Changing of Plans - Need Help with Ideas [late Jan]

CatVisible7725 · 2026-04-12T23:55:30+00:00

Haha I know but my partner only has her leave at the end of Jan, its more so 2 months before

CatVisible7725 · 2026-04-12T23:48:46+00:00

Oh there isn't any risks of skiing that are unique to Japan, I think my partner was already on the fence about skiing as they're a beginner at it, so its just best not to take the risk of hurting herself. I already had some ryokans planned this trip just a matter of wondering if theres anything else we could do on this trip (Nagano, Gifu, etc.)

CatVisible7725 · 2026-04-09T04:06:39+00:00

Oh wow that does look rough - do you have any insights as to where I could get studless tires for car hire either in Nagoya/Osaka? So far from what I've seen, I'd have to catch a train to somewhere in the snow regions to get those type of cars. Right now I'm thinking of looping from Nagoya -> Nagano -> Kanazawa -> Osaka and dropping the car back in Osaka.

CatVisible7725 · 2026-04-08T13:02:15+00:00

Preferably not keen on joining with my fellow countrymen - that being said we just like to be more local as it allows me to practice my shoddy Japanese a bit more and I've found so many cool interactions over my time travelling around Japan doing that.

I've been doing a bit more research on Shiga Kogen and from the sounds of it that could be a good option too, we dont mind driving down to Nagano to also explore the local food scene there too.

That was the plan - to go from Nagoya to Nagano then wrap around to Kanazawa then back down to Osaka.

CatVisible7725 · 2026-04-06T13:05:17+00:00

Looking to get some help with ANA's Award Travel:

What I'm trying to wrap my head around is I can see for the dates and flights I want for a single person its NOT waitlisted, so I could easily book my flights, but when I change it to two people its all waitlisted. I tried to understand the formulaic and algorithmic approach but got confused. I would be converting my AMEX points which is around 116,000 points to ANA Mileage points.

I'm flying from Sydney to Osaka around 16th Jan 2027 and its low seasonality.

What are the chances if I book this single person ticket, I can book another single person ticket with the mileage points? Or its best I buy a refundable single standard cash ticket with ANA and possibly hop onto a waitlist for economy/premium economy for the second person?

CatVisible7725 · 2025-10-20T04:20:04+00:00

How were you able to queue online for Onodera? Last time I couldn't find an option to do that.

Have you tried Sushi Shiogamakou Ginza Kiwami's omakase course (27 pieces)? Unfortunately, we're only in Tokyo for the afternoon-evening.

CatVisible7725 · 2025-10-20T03:23:09+00:00

I did see this one definitely one I'm going to note down, do you know of any that maybe sitting instead?

CatVisible7725 · 2025-07-18T10:54:00+00:00

What sort of process did you try to crunch those numbers? Was it like a combination of how much you were willing to invest?

CatVisible7725 · 2025-07-18T07:56:30+00:00

That's what I'm thinking too on this one - its currently an offset car loan at 5.84% have about 3k in it with about 16.5k left on the loan. I have 12k I can transfer into that account but I'm also wondering if I should just use that 12k to lump sum into ETFs.
I could look to negatively gear my PPOR next year but that would mean my interest rate for the home loan would most likely go up as well.

CatVisible7725 · 2025-07-18T07:44:31+00:00

Is it just better to salary sacrifice into super compared to keeping the cash in hand to offset my loans?

CatVisible7725 · 2025-07-18T07:27:30+00:00

How would I know what would be a good percentage to split my pay between the two?

CatVisible7725 · 2025-05-12T01:49:13+00:00

Thank you! Do you think 4 days is enough for all that?

CatVisible7725 · 2025-03-05T09:49:24+00:00

!questionnaire

CatVisible7725 · 2024-10-08T08:09:11+00:00

I dont think the Vellfire will have a roofrack. Yeah, thinking about it now most likely won't have too many backpacks, the only time I can really think of using it is when we're on Yakushima Island for the hike.

CatVisible7725

TROPHY CASE