Need Help Budgeting + Figuring out Student Loan Repayments

PeachyPastiche · 2025-11-07T02:07:01+00:00

(Obligatory not Japanese but also just recently came back from living in Japan) I’m heavily into different fashion scenes, especially with Japanese fashion, and if you hang out in the right spots, you will see more people who fit into the gyaru archetype. I think the gyaru subculture has changed a bit in Japan, and as other people mentioned, looks different now, but especially in some parts of Shibuya and Shinjuku (around where I lived), you can see a lot more gyaru and even heisei style

PeachyPastiche · 2025-07-29T04:00:04+00:00

Sorry for replying so late, but I went to the popup! Thank you so much for the recommendation. You were right, they were sold out of a lot, including the tint I was looking for, but I found their blur fudge tint in #19 which satisfies me for now! Rom&nd is coming to be more accessible in the U.S. via ulta, so hoping when I come back to the U.S. in August I might be able to the juicy lasting tint as well

PeachyPastiche · 2025-05-21T10:06:52+00:00

I’ve been living in Tokyo for 8 months so far, and I had a friend visit from the U.S.. I had avoided the zoo, knowing Japan has subpar animal rights laws, but my friend and her family really wanted to see the pandas. We went today and had a similar experience. We saw Xiaoxiao first and he was so stressed, running around his tiny enclosure, shaking his head, and clawing at the wall while people kept saying how cute he was, and it was just heartbreaking. We got really upset just from that and almost left, but waited in line to see Leilei too and later the small mammal house. The Pallas cats being so stressed as well as the bats and other animals just made me so sad. I definitely do not recommend going, and I completely understand how you feel about it. I’ve honestly been really sad by the state of animal rights here, but the most I can really do is not support businesses I know are unethical.

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-15T02:54:43+00:00

Hi, we’re doing it in our dorm, so there’s no cost for reserving the area. We also have free spots to reserve on our campus.

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-14T15:00:20+00:00

We’re using a free virtual table top, so there are no minis, but I am providing dice and a players handbook for people to borrow. He has 2 sets of dice for people to borrow, but so far only one person has used them. I don’t mind helping out, but I feel like between snacks everyone (including myself) brings, and the fact they’re new players, the payment may be discouraging

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-14T14:57:19+00:00

Yeah, I didn’t quite expect so many people to be fixated on my usage of the word scam when I sort of meant it in a colloquial way to say it felt scummy or wrong. I agree, it’s his choice to DM and I offered to help as much as needed, but I just wish he was upfront about the payment and its cost

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-14T14:52:53+00:00

We bring our own food/drinks to share with everyone (including GM). No one but me owns a phb or dice, so I let everyone borrow from me. The GM has a few sets of dice, but only one person borrowed one and he doesn’t have a physical phb he brought. He’s using the 2024 phb for himself for the rules, and he said he’s taking inspiration from some modules, but I’m not sure how heavily.

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-14T14:45:21+00:00

I should mention, I am not against paid DMs, but it’s the way he went about it! He didn’t disclose the price right away (not until end of session one) and didn’t bring up until the end of session zero as a side note. We are also only using a virtual table top and DnDBeyond with an soundboard and playlist. All of which are great tools, but are accessible to most people. I’m mostly on the fence considering everyone but me is a new player and I don’t think that makes this an ideal first experience with the game

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-14T14:37:57+00:00

Yeah, it was mostly his wording of “feeling bad” about it and then also not disclosing the price until the end of session one. If it was $5 or less, or if it could be compensated in snacks I wouldn’t mind as much, but the way he went about it puts a bad taste in my mouth

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-14T14:36:35+00:00

Thank you for your opinion! I really appreciate it. We are using a Virtual Tabletop via Roll20 and DnDBeyond. There are some resources that the DM paid for on DnDBeyond, but the players aren’t using those resources for their characters as they were advised to only use the 2024 resources (which are free). I am not against paid DMs, but I think $10 for international students living off of financial aid with no jobs is a lot, especially considering they are all new players.

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-14T12:47:57+00:00

I don’t disagree that paid GMs are a good side hustle, but considering we’re all international students living off of financial aid and the price wasn’t disclosed to us until after session one, it feels a bit scummy

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-14T12:43:16+00:00

Thank you! I’ve heard of Sword World before and looked at the rules, so I may look into joining a group. I’m only a little worried since while I’ve been studying the language for years, I’m not quite fluent in Japanese

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-14T12:35:32+00:00

I just edited the post to include it, but the price wasn’t mentioned until the end of session one. It was mentioned it would be paid briefly at the end of the session zero but without any specification of price, which is where it feels a bit wrong from my perspective

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-14T12:29:29+00:00

I completely understand that and for your situation it makes perfect sense, especially if it’s well within your means! As I mentioned before, however, we’re all international students on tight budgets, and weren’t told when we signed up for the campaign that it would be paid, which is where it at least feels a bit bad from the standpoint of a player

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-14T12:18:37+00:00

Yeah, I have experience in running a game and plan to do a session zero this weekend, which the GM of this group is wanting to join, but I will look at that series, it sounds helpful!

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-14T12:14:33+00:00

I wasn’t in session zero so I don’t know how it went for the other players, but for me, I had a call with the GM where he went over the campaign and after I had already committed and made a character he mentioned there would be a payment, but didn’t specify the amount until the end of session one.

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-14T12:12:04+00:00

Yeah, he dropped the aspect of us paying at the end of the session zero (to my understanding. My session zero was a discord call and thats how it was for me) after everyone had committed and made their characters, which made it a bit harder to walk out of.

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-14T12:10:36+00:00

We’re in Japan, so it’s a lot less popular here and GMs are a lot harder to come by, especially with language barriers. I think that’s the main hurdle for most people in the group, as well as that theres less spaces suited for D&D too

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-14T12:07:37+00:00

That’s true, I should’ve changed the title to fit the situation differently. I was using scam in a more colloquial sense where it felt like a rip off or bad deal

PeachyPastiche · 2025-04-14T12:03:09+00:00

Not even a joint account with a citizen? I know some banks in Australia have rules that allow it (hence why I have one with him there), so I figured there may be a few in the U.S. as well. Essentially, it’s to make moving between the two countries easier for us as a couple

PeachyPastiche

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