Van Life in Japan (opens in new tab)

I remember I stumbled onto your website through people's neocities links, and just spent hours reading about sailing, UXN, Japan, and your travels in general. Fantastic and high-quality material. I wish there were more collectives and groups like this that keep the maker/hacker culture alive.

I'd just like to say I really loved watching your sailing videos. I was watching a lot of videos from sailboat cruisers around the start of the pandemic, and your videos were such a breath of fresh air in that space, as I relate to you two much more strongly than the stereotypical cruiser hanging out in the Caribbean for years on end.

I love your site and your work. It inspired my own little CSS framework. Thanks for sharing your stuff.

Amazing site, and life!

Woo, you have redesigned the site since the last time I visited. It's so nice

When I was little, I briefly lived in a house with 3 generations and 10+ people in a single room.

From what I remember, parents would just pick a time to be alone, and grandma would sit on the porch and shoo any curious children away from the house.

Humans have always slept in family groups. It seems like the more natural thing to do.

Likewise with nudity. Westerner's are hung up on covering themselves up in front of family members at a certain age. Many Asian cultures don't have that baggage. Bathing with family or going to a bathhouse is normal, and why wouldn't it be?

I doubt there's much risk of that in this case. A person who wanted to imitate this would need to:

- Live in Japan, or be able to get a Japanese visa

- Have a Japanese driver's license

- Have a remote working job with flexible enough hours

- Be willing to live a van life with all its inconveniences

Plus it's not like there's any particular single paradise to be ruined. Japan is a big place. Even if 1000 people did read this and suddenly started van-lifeing around Japan I doubt it would make a difference.

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

It’s probably fine.

For one, barrier to entry to Japan is high enough that people stampeding to this opportunity is unlikely. If it really takes off, I’d expect places to adapt and turn the free parkings to paying places, and monetize the whole thing as they do for any new trend.

Then more working age people coming to Japan would be a great outcome. The demographic situation is pretty dire and tourism also fell a cliff.

As someone living in Japan, this doesn’t strike me as something locals would complain about. Heck, my Japanese in-laws did a week long van camping trip last year, and I think they’d be impressed with this person’s setup.

Likewise I would imagine backpackers must be even more organized and neater (after all, they must all have less space to store all their belongings, which would put on pressure to be organized about it), I can't imagine they'd appreciate Japanese people being in the way like this.

Where I come from there are ever increasing numbers of people living in houses and its a real problem. They usually just cause problems, dont pay parking fees or fuel duties and ruin the area for everyone else. Some towns have mandated them which is worse for the few travellers that used to do it on a short trip

Recently Japan is in the midst of a "camping boom", and car camping is quite popular. Whenever I visit highway rest stops in the early morning, there always seems to be at least one person/group sleeping in their car (easily identified by the covers they put over their windows for privacy and insulation). And a nearby campsite is always hopping on the weekends, during the temperate months at least. So I would say the general attitude is quite supportive in terms of infrastructure, laws, etc.

But yeah if folks are not well behaved, especially with regards to properly disposing of trash and human waste, it would not be well received.

Edit: For fun I just googled "キャンプブーム" (camp boom) and found this article calling it annoying, and complaining specifically about people with bad manners not keeping campsites clean, being noisy at night, and starting fires where they are prohibited [1]. Note this is more from the perspective of veteran campers complaining about newbs, and more directed at Japanese people rather than foreign visitors. But yeah maybe you are on to something.

[1] https://ramunecamp.com/campboom-uzai/

What problems do they cause?

Why would they pay hotel or property taxes when they do not reside there, and have none of the rights of residents (e.g. school system access)?

Also, isn't blaming "an increasing number of people living in vans" a perfect example of shooting the messenger and ignoring the message?

Organized and neat really varies even depending on the local culture and there's quite a bit of variety in normalish neighborhoods...I have cleaned out some serious Japanese hoarder houses / elderly houses in my time, and sometimes circumstances or life can change people, too, like from organized to more like a hoarder.

Phew all those roaches man xD

Thanks, just enabled cache and rebooted server

I was just about to post that. Well done.

Nobody renovates houses in Japan. You're supposed to destroy it and build anew. For 15k you're buying the lot and the right to spend a lot more than that.

The crucial difference is that vans are mobile: most of the people I know living in vans travel constantly, and that kind of nomadic life is part of the appeal.

I don’t think the vanlife demographic in Japan are prioritizing saving money. If anything, housing would be cheaper. I pay very little on housing and considering getting a van as a luxury addition to my apartment.

The tolls are quite high, too. Between Kyoto and Tokyo, which is a 6 hour drive, the tolls are about $100.

In Asia, vanlife and glamming is becoming an aesthetic almost. It’s especially popular among affluent people and influencers. People in Japan buy expensive gear such as SnowPeak, including clothing to match, just to sit in a park. With all lifestyle things in Japan, people have to dress a certain way.

Depends on your goals. If you want to travel to and explorer new places on a regular basis, a van can make more sense since you aren't tired to a specific location and can go anywhere driveable at a moments notice. There are certainly tradeoffs to having that ability but for some people, it's obviously worth it.

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 license but just a certified translation, so you still need to carry your regular license. I got pulled over once at 3am in the middle of nowhere and the officer didn't speak any English and was so confused when I handed him my documents but once I pointed to the Japanese section of the IDP he studied it for a bit and then made the sounds of "ohhhh, I get it now" and let me go.

(Aside: If you're traveling to a country where casual roadside police bribes are a fact of life, (NOT Japan, more like Turkmenistan) multiple IDPs can be really handy, since the mechanism of the bribe is often 'I will hold your important document for you until you are ready to give the money' and they may not realize the IDP isn't actually your license, so you can just drive away.)

Also, 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. Once you get off the beaten track, English is a lot less common but translation apps work well (i enabled the Japanese keyboard on my iPhone and often we'd just pass the phone back and forth, typing messages) locals off the beaten path tend to be interested in foreign travelers, happy to take time to help, learn more about you, etc. Small regions in Japan tend to have strong local identity and there is generally an interest in sharing that with travelers.

I only did it for 2 weeks but Japan would have let me stay for 90 days without a visa.

You could also try New Zealand. You’re probably never more than 30 minutes drive away from a campsite. And if you get a self-contained vehicle it’s even better as you can park up virtually anywhere.

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.

It says in the post that they're registered at a family member's address

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

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 law enforcement and a progression to sleeping outside minus the now impounded van.

Diaper is gross, but peeing in a bottle while sleeping in the car can be nice. Just roll over, pee, roll back over and fall asleep again. Much less intrusive than getting up and walking to the bathroom, dealing with bright lights, etc.

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).

It’s hard to imagine putting up with stuff like this when for the same amount of money it takes to do “van life” in Japan you could live quite well elsewhere.

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.

I came here to quote this with virtually the same response. I will go so far as to say this is gross.

Agreed. Why not install a toilet in the van? I remember watching videos where peopled installed toilets in their van. Didn't seem too complicated.

A wide mouth Nalgene or whey protein container work well for both ladies and males. I’ve never heard of anyone using a diaper. Pee only of course.

Yeah, this and the trash situation seem pretty unpleasant to me.

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

Feel like I've seen about a million photos on instagram of snow monkeys chilling in hot springs. I've never been, but I think it's a pretty world-famous tourist attraction (can't comment on whether it's actually worth a visit, though):

https://en.jigokudani-yaenkoen.co.jp/

I've also run into wild monkeys hiking around Kamikochi in Nagano, and cycling around Lake Tagokura Fukushima. They're small, but not particularly shy, and like any wild animal bigger than a cat I find them somewhat scary.

There’s only one species.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_macaque

Pretty much all the big island nations in Asia have monkeys.

Our house just a few kilometers from the center of Taipei has monkeys in the backyard.

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, so navigation was never an issue.

One thing that I didn't expect (although it makes perfect sense) is that OCR of Japanese writing is very bad compared to what we've got used to. Aiming a phone with Google Translate at some sign will often produce total garbage. You can attempt to transcribe the kanji with your finger and that usually gives better results, but is tedious and difficult (since the order of strokes matters and you have no clue about it). We've quickly learned a few crucial kanjis, e.g. 出口 for `exit`.

A tip for the restaurants that only offer japanese menu with no pictures: open the listing in Maps, browse through the photos and show the waiter a photo of the meal you would like.

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 microbiome that is effective at maintaining itself. I can easily skip a shower for a day and be fine, because the buggies living on my skin help manage the population of bacteria and yeasts that ultimately contribute to smells, pleasant or otherwise.

However the transition from Western-style harmful hygiene practices (harsh soaps, extreme obsession) back to a more normal baseline can take a while, and requires being a little gross as your body re-learns to manage itself without such drastic outside measures as strong surfactants.

tl;dr your skin and scalp easily develop an unhealthy dependence on external soaps, resulting in a chronic inability to manage skin microbe populations, which means you're covered in uncontrolled colonies of stinky microbes until your next shower. Let your body handle it and it will manage those populations itself.

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 consumption per capita is in top 10 in whole world and it's 4 times higher than Germany for instance. Everything else in comment are just observations, but I guess too many Americans here don't like the facts and observations.

https://www.worldometers.info/water/

Agreed. You probably just ruined it for yourself and every other serendipitous explorer. This is why we can't have nice things.