Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Van Life in Japan

kumazen.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

141–150 of 231 posts

Re: Van Life in Japan

#141

Post by michaelt »

justusthane wrote: post #137
pancrufty wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody renovates houses in Japan. You're supposed to destroy it and build anew. For 15k you're buying the lot and the right to spend a lot more than that.

How come? Is it just cultural? Are there laws against it?

> Unlike in other countries, Japanese homes gradually depreciate over time, becoming completely valueless within 20 or 30 years. When someone moves out of a home or dies, the house, unlike the land it sits on, has no resale value and is typically demolished. This scrap-and-build approach is a quirk of the Japanese housing market that can be explained variously by low-quality construction to quickly meet demand after the second world war, repeated building code revisions to improve earthquake resilience and a cycle of poor maintenance due to the lack of any incentive to make homes marketable for resale.

-- https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/16/japan-reusabl...

Of course, houses can be renovated - as the article explains. But going along with a country's traditional building methods is often cheaper than bucking the trends.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#142

Post by raincole »

justusthane wrote: post #137
pancrufty wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody renovates houses in Japan. You're supposed to destroy it and build anew. For 15k you're buying the lot and the right to spend a lot more than that.

How come? Is it just cultural? Are there laws against it?

Because of earthquakes. Old houses are considered unsafe even after renovation. Of course things are changing as modern materials are getting more trust.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#143

Post by barking_biscuit »

justusthane wrote: post #137
pancrufty wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nobody renovates houses in Japan. You're supposed to destroy it and build anew. For 15k you're buying the lot and the right to spend a lot more than that.

How come? Is it just cultural? Are there laws against it?

It's just cultural.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#144

Post by mynameisvlad »

jacobriis wrote: post #126
mynameisvlad wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Funnels are a more specialized tool than adult diapers?

Funnels that are specifically shaped for that purpose very much are, yes. I don't understand how that's even a question.

Adult diapers' main purpose isn't peeing while on a van trip; I would imagine elderly people around the world need them day to day. A funnel specifically made for women to pee is an incredibly niche product with little to no day-to-day use.

Nobody said that a diaper is superior to a funnel. The grandparent comment makes it seem like it's easy for half the population to pee in a bottle and I called them out on it. I didn't even mention the ubiquity of adult diapers, I compared finding a specialized funnel to a water bottle on purpose.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#145

Post by mynameisvlad »

whymauri wrote: post #123
mynameisvlad wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This only works for about 50% of the population.

I guarantee you there are many women van/car lifers who don't use adult diapers (I know quite a few!). As has been said many times in this thread, there are inexpensive tools for this.

Did I somehow say otherwise?

I said that just peeing in a bottle really only works for half the population. That's all. Your choice to somehow read into those words so deeply as to make up a completely new sentence that was never written is yours alone.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#146

Post by almog »

dieselgate wrote: post #44
ericmcer wrote: post #42

Earlier 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

While my personal urinating experience so far in life has involved a male urethra, I met on trail women who've been using Shewee for peeing in the outdoors. I imagine that if it works the way it's supposed to work, maybe it could work with a bottle.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#147

Post by dreamcompiler »

vsareto wrote: post #51
BizarreByte wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s hard to imagine putting up with stuff like this when for the same amount of money it takes to do “van life” in Japan you could live quite well elsewhere.

These vans do seem reasonably priced compared to American living vans. I don't think you'd get much living for around $60k. Plus you could rent vs. buy.

The author links to a van rental service. Looks like a van comparable to the author's van rents for ¥24,800/night. Ouch! You could get a very nice hotel room in rural Japan for that.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#148

Post by yreg »

entaloneralie wrote: post #78

We'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

Woo, you have redesigned the site since the last time I visited. It's so nice

Re: Van Life in Japan

#149

Post by adventured »

calsy wrote: post #139
Lio wrote: post #26

I love this or at least the idea of it. The only thing that really would bother me is, not sure how to put this, but the lack of privacy with regard to sleeping arrangements. I guess some people are more comfortable being intimate with their partner in close proximity to their children but that's not for me. Anyway everything else looks like an amazing adventure so I wish them good luck.

Humans have always slept in family groups. It seems like the more natural thing to do. Likewise with nudity. Westerner's are hung up on covering themselves up in front of family members at a certain age. Many Asian cultures don't have that baggage. Bathing with family or going to a bathhouse is normal, and why wouldn't it be?

So called "natural" doesn't always mean better. Fortunately we get to choose what we like or don't like, preferences.

Our distant ancestors had to put up with a lot of negatives that we do not necessarily need to. Just because they did it, doesn't mean they wanted to, it may mean they had mediocre alternatives (or no alternatives at all).

Re: Van Life in Japan

#150

Post by rr888 »

Japanese people are usually very organized and neat, I can't imagine they'd appreciate backpackers coming through like this.

Where I come from there are ever increasing number of people living in vans and its a real problem. They usually just cause problems, dont pay hotel or property taxes and ruin the area for everyone else. Some towns have banned them which is worse for the few locals that used to do it on a short trip.

Post reply on HN