find an agency that was open to renting to a foreigner, but wasn't too targeted at renting to foreigners. So, definitely selection bias there since my memory is the ones I didn't go with basically just said no, which isn't enough data to show if there was enough English support to complete a complicated rental transaction.
Re: Van Life in Japan
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm from a northern European country and I moved to a tropical country. I sweat buckets here, quite possibly literally. You can bet I shower daily. Sometimes I shower several times a day (although fortunately I live by the sea so I try to jump in there instead when possible). I also sometimes go though several shirts in a day and have to take care to manage my electrolytes and hydration. Showering this often is not a…
Last time I checked US was not a tropical country. Obviously when I travelled around Southeast Asia I was showering daily. We are talking here about your regular American living and working in AC home and moving between them in AC car and shopping in AC shops and not doing manual labor. > Locals don't have this problem. Oh they do, but for instance they use prickly heat powder in some of those tropical countries. And…
Looking at municipal water usage per capita,
US uses 175.9 m3 per capita
Germany uses 236.5 m3 per capita
Czechia uses 57.5 per capita
So individuals in America (i.e. showering) do not use abnormally high amounts of water. The country in total uses more water because we have more farming and more industry than Germany or Czechia.
https://www.worldometers.info/water/us-water/
Re: Van Life in Japan
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Just use a water bottle like the rest of us! I lived out of an Explorer for 3 months, not once did an adult diaper cross my mind.
This only works for about 50% of the population.
My wife disagrees: https://www.rei.com/product/407267/freshette-pee-funnel
Re: Van Life in Japan
#106We've lived in a sailboat in Japan for a while and wrote a little provisioning guide that might also be of interest for van folks in Japan. http://100r.co/site/provisioning_in_japan.html
I'd just like to say I really loved watching your sailing videos. I was watching a lot of videos from sailboat cruisers around the start of the pandemic, and your videos were such a breath of fresh air in that space, as I relate to you two much more strongly than the stereotypical cruiser hanging out in the Caribbean for years on end.
Re: Van Life in Japan
#107Earlier quoted context omitted.
Diaper is gross, but peeing in a bottle while sleeping in the car can be nice. Just roll over, pee, roll back over and fall asleep again. Much less intrusive than getting up and walking to the bathroom, dealing with bright lights, etc.
Going in a bottle is not a solution for all of us unfortunately
Probably not while laying down, but a wide mouth bottle, such as a dedicated Nalgene bottle, can work.
Re: Van Life in Japan
#108Earlier quoted context omitted.
I have a hard time imagining it to be cheaper to live in this truck than most things. And the kid… I can’t imagine this is good for the kid. Obviously the point of the van is that you can move around a lot! Aside: vagrancy is illegal in Japan, so if you’re sticking to the law you probably need to rent somewhere (or use your parents) and have a registered address.
- vagrancy is illegal in Japan Is that why you don't see any homeless in Japan? They just arrest them for vagrancy and house them in jail?
According to a very untrustworthy source (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_Japan) the numbers of homeless people are somewhat low-ish, if those numbers are anywhere near accurate it may account for the low visibility of the problem.
Re: Van Life in Japan
#109Not sure if the OP is here but I’d recommend a cassette toilet, if you can find one in Japan. Having lived in a van it was the ideal setup for what you are describing. If there are plenty of public restrooms, you empty the cassette toilet there (they wheel in like suitcases) and you can give up the adult diapers :)
Re: Van Life in Japan
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
This only works for about 50% of the population.
My wife disagrees: https://www.rei.com/product/407267/freshette-pee-funnel
Sure, products exist which make it possible, but the parent commenter said:
> Just use a water bottle like the rest of us!
That's not just using a water bottle. And certainly is specialized enough of a tool that you likely can't find it as ubiquitously as a water bottle.