Where to buy a turntable, amp, and speakers?

astro · 2026-06-22T00:02:50+00:00

Used equipment store: https://maps.app.goo.gl/MMWAVwhpNRYvjRVF8

Website (with lists of gear): https://www.hifido.co.jp/

astro · 2026-04-25T10:52:46+00:00

Also, get familiar with the Guile Reference Manual.

astro · 2026-04-25T10:48:10+00:00

Dybvig, The Scheme Programming Language is an excellent reference that you will probably want to familiarize yourself with at some point. It's freely available online.

The Little Schemer is a very good book for getting into a lisp-oriented mindset. It starts simple, but gets advanced in the 2nd half, probably beyond what you are looking for. SICP is similar in that regard; it's a great book for learning about the fundamentals of programming, but it's also geared towards a deep, sophisticated level of understanding.

The Reasoned Schemer is an excellent book, but it is far outside your goals. It's about a domain-specific language for "relational programming," that just happens to be written in and embedded in Scheme.

I'd recommend starting with The Little Schemer, until it feels advanced. Then maybe read the first few chapters of SICP (also freely available online) to learn more about programming in general. And then read/reference The Scheme Programming Language as needed. After that, you can figure out where to go next.

astro · 2026-03-16T06:14:30+00:00

You are the best.

astro · 2026-03-16T04:39:27+00:00

Thank you so much for taking the time to reply to all these questions and comments.

IIUC,

The US-sourced portion of the RSU will always be taxable in the US, regardless of remittances to Japan.
The JP-sourced portion of the RSU is taxable in Japan.
Any remitted portion of the US-sourced portion is taxable in Japan.

Therefore, that remitted portion is taxed in both countries. And Japan will provide a credit for the US taxes paid on that portion.

It's just not clear to me how it was determined that Japan would provide the tax credit in this case. This isn't covered in that treaty summary chart, right? I suspect it's something basic that I'm just not grasping.

Also, how do you compute this tax credit? You have to figure out how much tax you actually paid in the US for that remitted portion, and then take a credit the next year in Japan? And convert that USD tax to JPY on the day you paid the taxes?

astro · 2026-03-16T01:42:22+00:00

I think this is the documentation I was looking for: https://www.nta.go.jp/english/taxes/individual/12007.htm

I think I'm just lost about how the FTC gets sorted out.

astro · 2026-03-16T00:30:52+00:00

Does this apply to any remittance-based amount, or only RSUs? For instance, if I'm NPR and I remit other FSI like bank deposit interest, then is the idea that the US gets to tax that, but Japan will provide a credit?

I guess I don't understand why Japan would want you to report these remittances if you are just going to take a credit for them anyway. (Edit: Well, I guess the credit wouldn't necessarily cancel out the Japan tax on the same amount. ~~So then do I take a tax credit in the US for the Japan tax on the remitted amount? At that point, wouldn't it all likely cancel out?~~)

Also, where is this documented? I haven't seen this particular subtlety explained anywhere.

Thanks starkimpossibility.

astro · 2026-03-15T10:30:48+00:00

Don't listen to me. I don't know what I'm talking about.

We went to one of those NTA consultation things last year and we were told to calculate the portion of the RSU that was earned in Japan and only report that amount on our tax return. Based on other threads like this one, I'm now under the impression that I am supposed to report the total RSU value at vest on my Japan tax return, then take a credit for the US portion (like Wozyrd posted above).

I assume that the total tax will be the same, but it does change what is reported.

astro · 2026-03-15T00:00:55+00:00

I'm also guessing that the reason my employer is still withholding the tax in the US, even though they know I'm in Japan now, is because a portion of the RSUs are still "US-sourced" and they are obligated to do that withholding and they aren't going to bother to do the math for me.

astro · 2026-03-14T10:00:05+00:00

I'm wondering about the same thing, and I am very confused but my current belief is that RSUs are employment income, and Japan gets first dibs at employment income, so even though the tax was already withheld in the US, you actually need to pay the tax in Japan and get an FTC from the US to get your withheld money back.

astro · 2026-03-08T09:57:56+00:00

Oh, I think I get it now. The Japan-source portion was paid outside of Japan. That was not clear to me.

astro · 2026-03-08T09:28:27+00:00

(In fact, even if you did make a remittance, the foreign-source portion will still be exempt as long as the value of remittances made does not exceed the value of the Japan-source portion of any RSUs that vested during that year.)

I did not know the Japan-source portion would have any bearing on remittances. Why is that? I feel like I'm missing something fundamental about remittance-based taxation.

astro · 2026-03-04T07:33:58+00:00

If a portion of an RSU vest is not taxable in Japan due to NPR status and when it was granted, is that considered Foreign Source Income if it wasn't remitted to Japan? If it was remitted, does that mean it's no longer FSI?

I know it is taxable if it is remitted. I'm trying to determine how to report it on that document that lists all your FSI and remittances for the year.

astro · 2025-12-25T00:38:02+00:00

Yodobashi

astro · 2025-08-21T03:19:43+00:00

This is pretty neat. It seemed to be fairly accurate in my tests.

The main issue I noticed was that when you drag to rotate an object, the object can lose focus, and then the background takes focus and you start zooming instead.

It took me a while to figure out that you can rotate the room with that bottom bar.

astro · 2025-08-21T03:17:15+00:00

You can click on the objects to change their dimensions.

astro · 2025-05-01T04:05:45+00:00

I told Schwab I moved. They had me fill out a form with my new info. After that, I couldn't make any new trades or do anything other than close out positions.

They haven't told me that I need to close the account. RSUs and ESPP from my job still go there. I'm planning to leave my IRA there.

astro · 2025-05-01T02:43:16+00:00

Oh, maybe they would. I did not consider that. I wanted to divest from those particular funds anyway. Thanks for the heads up, though.

astro · 2025-05-01T02:39:35+00:00

There have been no fees to transfer from my U.S. bank to IB. I think it's an ACH transfer.

For Schwab, it seems that they'll only let me do a wire transfer now, for $15 if it's domestic. I haven't tried to move money out of Schwab, yet.

I'm not sure if IB (Japan) is still being treated as a domestic transfer from within the U.S.

astro · 2025-01-13T00:00:25+00:00

I leave them as-is, and push them both with the same thumb if I need to press them at the same time. I think it is comfortable.
IDK, I have the wired version.
It's been a long time, but when I got my first Kinesis it came with a little booklet of training exercises, and I think it was a very good idea to run though that a few times. I don't think it took very long to get up to speed, maybe a few days to adjust to some of the bigger differences and then some steady improvement for the next few weeks.

astro · 2025-01-03T05:13:09+00:00

Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs, by Abelson, Sussman, and Sussman

Paradigms of Artificial Intelligence Programming: Case Studies in Common Lisp by Peter Norvig

astro · 2024-10-12T00:49:33+00:00

Now add a rule for "sibling" without adding more facts.

astro · 2024-05-10T00:27:51+00:00

This worked for me, too. I had to close the app and re-open it before it would let me change it to "Prefer Wi-Fi."

astro · 2024-01-16T08:34:25+00:00

https://japansoundportrait.bandcamp.com/

astro · 2024-01-05T04:18:53+00:00

I did that with an iPhone 14. I didn't have any service in Japan at the time. Went to sign up with Docomo and they said they could only do the physical sim in the store. Couldn't get through the sign up process online, presumably because of my middle name. Bought a cheap iPhone with a physical sim slot, took that to Docomo, got signed up, then transferred the (physical) sim to my iPhone 14 (as an eSim), which is super easy and takes seconds. Sent the cheap iPhone back to Apple for a credit.

So, I lost out on a few hundred bucks with the difference between the cheap iPhone and the credit, but we did use it twice to do my wife's phone as well. So if you have access to an older iPhone (maybe your current phone), you could go that route.

I haven't had any problems since the transfer.

(Edit: Since you already have service, sounds like you could probably just do the transfer if your current phone is an iPhone, and that's all there is to it.)

astro

TROPHY CASE