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3 shirts, 4 pairs of trousers, meet Japans hardcore minimalists

theguardian.com

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Re: 3 shirts, 4 pairs of trousers, meet Japans hardcore minimalists

#71

Post by lmm »

chrisseaton wrote: post #10
eddz wrote: post #4

Traveling often has forced me to adopt this approach. I do not miss the days where I owned much more. Slimming down your possessions to a couple of suitcases worth is liberating, to say the least. Incidentally, I also live in Japan, but most apartments I have visited here are very cluttered.

Minimalism sounds admiral, but how do you stop it limiting your life? For example someone invites you on a hike but you can't fit decent hiking boots in your two suitcases. Or someone invites you to a semi-formal dinner but you can't fit a proper evening jacket in there. You can't even hire boots as they need to broken in.

It forces you to make these choices - either you're someone who enjoys formal dinners enough to own a formal jacket, or you're not. Either you enjoy hiking enough to own hiking boots, or you don't. Either you enjoy playing squash enough to own a squash racket, or you don't. Either you enjoy snorkeling enough to own a snorkel, or you don't. It removes the ability to keep these things in the back of the cupboard and tell yourself you like that activity when actually you haven't done it for five years and aren't going to do it in the next five years either, forces you to make choices about which hobbies you enjoy (and take those seriously) and which you don't.

Re: 3 shirts, 4 pairs of trousers, meet Japans hardcore minimalists

#72

Post by Thiez »

pikachu_is_cool wrote: post #46
chrisseaton wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Minimalism sounds admiral, but how do you stop it limiting your life? For example someone invites you on a hike but you can't fit decent hiking boots in your two suitcases. Or someone invites you to a semi-formal dinner but you can't fit a proper evening jacket in there. You can't even hire boots as they need to broken in.

Or what if someone invites you to go climbing but you don't have climbing shoes? Or what if someone wants to go camping but you don't have a tent? Or what if someone wants to cook some rice and tofu but you don't have a rice cooker? Or what if....

What is this rice cooker you speak of? I cook my rice in a pan with boiling water.

Re: 3 shirts, 4 pairs of trousers, meet Japans hardcore minimalists

#73

Post by maga »

lmm wrote: post #69
maga wrote: post #57

As a tech nomad, minimalism wasn't quite optional in my case, and it's really not that hard to get rid of stuff if you put your mind into it. What I have problem minimizing is the amount of gadgetry. I use a phablet for phone and tablet tasks, and a notebook as a workstation which is connected to extra monitors, storage and such when in an office. While it may not sound as much, I think I could get away with less. If…

The Surface Book is really nice, especially with the Surface Dock - leave the Dock connected to everything at your desk, use the tablet half on its own when you don't need fancy graphics or keyboard, or the whole thing for notebook-like tasks. A 13.5" tablet isn't quite small enough to take everywhere, but might cover enough of the cases - you'd still want some kind of phone I think but maybe a small one would be eno…

Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, convertibles are probably the way to go in near future. Though the current Surface lineup, both tablet and book, don't fit my requirements mainly due to the lack of Thunderbolt. I need a CUDA enabled graphic card to experiment with neural nets, trying to attach one to a tablet without Thuderbolt might prove futile at the moment. There are some convertibles coming out with Thunderbolt 3 right now, like Acer Switch and Dell XPS, though I'm not sure about their Core M. I guess I'll wait with upgrages until the specs for next Surface tablet become known.

Re: 3 shirts, 4 pairs of trousers, meet Japans hardcore minimalists

#74

Post by lmm »

maga wrote: post #73
lmm wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Surface Book is really nice, especially with the Surface Dock - leave the Dock connected to everything at your desk, use the tablet half on its own when you don't need fancy graphics or keyboard, or the whole thing for notebook-like tasks. A 13.5" tablet isn't quite small enough to take everywhere, but might cover enough of the cases - you'd still want some kind of phone I think but maybe a small one would be eno…

Thanks for the suggestion. Yes, convertibles are probably the way to go in near future. Though the current Surface lineup, both tablet and book, don't fit my requirements mainly due to the lack of Thunderbolt. I need a CUDA enabled graphic card to experiment with neural nets, trying to attach one to a tablet without Thuderbolt might prove futile at the moment. There are some convertibles coming out with Thunderbolt 3…

Sounds like they intend for CUDA to be usable on the surface book and that it's possibly usable at present with some fiddling, just going by http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/surface/forum/surfbook-su... .

Re: 3 shirts, 4 pairs of trousers, meet Japans hardcore minimalists

#75

Post by rjsw »

Camillo wrote: post #56
mikekchar wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It sounds strange, but I was actually thinking, "What the heck is he doing with 4 pairs of trousers"? I suppose 2 pairs for work and 2 for relaxing if he changes at the end of the day... But then why only 3 shirts? I wonder if this article got slashed to the minimum by the editor because I'm actually really intrigued by what things he finds essential and why. But there is nothing in the article other than to assert t…

It's not strange, I was thinking that too. Trousers basically don't get dirty from being on your body, all the dirt comes from outside. I can wear the same pair of trousers for weeks before I need to wash them. Shirts, though, may last as little as two or three days if it's hot and wet outside. And summer in Japan is that way. I call shenanigans.

You can handwash shirts and hang them up to dry, trousers are more difficult.

Re: 3 shirts, 4 pairs of trousers, meet Japans hardcore minimalists

#76

Post by fhood »

This is great, except for tools. I can't imagine living without enough tools to accomplish most tasks that I am faced with. This means having everything from a soldering iron and shrink tube, to a table-saw. I just can't imagine wanting to build something and not being able to do it. In fact, I see a tig welder in my future for that very reason. I know quite a few people who are completely reliant on others for something as simple as replacing the wax seal under a toilet. I don't want to join those people.

Re: 3 shirts, 4 pairs of trousers, meet Japans hardcore minimalists

#77

Post by googletazer »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #45
sbardle wrote: post #24

The West is following Japan in so many ways, I suppose because they had their financial crisis before us. Herbivore men, minimalist living, collapsing fertility rates, we are turning Japanese.

Yes, and the irony is, that is what destroyed Japanese culture. The only part they got right was getting rid of the items that don't serve you. The part they got wrong was enforcing the behaviors that don't serve you. No true man (yes yes, no true scotsman argument, I'm aware of the fallacy, just stick with me on this) is served by being a "herbivore" or whatever term Japan uses for their men. If you look at producti…

You're mostly point in your analysis. Just want to add that the Japanese outsmarted the west - instead of having a midlife crisis later on in life when men realize they've been had, they do what they want immediately. When men start to do what they really want (and there are very few things men like to do), it becomes a crisis - for other people.

Re: 3 shirts, 4 pairs of trousers, meet Japans hardcore minimalists

#78

Post by mikekchar »

rjsw wrote: post #75
Camillo wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not strange, I was thinking that too. Trousers basically don't get dirty from being on your body, all the dirt comes from outside. I can wear the same pair of trousers for weeks before I need to wash them. Shirts, though, may last as little as two or three days if it's hot and wet outside. And summer in Japan is that way. I call shenanigans.

You can handwash shirts and hang them up to dry, trousers are more difficult.

They really aren't. I used to wash all my clothes by hand every day. If you don't know how to do it, though, it might take longer for trousers to dry.

Just in case anyone is interested, wring out the water reasonably well from your clothes. But don't be too harsh because you will rip them eventually. Instead, lay them out on a fluffy towel. Roll the towel up. Step on one end and then twist the other end until you can't twist any more. Unroll. Hang up everything including the towel.

As I used to do my wife's clothes as well, don't do this with a bra with an underwire ;-) The best thing I found was to fold the towel over the bra and step on it. Bras dry pretty quickly anyway.

I've done the hand washing thing off and on for several years. I think the longest stretch was 8 months. The only reason we have a washing machine now is that my wife does the washing and doesn't like washing by hand. But if you do it every day, I don't think it takes any more active time than washing dishes by hand. If you let the clothes pile up for a week, though, you are in for a long day ;-) (clothes take considerable strength compared to dishes).

I think the main problem in Japan is during the rainy season (now). It can take quite a long time for clothes to dry. As the parent says, you can get by without washing trousers. If I was working in an office, I would be hard pressed to go without 4 shirts. Either that or occasionally go in with a damp shirt...

Re: 3 shirts, 4 pairs of trousers, meet Japans hardcore minimalists

#79

Post by MAGZine »

jacquesm wrote: post #55
MAGZine wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll take a gander at drawing the distinction. Minimalism as an aesthetic is certainly luxurious. It implies that it was well thought out and contains only the necessary elements for a high-standard of living. It doesn't necessarily require you to be very wealthy, it just requires you to own less stuff than you could otherwise. Living with the only pair of clothes that are on your back could indeed be minimalist, tho…

No, Minimalism is a fad cooked up by people who were all-out consumers until they realized they didn't need all that crap who now have found permission from their guru (cited in the article) to get rid of their crap. Aka: common sense. Real minimalism is the life of a monk, and is not generally something compatible with functioning in society, and even monks live in places that take care of their needs by offloading…

If it were common sense, then why is the idea so radical, shocking, and/or controversial?

Re: 3 shirts, 4 pairs of trousers, meet Japans hardcore minimalists

#80

Post by jacquesm »

MAGZine wrote: post #79
jacquesm wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, Minimalism is a fad cooked up by people who were all-out consumers until they realized they didn't need all that crap who now have found permission from their guru (cited in the article) to get rid of their crap. Aka: common sense. Real minimalism is the life of a monk, and is not generally something compatible with functioning in society, and even monks live in places that take care of their needs by offloading…

If it were common sense, then why is the idea so radical, shocking, and/or controversial?

Because (1) common sense isn't common and (2) it isn't but there is money to be made from fads like these. Which is why HN has a Mari Kondo advertorial like this one posted every second day.
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