Kagi seems to surface great independent content and I’ve been loving it.

I think this is an immature understanding of how free markets work, how they slowly destroy themselves, and the problems at hand. Housing, like healthcare, isn’t a market where choice is always possible, rational, or meaningful. And the “government” who imposes density restrictions are in place because of the people who vote in that government - a large portion of those restrictions are not the product of the past and an immovable system but because the owning class actively want them to remain in place. The incentive of the current system is to minimize housing access to maximize investment profit.

No one, or very few people, should profit from housing as an investment. Landlords produce nearly no benefit once a person is in the house and I would argue every other (or most other) benefit they produce only exist because the system caters to housing as an investment vehicle.

Anyone defending landlords is defending their own self-interest at the cost of the greater good, at the cost of their neighbors, and the generations to come. It’s a parasitic job meant to transfer wealth from the poor to the wealthy.

It’s fuckin crazy that we live in a society where someone is forced to pay into a richer person’s networth instead of their own and we think it’s okay.

Landlords should be illegal, housing is a right and an affordable one if we outlaw or heavily regulate landlords.

Ya, idk about this. I feel like there has been early praise for most of the shows they’ve released and most of them have been excruciatingly bad as of late.

It’s wild to me that Disney found a way to nuke an IP for me as beloved as Star Wars but the seemingly random flukes that are Andor or Mando S1 can’t keep me around.

I feel like I make a comment everytime this gets brought up I should just have a copy and paste.

I grew up on the prequels. Yes they’ve got weak spots but they built a world that I love and with enough depth to sustain other strong shows off of it. I think 1 and 3 are great and I’m not bored for a second watching them. 2 is always the rough one for me, with the largest amount of cringe. Star wars wouldn’t have held up for so long for newer generations if it wasn’t for the prequels IMHO.

Lol I’ve always imagined the loudest haters are people who grew up with the EU and we’re disappointed when GL took it a different way. And then their kids probably inherited those beliefs but not necessarily because they formed them themselves.

Most people I talk to IRL who love star wars love all 6 films plus RO. Love I guess is a strong word. Like - love. The prequels have too much swagger, too many banger scores, too many stunning visuals and concepts and characters to not love em. And sure the CW TV series really helps some character arcs, but that just goes to show how solid of a base there was.

I admit they have flaws. 2 always has such a down turn of energy for me, but it is what it is. Top 7 star wars films for sure lol.

Honestly I grew up on 1 and I was just coming of age to watch 2 and 3 as they released. I love 1 to this day. I like the politics, I like the worlds, I like the Jedi and the droids and the soundtrack.

Little of the dialogue sticks out like a thorn to me, and although jar jar and some of the more comedic choices are a bit out of place for me they seem consistent and within the world (jar jar coming off as an idiot from his culture).

Idk. I get when boomers tell me they hate it but comparing it to Disney star wars and I still place it above most SW films.

#atetheonion

My last Japan trip was 4 or 5 years back and spent time in multiple big cities with an express train pass. I think I budgeted a grand for the flight, a grand in food and hotel and spending a week. But with inflation being what it is I’d want to rerun the numbers based off of what flights and hotel/hostels I could find and assume 1k for just food and fun per week. I think there are active data sheets online that talk about the average cost of eating out in Japan right now.

You want to visit for “a few weeks” so I’d say plan for 2k + flight + hotel/hostel + train tickets/pass. I’d bet you spend less than 4k total for that time.

I like to visit 1 major city every 4-7 days, I normally do travel in, 5 days, travel out. So two weeks would let me see 2 major cities and a couple day trips or 3 shorter stays at 3 major places. Some cities are cheaper than others which is something to consider and how you eat out also dictates your budget more than anything. You could eat in Tokyo for dollars a day at gas stations or you could splurge on sashimi every night and find yourself burning money by the fist full.

I’m a big foodie so that’s where the 1k per week comes from.

Without data, take media reports as sensational by necessity. France’s problems may not be as bad as they seem (I would assume they’re not) and France’s problems don’t automatically translate to other countries like Japan.

To wrap this back around to your main post, travelling to Japan shouldn’t induce fear at any step. It’s a safe country with low crime rates and few health problems for tourists.

This is a great write up, thanks for sharing!

Again, don’t be. I don’t have data off the top of my head, but I’d wager Japan has shockingly few cases of bed bugs in their tourist sector.

“Most countries” is a hell of a stretch in my opinion. I’ve traveled to something close to 20 popular countries and only needed a visa for China when visiting, Singapore when studying, and Germany when moving there.

Here’s the official list and I’d wager a guess that more than 75% of native US Tourist Traffic goes to these countries.

You shouldn’t be scared of hotels. If you’re getting a reasonable room you’ll have an entirely normal experience. If you cheap out, then you are taking a risk in exchange for money.

But if you’re going to travel internationally, you should default to not afraid. It is by and large safe out there. Be smart, but not media-sensitized.

Like I said, it’s got pros and cons. Hotels are good too.

Hey, this is an exciting first step in planning your trip. I’m 27 and have traveled a lot on my own and with friends, if you need any advice or have any questions feel free to PM me.

1. Get your passport - this let’s you leave your country and enter others. Depending on your country you may need to get a visa but assuming you come from the US you don’t need a Visa (if a passport let’s you enter into your native country, a Visa let’s you enter and stay in a foreign country under certain conditions).
2. Book a flight through something like Google flights, no need to go through any company besides the airline’s.
3. Book housing - if you’re going alone and packing light I would highly recommend a hostel. Hostels are shared rooms where you sleep in the same room, share bathrooms, etc. If you’re a light sleeper you may not like this, it will cause you to interact with other tourists which can be a pro or a con, and when you leave stuff in your room It’ll need a lock (no issues in my experience but I also wouldn’t bring 2 grand of electronics and lock them in the room). The main benefit is it’s cheaper for individuals. Eastern hostel culture is way better than western, and Japan has some of the best in my experience.
4. Pack your stuff. You need clothes, but you can do laundry there if that interests you so you don’t need too many clothes. You need a way to get japanese currency. My card let’s me pull money out of international ATMs, you can also bring US dollars and convert it there in the airport, but Japan mostly takes card in my experience.

That’s the bare necessity. I got to stop now but like I said, I’d love to help past that.

Depending on where you’re going transportation can be handled entirely by public transit. Don’t get a car.

That feels like a really pedantic difference.

Example:

I kill 100% of a population AND my intent was to do that = genocide

I kill 100% of a population BUT my intent was only to kill a lot of people = not genocide???

If that’s really what you’re saying is the discrepancy then I have to disagree with this recognition being purely political. This seems like a common sense thing. The holodomor happened, it was mass purposeful death. We can argue if it was targeted against a people or a location, but the effect was clearly bound to some group or region and it was effective within those boundaries to the extent that it could be considered a genocide.

Without doing any reading on the matter for this topic as well, that’s what I’d say.

We just need to keep and increase the number of dialogues we’re having with our neighbors on life and our government. Apathy is powerful and hopelessness doubly so but we can build a better future working towards solutions with our neighbors.

Capitalist’s are pushing the disparity between the haves and the have-nots. We have tools that can reverse that disparity and with it remove the intoxicating push to the far right.

Housing as a speculative investment is a plague on society. I hope countries place regulations and heavy taxes against properties you own but do not live in or utilize personally.

I moved to Germany from the US this year. There is subsidized public transit, universal healthcare, minimum vacation time, a heavy union culture, strong renter-favored laws (although capitalist for profit housing is still an ever growing plague).

As others pointed out, the terminology isn’t a great tool for debate without an agree upon definition. But yes, I would move to a country that cared about people over profits.