Budget Japan/Luggage pillow/Anchoring heart technique

Recomendo - issue #427

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Budget Japan

Japan is not as expensive to travel in as many believe. This excellent video guide to budget travel in Japan is very relevant now that the yen is so cheap. How Expensive is it to Travel in Japan? Is a 30-minute YouTube video by a British Guy, Abroad in Japan, and he covers all the tricks of cheap Japan travel that I know. — KK

Stuffable neck pillow doubles as extra luggage

My wife recently discovered a brilliant travel accessory — the EZ4UVOY stuffable neck pillow. It’s a soft velvet neck pillow that you can fill with clothes or other soft items, giving you extra packing space without counting as additional carry-on luggage. You can fit 4-5 pieces of clothing inside, saving baggage fees. While it can get a bit heavy when fully packed, the pillow is comfortable to use on the plane once stuffed, and comes with a shoulder strap and a clip to keep it in a curved shape. — MF

Anchoring Heart Technique

To allow peace and pain to sit side by side, I practice this Anchoring Heart Technique by Deborah Grassman. It was initially created to help military veterans in hospice care, but is universally effective for anyone wishing to embrace conflicting feelings. How it works: 

1. Place one hand or both hands firmly and tenderly over your heart. Breathe deeply.
2. Feel whatever you are experiencing, even if it’s just for a few seconds. 
3. Be curious about the place inside you that is strong enough to hold your pain without fear. Get to know your BRAVE SPACE.

There is something very powerful and effective about being able to name your tension and embrace it at the same. It really is a very simple and beautiful act of self-compassion. Here’s a link to a 10-minute video that expands on how and why it works. — CD 

Drown proofing

I read this short one-page article years ago and still remember its lesson vividly: Drowning Doesn’t Look Like Drowning. A drowning person does not splash, flail, and yell. They are quiet and incapable of splashing, yelling, or even lifting their arms. “Children playing in the water make noise. When they get quiet, you get to them and find out why.” Read this and maybe save a life. — KK

Anagram Sentence Generator 

If you ever need to find words within words, anagrams.io is a useful website to bookmark. It’s a free anagram sentence generator for English, German, French, and Spanish. — CD 

Page-a-Day Calendar by Seth Godin and Debbie Millman

Marketing guru Seth Godin and artist Debbie Millman have teamed up to create a unique page-a-day calendar for 2025, called Go Make a Ruckus. Each day features one of Seth’s inspiring quotes, beautifully hand-lettered by Debbie. It’s a fun way to get a daily dose of Seth’s wisdom and Debbie’s artistry. — MF

What stories do you know about your grandmother?

Just One Question #1

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Snake Act

My grandmother was a vaudeville and sideshow performer in the early 1900s. She performed as the Amazing Ruth with a pretty sizable python named Elmer. Elmer was dropped from the act in 1922 when he ate the neighbor’s cat in Sarasota.

Jamis

Inadvertent Twister Model

She worked as the controller (kept the books) for an old beloved amusement park in Denver called Elitch Gardens. They were getting ready for the grand opening of a first of its kind roller wooden coaster called The Twister. The day before opening day they hired a model and a photographer to capture the first ride for the front page. As she told it, at the last second the model panicked and refused to ride. My grandmother volunteered to sit in and became the cover story.

Backstory: She was in her 30s when this happened raising 3 kids on her own. She grew up in Nebraska, daughter of a florist, and as a young girl her mother (widowed early) would save up to take her on the train to see the annual flower show. Low and behold she overcame great odds – teen pregnancies, domestic abuse, a decade of mothering through poverty – to land that dream job in which was the first chapter of stability my mother knew.

When I think of my grandma I am in awe of how she maintained such a playful spirit through so much struggle. Not just because of this story but because of the fun loving, laughing time I had with her as a child, as a teenager, as a young woman, and a mother myself.

Ashley

Left-handed Red Diaper Baby

Roz went to a Communist summer camp in Ontario (Canada) when she was a young girl. Back in the city, at some point she was forced to switch from left to right-handed in order to conform. These two stories don’t appear to be related to each other on the surface.

Elliott Fienberg

Untold Secret Story

My mom’s mom’s abusive marriage to an alcoholic husband became scarier when she got pregnant, so she left him and got an illegal abortion that nearly killed her. This was decades before Roe, decades before women were allowed to open their own bank accounts. She rented a room in a house and met a younger man who was renting a room nearby.

He became my Grandpa, who treated her with respect and kindness. They were unable to conceive, likely something related to her dangerous abortion, so they adopted my mom. She has not told the story to any of my siblings, and I’ve been bursting to tell it for years.

Anonymous

The Rolling Pin

My most vivid memory of my grandmother was from a Christmas Day when I was about 17. We were chatting about her journey to America from Ljubljana, then part of Austria-Hungary.

Born in 1899, she was slightly younger than I was when she made the crossing. Her voice grew quiet as she recalled that it was the day after a German U-boat sunk the British ocean liner Lusitania on May 7, 1915. Her ship and others had searched for survivors but found none.

She didn’t speak much about that voyage, and I regret not asking more questions during her lifetime. One of my most treasured keepsakes is her solid maple rolling pin, which she brought from her homeland.

Now, when I’m making pies using that same rolling pin, I think of her trans-Atlantic journey during wartime. It’s a simple object, but it connects me to her story and the courage it took to leave everything behind for a new life.

Terri Lonier

Movie Theorist

My grandmother loved to watch movies and she had a theory that in every movie someone throws up, brushes their teeth, or eats an apple. It’s so funny but I think of her any time I see someone do any of those three things in a movie.

Elisabeth Coffey

Mac Moss, Graphic Designer

Show and Tell #408: Mac Moss

Mac Moss is an Idaho based graphic designer who operates his own one man studio known as mm.s. Heavily inspired by science fiction and the American West, his work has naturally drifted into predominantly the outdoor industry. Outside of work, Mac races competitively at ultra marathon distances.

TOOLS:
0:00 – Intro
1:01 – Ultrapire Running Belt
6:02 – Albion Insulated Jacket
11:08 – Norda 02 Running shoes
16:43 – Radio Garden
21:49 – Mac Moss Studio

To sign up to be a guest on the show, please fill out this form: https://forms.gle/qc496XB6bGbrAEKK7

Get Paid to Live in Spain/End of EU Passport Stamps/Museum of Death

Nomadico issue #121

A weekly newsletter with four quick bites, edited by Tim Leffel, author of A Better Life for Half the Price and The World’s Cheapest Destinations. See past editions here, where your like-minded friends can subscribe and join you.

* Special Announcement: If you’re a premium subscriber, you should have an e-book download link in your inbox to get Nomadico: the First Two Years. If you’re not premium, sign up now to support our work and you’ll receive it too!

Get Paid to Commit to Rural Spain

We’ve discussed several schemes that destinations are running to get remote workers to move there, but a newly announced one in Extremadura, Spain is attractive if you’re ready to stay put for a while. If you’ll move to a village with less than 5,000 people, you get €10,000 the first year, another €5,000 if you stay for two. If you’re under 30 and move to a more populated place, you get a bit less. Rents are available for a few hundred euros a month and there’s plenty of good wine and Iberian ham at bargain prices in this region next to Portugal. See the details here.

Goodbye to European Passport Stamps

If you want to add a European stamp or two to your passport, you’ll need to touch down before November. After that it’s all electronics and facial recognition for entry to 29 EU countries and for figuring out how long you’ve been in the Schengen Zone. Get answers to your EES questions here.

Visiting the Museum of Death in Mexico

Hardly any foreign tourists seem to make it to Aguascalientes, Mexico, but the state produces some excellent wine and there are two notable museums in the capital city. One is devoted to the artist Jose Guadalupe Posadas, the cartoonist/lithographer who invented the whole Catrinas trend of skeletons in fancy clothing. The other is the excellent Museum of Death, which highlights Mexico’s unique relationship with the subject, told through its art. See my rundown on it here after my second visit recently.

Building Your Own Eurail Pass

Back in the dark ages when it was difficult to research train ticket prices, buying a Eurail Pass made a lot of sense. You purchased unlimited travel for a country or all of Europe in a specific period. Or you got a more flexible pass that was X days of travel over Y days/months. After recently purchasing five individual train tickets spanning six EU countries though, I’d say you’re probably better off buying individual tickets for what you need. My five fares, two of them around eight hours of travel, totaled €183. A Eurail pass that would have accomplished the same thing sells for nearly twice as much. Get started with Rome2Rio or Omio and then buy through their links or the individual train operator.

What’s in my NOW? — Dan Dao

issue #185

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I’m a data analyst by day and an artist who draws people on his free time. Figuring out things is my biggest hobby. Check out @portraitclub_atx if you’re looking to draw with other people in Austin, TX

PHYSICAL

• I stopped using pump style lotion bottles because a good amount of lotion was left behind and hard to reach. My favorite solution has been FIFO (First in First Out) Squeeze bottles. They can be used store anything from ketchup to paint. There’s a large rear cap that makes filling the bottle simple and also helps when cleaning it out in the dishwasher. Another bonus is the valves are replaceable if they ever wear out.
• I still have a mix of old and new devices that need different USB ports to charge. The Anker Powerline II 3-in-1 cable covers 95% of all my devices with USB micro, C and Lightning ports. My old cable lasted four years of daily use, and Anker replaced it under their lifetime warranty.
• I’ve really enjoyed using fountain pens for drawing and writing the past two years. Fountain pens are endlessly customizable with different ink and nib sizes. The Pilot Varsity is a great first fountain pen if you want to try them. It’s affordable and writes wonderfully, as good as pens 4-5x it’s price. If you’re brave you can even refill it following some tutorials on Youtube.

DIGITAL

• I purchase products monthly from AliExpress and overseas. It can be a hassle to keep track of all the different shipping companies. 17Track covers most shipping companies and have apps on iOS and Android. The updates are timely and the app is simple to use.
• I use Whisper AI to transcribe meeting recordings on my computer for free. The transcriptions aren’t perfect but I’m really impressed by the speed and accuracy of the package. I followed this guide to get started.

INVISIBLE

A strategy I use to curb non-essential spending is to limit it to the first 10 days in a month. For the other 20ish days I’m forced to wait and evaluate my upcoming purchases for next month. I do give myself exceptions on things like great deals and limited available items though. Most of time I realize I already have something that suffices and that great deal will still be there in a few weeks.

Noisy Night / The Complete Middle School Study Guides

Books That Belong On Paper Issue No. 31

Books That Belong On Paper first appeared on the web as Wink Books and was edited by Carla Sinclair. Sign up here to get the issues a week early in your inbox.

NOISY NIGHT — A DELIGHTFUL READ ALOUD FOR THE PRESCHOOL SET

Noisy Night
by Mac Barnett, Brian Biggs (Illustrator)
Roaring Brook Press
2017, 32 pages, 8.3 x 0.4 x 11.6 inches, Hardcover

Buy on Amazon

Noisy Night is a delightful read aloud for the preschool set. The book takes readers up, up, up through the floors of an apartment building and into the noisy nighttime goings-on of a silly cast of characters. For anyone who lives, or has ever lived, below someone in a building, this book breathes some fun into a familiar story.

Mac Barnett’s rhythmic, onomatopoeia-ic prose and Bigg’s illustrative sneak peeks make guessing the inhabitants of each floor easy for excited little ones, while the characters themselves (drawn to look just as loud as they sound) keep the story fresh. It’s easy to embellish the book with self-made sound effects since you can practically hear the music, not just of the actual musicians like the trumpet player and opera singer, but also of the sounds bouncing around the bright rooms in which guffawing cowboys, raucous cheerleaders, and elated cha-cha dancers let loose. The story ends with a final racket to quiet all rackets, the shouts of a grumpy old man. The book ends with the old man snoring soundly, and it’s hard not to imagine his now-shushed downstairs neighbors clutching pillows over their ears as this final nighttime noise echoes down to the ground floor.

– Mk Smith Despres

THE EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO ACE SERIES IS LIKE BORROWING NOTES FROM THE SMARTEST KID IN CLASS

Everything You Need to Ace … The Complete Middle School Study Guides
by Workman Publishing
Abrams ComicArts
2017, 240 pages, 6.9 x 1.0 x 9.4 inches, Hardcover

Buy on Amazon

Looking through these books, I find myself wanting to shout out phrases I haven’t thought of in decades: the Triangular Trade! Crispus Attucks! Isthmus of Panama!

The “Everything You Need to Ace…” series aren’t text books; they’re supposed to be the notes you failed to take in class. Flip through them before a test, or keep them by the sofa to pick up from time to time.

My middle-school informant feels they’re roughly accurate for what he’s studying in school. An adult informant — okay, me — feels they’re also useful if you find yourself parenting a middle schooler and want to not seem completely ignorant, but it’s been a really long time since you studied the Meiji Restoration.

The breezy format can lead to oversimplification: for example, the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani by American businessmen and the US Marines, which destroyed the Kingdom of Hawaii, has an anodyne description here. Each book has a detailed table of contents, but no index.

– Sara Lorimer

What’s in my NOW? — Dan Dao