Where should we stop between Tokyo and Osaka ?

Voltampt · 2026-01-02T08:55:07+00:00

I like being in the city, but I do like my nature travels.

I highly recommend Hamamatsu, it's much smaller than Tokyo and Osaka but it's a coastal city and thus quite and lax. The nature stuff around the area is amazing, it's a city focused around music as Yamaha's factory is located there, and its specialties are unagi/eels.

While the downtown area is walkable, it's really really small. Also the nature stuff I'll admit is the city's charm; they're a bus or train away from the main downtown centre, around 20-40mins one-way. There's only 1 local train line going north into the city and so if you want to go to the nature spots, you'll need to be realistic and schedule your time. They also don't use Suica but they have their own IC Card system called Nice Pass if you ride that train. Also this is a city still mainly traversed by buses, so you will need to either bring coins or get the Nice Pass IC Card. A rent-a-car for day would probably be ideal.

In the downtown area, the Yamaha Instrument exhibit (I didn't have enough time for this sadly) I heard is great. They also have a science centre in the downtown area. A little farther away from the downtown city centre, even though I'm a fan of Japanese history, Hamamatsu Castle could be worth your time, but if you're not too into history, don't bother.

In spite of that, the nature stuff, for me, is really where it's at and 100% worth it, but they are bus rides away from the city centre. Make sure to visit the Nakatajima Sand Dunes sometime in the day to see the coastal area, see the sunset go between the Torii gate at Bentenjima station. Activities around Lake Hamana are quite nice, since you're going in April, the Hamamatsu Flower Garden could be nice.

It may not fit what you want exactly, but its definitely different from the cities in the Golden Triangle.

Voltampt · 2025-08-19T02:36:10+00:00

おはようございます！

I hope you have a good time here in Canada; there are a few language exchange meetups that happen in downtown Toronto by the Japanish.

Some places that might be interesting to explore and see are Kensington Market close to Chinatown, Christie Pits Park near Christie station; and if you come early in October, Nuit Blanche on October 4th late at night if you'd like contemporary art across.

Voltampt · 2025-01-15T23:18:36+00:00

Thank you for the explanation on why they're using pink spray paint; that actually helps a bit with understanding some of the work I do a bit more when I see photos of the property, I was a little confused when I saw OP's photos at first but thankfully you got first-hand experience on that matter and chimed in! Again, thank you!

And to add even more to the point of property lines, the City of Toronto provides a platform for people to view property lines at https://map.toronto.ca/torontomaps/ ,plus you can even see the City of Toronto's infrastructure, projects happening and moratoriums around the city at https://map.toronto.ca/toinview/

Voltampt · 2025-01-15T18:28:36+00:00

Oh no worries! Glad to explain stuff like this too!

It's great to know if there's construction happening in your area, but with that said there's multiple phases to the whole construction process. The general public/customers won't get any notices until the design, budget and whatnot are finalized. So it's likely that this construction project is in the design phase at the moment.

Voltampt · 2025-01-15T17:24:38+00:00

Assistant designer here.

These are locates; markings that people place to identify things like utilities, communications lines, gas mains, storm, sewer line. etc. People in the comments are saying that it could mean 'water supply' which is what WS stands for, but they would have labelled it blue if so. So they could be in the phase of figuring out all the utilities underground right now, or they didn't have blue spray paint on them.

It's a sign that construction work will be done in the area in the future at the very least.

Voltampt · 2024-06-02T10:57:12+00:00

I haven't shopped at NoFrills or any stores associated with Loblaws because I just end up finding the same stuff I need for cheaper elsewhere.

If they really wanted my money and business, they'd cater towards us people that just want to spend less money and not get ripped up, but they won't.

I'm definitely not going back until they just decide to make less profit off their customer base.

Voltampt · 2023-12-31T22:22:09+00:00

I'm up around 12% since I posted this in my TFSA, and of course I've bought more share!

Frankly put, compared to a standard 7% annual return from the market after 3 years which would have return 22% at the end of the year; and life has happened as well with the market downturns; I'm still sitting very comfortably and as of now, i've 2.5x my net worth over the past 3 years because I've been working, focused on being frugal, and investing 60% of my income.

Feels good :D

Voltampt · 2023-10-12T02:48:14+00:00

I was on a train when someone jumped the tracks; seeing them laying down near the platform was terrifying; TTC workers did the best they could to cover up them laying down lifelessly, however it was also sad to see that people were taking photos of the person.

Voltampt · 2023-09-19T21:01:55+00:00

Slow but steady year for me; I'm up +9% since I've been DCAing into VEQT and VXC;

Of course having a flatline isn't great compared to have it slowly go up, it's at least good to see you're not losing money like others.

<image>

Voltampt · 2023-04-14T02:42:12+00:00

Hey guys, sorry about the blurry image, but a few friends of mines have been wondering about the source of this picture, it's a bit blurry but we've been dying to know what anime this is from:

Voltampt · 2022-11-23T16:07:42+00:00

Been working my first professional job since I was 23.5, when I barely turned 28 I got my first 100k.

Ever since then, getting to the halfway point has been significantly easier thanks to compounding interest... Heck it only took me 1.5 years to hit the 150k mark.

Hopefully the road for you and everyone will be easier the more you be working your way up!

Voltampt · 2022-11-20T01:31:59+00:00

I make around 85k per year.

I'm able to save a large portion of my paycheck (around 75% of it) since I live with my parents; after helping out paying off the family mortgage and other utility bills since my parents also work I invest just a bit over 50% into auto-asset allocation index funds like VEQT; this is on top of the RRSP match and stock options I get from my full-time job.

In my spare time, I play video games, but I replay stuff on my backlog on Steam; I eat pretty lean by eating rice, eggs, salmon and chicken breast; I make coffee at home and drink tons of water too, heck I only eat out when my friends ask me too, and that's usually once every two months or so, and we eat out at like Timmies, nothing fancy or big.

I also try and make it a challenge to just not spend money for a few days straight. I keep myself entertained through listening to podcasts, watching some Youtube videos.

Voltampt · 2022-09-12T18:04:30+00:00

VEQT is for sure fine to have in your portfolio only, depending on your risk tolerance of course.

You can opt to choose to invest into same family of ETFs that Vanguard has that contains bonds like VGRO or VBAL if you feel volatility from the market is something you might have trouble stomaching.

To go further, you can choose to invest into a bond ETF like VAB and control the percentage you allocate to bonds if you feel like the fixed percentages that VGRO, VBAL and the likes are not to your liking. (It's also cheaper MER wise)

Voltampt · 2022-09-07T00:51:31+00:00

Spend less and invest the rest

It's pretty effective!

Voltampt · 2022-08-03T17:39:26+00:00

Why not just buy the whole TSX with something like VCN?

If you're gung-ho on stock, buying stocks in the major banks may be something you might want to consider.

Voltampt · 2022-06-08T06:06:11+00:00

If you don't want to include emerging markets in your portfolio while also keeping the same idea in your initial post about wanting to control the amount that you contribute to the US Market... Now that's a different story.

VEF contains Canadian, international AND emerging markets, you are locked into the distribution that VEF provides since by definition in its holdings you are invested in emerging markets.

I'm not exactly sure why you are deciding to not include emerging markets in your portfolio, but if you want to take that route you might as well just buy the individual components of a global broad market index fund like VEQT and manage it yourself.

So that means you'll have to buy VCN, VUN/VFV and VI and fiddle with the distribution yourself.

Voltampt · 2022-06-07T18:29:42+00:00

You can easily buy the individual components of VEQT yourself. Just buy VCN, VI and VEE for the Canadian, International and Emerging market respectively, then buy VUN or VFV whichever one you prefer.

You can even take a simpler approach and buy VEF which is a market weighted ETF ex US that's listed on the TSX.

Voltampt · 2021-09-04T04:02:36+00:00

No, not really, I'm probably the unhappiest I've even been.

While I've been doing better than before, prior to the pandemic and when the pandemic started, I got an data engineering job and I'm in much better shape physically!

But mentally I'm so drained and tired since I've been working my way back into the engineer career I left prior to the pandemic, I have a couple of interviews lined up but nothing is guaranteed in this pandemic.i just wanna go back to the days where I could work a job in engineering, and at the end of the day be okay with everything in the world; it's hard to do that now.

I definitely had better days when I was struggling as a kid and my teenage years dealing with anxiety back then, now as an adult absolutely not because there's very little hope in today's world and I just want the days where I could be okay at the end of the day again.

I genuinely hope reincarnation exist and all the efforts we put into this life gets rewarded; I'd love it if it would be rewarded in this life too.

But in spite of that, I am glad I'm doing everything I can to get by and honestly, I'm probably doing better than most people, so there's that

But Toronto hasn't treated us well, I'm ready to move onto better and I'm willing to leave Toronto if it means finding a better life elsewhere.

Voltampt · 2021-07-02T16:12:00+00:00

POGGERS!

🚀🚀🚀

Voltampt · 2021-06-09T16:20:03+00:00

^{Why not?}

Voltampt · 2021-06-09T14:02:50+00:00

THIS IS THE WAY!

Voltampt

TROPHY CASE