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Van Life in Japan

kumazen.com

81–90 of 231 posts

Re: Van Life in Japan

#81
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm living in apartment and shower twice a week (at least in winter). Never understood obsession with daily shower as seen is American movies, no wonder Americans have extreme water consumption, I wonder how common is eczema and skin diseases over there compared to countries which shower less. EDIT: instead of downvoting rather prove me wrong, do you think Americans don't have extreme water consumption? US water cons…

If you do any physical work, you get sweaty, sweat means bacteria, means bad smell. Some of us don't like to stink, also don't like our beds to stink.

Fun fact- most Koreans don't have the same sweat gland that many others have that produce the type of sweet that the stinky bacteria feed on, and thus don't stink like Americans from sweating (they do have their own smell, from what I understand, but it isn't as pungent) and thus they don't usually use deodorant/antiperspirant. It is my understanding some other Asian groups don't stink or don't stink as much, as well, due to differences in the sweat produced.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#82
post #61

> We usually don’t bathe every day and listen to our body’s needs. If I did this I'd need to shower every 4h :)

I've reduced my skin and scalp's dependence on soap and shampoo, and now a vigorous rinse in a hot shower gets me 95% clean. I do use a mild (minimal glycerin content) soap on sensitive parts. Whatever it is that accumulates on my body over time has become less oil-based (more water-based) and after some time in hot water begins mixing (emulsifying?) so that I become clean. This helps you to live with a healthy skin…

Are there any actual studies on no-soap and no-shampoo? I've only ever heard anecdotes.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#83
post #67
post #19

Lovely piece! Any thoughts on whether or not speaking Japanese would be a requirement? It would of course be the polite thing to do.

Not OP, but I traveled through Japan with a few friends before the pandemic and none of us speak Japanese. It's true that almost no one there speaks english. However, everyone we've encountered (especially the people working in the service industry) was super friendly and tried their best to be helpful. The public transport system is thought out and labeled very well, even in english + it plays well with Google Maps,…

Cool, thank you! Those are helpful tips. Like you I’m very introverted so I suspect I’d be fine with what you’ve described.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#84
post #59
post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Our van doesn’t have toilets, considering how difficult it is to dump trash I wouldn’t recommend using your own toilets while traveling.

I don't buy it. What do buses and RVs with toilets do in japan? If it is that difficult to dump trash, then what do these guys do with their soiled diapers? Certainly there has to be better options than wearing diapers.

I don't know, but I drove an RV for a month through Europe and we've never used the onboard toilet because we didn't want to have to deal with it. (We were also students on budget and wanted to avoid camps as much as possible.)

Of course I would prefer the RV toilet to a diaper though.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#85
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm living in apartment and shower twice a week (at least in winter). Never understood obsession with daily shower as seen is American movies, no wonder Americans have extreme water consumption, I wonder how common is eczema and skin diseases over there compared to countries which shower less. EDIT: instead of downvoting rather prove me wrong, do you think Americans don't have extreme water consumption? US water cons…

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 that's also reason why everything is airconditioned and you freeze in buses, cinemas, etc. so they are comfortable and don't sweat that much.

US water consumption per capita is 4X higher (3794 litres) than Germany (855), 9X highter than Czechia (422).

Even warm Spain and Greece have half of US water consumption, Thailand little bit over half, Malaysia less than 1/3 of US consumption, so there is no reasonable excuse why Americans waste that much water.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#86
post #74

"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.

Author here: Just to clarify: We don't wear diaper everyday... But it happened and was a good option during snow for the lady.. The luxury was an expression (I'm not English native speaker).

My Japanese wife would never go for that.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#87
post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Author here: Just to clarify: We don't wear diaper everyday... But it happened and was a good option during snow for the lady.. The luxury was an expression (I'm not English native speaker).

My Japanese wife would never go for that.

If it was the middle of the night and she absolutelyhad to go I'm sure she would - anyone would.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#88

"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.

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.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#89
post #37

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.

Fortunately there's plenty of world outside of the United States, where peeing outside does not make you a sex offender.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#90

I wish there was a way to experience this as a foreign tourist

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 support - one of them is linked from the blog.

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