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Van Life in Japan

kumazen.com

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Re: Van Life in Japan

#171

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

poorman wrote: post #129

As someone who's been doing van life for the past year, things like finding water, and places to camp are usually top of mind. Especially if you try to stay on the East Coast of the United States for a while. Might have to try Japan!

East coast, or more generally, east of the Mississippi, is definitely much harder than the west. Here in New Mexico, you can sleep overnight pretty much anywhere you want ... nobody will care unless you stay for more than 3-4 nights. Water can still be challenging out here, although when we've been in our van for a long time out east, we generally abandon our in-vehicle tanks and just buy those 2.5 or 5 gallon jugs from a store. I hope you're using iOverlander to help locate both of the things you've mentioned.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#172

Post by killingtime74 »

EngCanMan wrote: post #11

"An empty water bottle/adult diaper can become a luxury in the middle of the night to avoid putting on your clothes/shoes and exiting the van in the coldness" You lost me when adult diapers became a luxury.

He also said he doesn't bathe every day. Hard pass.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#173

Post by jack_pp »

While I'm happy for OP I'm afraid finding a "paradise" and telling the internet about it has the risk of ruining it. If 10k people read the article and 1% go to the same place and blog about it and bring even more people, then sooner or later it will be ruined and chances are localities will ban such adventures.

I've done something similar.. some years ago there was a casino I would go to where you would pay 10$ entry fee and have access to a buffet, for the whole day. They had great food too. So I told an uber driver this "hack" and less than 6 months later they started checking whether you were playing or not, you needed a special ticket to access the buffet. Now I have no idea if me not shutting up about it has caused it to be closed off but there's certainly a chance.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#174

Post by stickfigure »

mynameisvlad wrote: post #169
jacobriis wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"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." Funnels of various sizes readily available in every hardware and auto parts store. Also these specific funnels are readily available in outdoors and sporting stores. It is easy to find funnels. No need to defend "half the population" by "calling them out on it."

To remind you, because scrolling up seems to be a bit too tough for you right now, the GP comment says: > Just use a water bottle like the rest of us! That's still not just a water bottle. Period. However easy it is, it's not just a water bottle, and it's not as easy as finding a water bottle. That was literally my entire point, as I have now said multiple times, but go off sis.

I don't know why this point is important to you, but in english, "just use a" and and "use just a" have significantly different meanings.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#175

Post by [deleted] »

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

[deleted]

Re: Van Life in Japan

#176

Post by calsy »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #166
calsy wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ancestors? It's normal now, just not where you are. A couple of centuries ago a bunch of upper class Europeans in big homes made it a point of having separate rooms for kids as means of showing off their wealth and status, and now here we are. You can see this history quite clearly now in the old castles Royal families live in and the obscene amount of rooms they have. Who can look after an 18 room castle? Someone wi…

From my reading, that's not where "modern living" comes from at all. For that, we should look to middle class folk living in the Netherlands, in roughly the late 1700s. They were (so I have read) the first to develop the modern concept of "home" with distinct rooms for different purposes, at least on a scale that be attained/reasonable aspired to by regular people. The account I read of this strongly suggested that t…

And I'm sure the kids still remained with their parents at night. Through all of our known history across all cultures families have slept together. It is only in the past few centuries that European wealth and individualism changed that.

So why is this the 'better' option? What is the benefit from separating a child from their parents at night? More likely it just how our parents did it and everyone else does it so we inherently think its the best way.

What we think to be normal or right is in fact the complete opposite that based on our known history.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#177

Post by lmm »

testermelon wrote: post #163

I wonder how do they handle address and municipal paperworks. Do you legally “stay” at a friend’s house/apartment?

Yeah that was my first thought. It's illegal not to have a fixed address AIUI.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#178

Post by killingtime74 »

jack_pp wrote: post #173

While I'm happy for OP I'm afraid finding a "paradise" and telling the internet about it has the risk of ruining it. If 10k people read the article and 1% go to the same place and blog about it and bring even more people, then sooner or later it will be ruined and chances are localities will ban such adventures. I've done something similar.. some years ago there was a casino I would go to where you would pay 10$ entr…

If not you someone else would have talked. Same for this post. Japan has a population of over 125 million (4x US?). Over 2000 children are born there per day. We are not movie protagonists, don't worry about it

Re: Van Life in Japan

#179

Post by mynameisvlad »

stickfigure wrote: post #174
mynameisvlad wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To remind you, because scrolling up seems to be a bit too tough for you right now, the GP comment says: > Just use a water bottle like the rest of us! That's still not just a water bottle. Period. However easy it is, it's not just a water bottle, and it's not as easy as finding a water bottle. That was literally my entire point, as I have now said multiple times, but go off sis.

I don't know why this point is important to you, but in english, "just use a" and and "use just a" have significantly different meanings.

That makes absolutely no difference to my point.

"Just use a" implies that it's easy as picking it up and using it.

The fact that a funnel has to be bought and brought into the equation means it's not as easy as just [using] a water bottle.

Please, next time your wife needs to go to the bathroom, give her a water bottle and tell her to just use it. It's ok, someone said it's just that easy.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#180

Post by knodi123 »

bitwize wrote: post #37
nabilhat wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For anyone who's spent any time sleeping in a van or car in public parking, this feels like gently worded subtext that fits in with this from the 'safety' section: > While sleeping in normal parking I think it is important to keep discrete so people will not bother you and you will not annoy anyone. In much of the world, going outside to pee in the bushes in a populated area carries a nonzero risk of attention from l…

Try "sleeping under a bridge the rest of your life". Public exposure is a registerable offense in some states.

Public exposure convictions/registration from people who are innocently peeing somewhere they shouldn't is vanishingly rare. As in, I've never seen a report of a conviction that I found credible, but if I did, I'd bet lots of money that you couldn't find a second one. What I HAVE found is lots of people on the registry for indecent exposure who tell their friends "I was just peeing in alley, I swear", but I do not count those as credible.
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