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Van Life in Japan

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Re: Van Life in Japan

#91

Post by innocentoldguy »

ensignavenger wrote: post #46
rtpg wrote: post #27

Earlier 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?

There are homeless people in Japan. You'll see them sitting in alcoves by train stations or sleeping under a stack of umbrellas in parks sometimes. The places I've seen them most are in remote locations by rivers, where they'll set up tents or tie tarps to trees to live under. They aren't as ubiquitous as they are in the US though, and I've only seen a homeless person panhandling once in all my years in Japan.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#92

Post by prmoustache »

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.

Do you really expose to the public when you are turning your back to everyone?

Re: Van Life in Japan

#93

Post by prmoustache »

dymk wrote: post #40
scandox wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is absolutely fine for a young kid. Kids are way less conventional than adults at that age. If a kid gets food, warmth and attention they're basically golden.

[flagged]

Therapy from living in a van as a 1.5y old? really?

Re: Van Life in Japan

#94

Post by ensignavenger »

ensignavenger wrote: post #46
rtpg wrote: post #27

Earlier 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?

Note: I can't find any source to confirm that vagrancy is illegal in Japan- the Wikipedia article on homelessness in Japan makes no mention of it- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homelessness_in_Japan

Re: Van Life in Japan

#95

Post by ehnto »

petodo wrote: post #85
esperent wrote: post #29

Earlier 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…

You're fixating on water consumption as a measure of the impact of showering, but for a households usage it's more likely the amount of grass Americans maintain that pumps those numbers up.

I would also like to point out how massive America is, it has almost all the climates, and it has almost all the infrastructure variants in regards to where the water comes from and how impactful that usage is.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#96

Post by prmoustache »

unmole wrote: post #55
petodo wrote: 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…

People shower everyday and even multiple times a day in the tropics. It's not some weird American obsession .

I take several showers /day in summer but they are usually quick 1 minute rinse to cool and remove sweat. Only one is done with soap.

Some people would probably use more water in one 10 minute hot shower / day. Never understood people taking long showers.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#97

Post by ensignavenger »

innocentoldguy wrote: post #91
ensignavenger wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

- 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?

There are homeless people in Japan. You'll see them sitting in alcoves by train stations or sleeping under a stack of umbrellas in parks sometimes. The places I've seen them most are in remote locations by rivers, where they'll set up tents or tie tarps to trees to live under. They aren't as ubiquitous as they are in the US though, and I've only seen a homeless person panhandling once in all my years in Japan.

Yeah, I was doing more research and could not find anything to suggest that Japanese homeless are regularly arrested and housed in jails.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#98

Post by mailman11 »

What a great article because, unlike nonsense IG hippies, this seems like a normal person doing something they think is fun, but knows they can't do it forever and that it isn't for everyone. I heartily appreciate their attitude, lack of paid sponsorship (#ad), and realism ("I have a kid. I am a freelance SWE. I would honestly not recommend living in a van with family if you can’t arrange your work schedule completely to what you want.")

Re: Van Life in Japan

#99

Post by spike021 »

randomopining wrote: post #71
yreg wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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,…

I found it kind of boring/isolating though. Did you? It's unbelievably easy to move through their society, eat well, etc etc. But not truly interacting with anybody for weeks at a time besides tourists is kind of annoying.

I've gone on two separate trips. I did have this feeling at times. What helped though was finding groups of people who shared hobbies with me. This way I could chat with them, even using Google Translate, and have some form of that connection.

Re: Van Life in Japan

#100

Post by innocentoldguy »

orangepurple wrote: post #41
joxel wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So everyone else just smells like shit all the time in other countries? I smell like shit when I wake up in the morning, you wouldn't want to work next to me if I don't shower.

You smell bad because of your diet. Build up of aromatics in your adipose tissue that are released over time via your sebaceous glands, bacterial decomposition products of those compounds, and off-gassing of bacterial decomposition byproducts from your orifices contribute to bad body odor.

I agree that diet is a factor. I started living in Japan back in the late 80s and spent a lot of time helping newcomers learn how to speak Japanese and get around in society. One thing I noticed is that people fresh from America had an odd buttery smell that went away after they ate a Japanese diet for a few weeks.
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