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.

Value in Japan
Nomadico partner Kevin Kelly traveled to Japan soon after it reopened recently and says, “Everyone thinks Japan is expensive, but it is not really. And these days with a weak yen, it is definitely not. It might even be cheap for some.”  Most articles you’ll find about traveling there are pre-pandemic, but the blogger behind Never Ending Footsteps recently documented every 100 yen and ended up spending US$95 per day herself (after halving the shared accommodation with her boyfriend.) Not so painful for a 16-day itinerary with a lot of moving around.

High-speed Rail Comes to Laos
The Southeast Asian country of Laos has long been one that generated interesting stories about getting from A to B, but now they have high-speed rail. There’s some controversy about the Chinese involvement (and Lao debt) behind the project, but this is a major improvement for travelers who have dreamed of getting around Laos in a fast and reliable manner.

A U.S. Bank for Nomads
One point of friction for digital nomads is that they still need a real-world bank to process their money, usually in their home country. We’re watching the development of a new banking company called Sammy that promises to offer FDIC-insured U.S. bank accounts to digital nomads who are not American. So far it’s an “alert me when it’s available” sign-up list though.

Get Paid to Buy in Puglia
The trend of Italian towns paying people to move there keeps accelerating and the latest offer from Puglia looks especially attractive. You get 30K euro in a town where many houses are going for less than that, plus a bonus if you have a baby there. They supposedly have a million euros a year to hand out. Get Starlink internet set up from the start and it’s possible to keep working from there at high speed while being in a historic center going back centuries.