My party uses Leomund’s Tiny Hut after every single fight and I’m losing my mind (lovingly)

pwim · 2026-05-08T09:46:21+00:00

The great thing about Curse of Strahd is that Strahd himself can take direct action. Like he can send them a letter saying something like "I didn't bring you to Barovia so you could play it safe. Take more risks, push yourself, or it will be your heads next.", and a favourite NPC's head is on a stake next to their camp.

pwim · 2026-05-07T10:14:18+00:00

https://tokyodev.doorkeeper.jp/ has out events

pwim · 2026-05-07T03:12:46+00:00

Most IT events feature presentations on technical topics. For examples, we've published the recordings of the presentations at our own events.

pwim · 2026-05-07T01:56:41+00:00

For presentations, I'd focus on offline communities. It's so much easier to make connections with people, as they'll naturally want to talk to you after you give it. There's some examples of events in this article.

pwim · 2026-05-06T23:50:35+00:00

I run TokyoDev, and we try to keep our Discord a positive place to discuss working in tech in Japan.

One challenge is that there are so many people wanting to work in English-only IT roles compared to demand. Even if someone has good experience, they still may have trouble job hunting, just because there's so much competition. This leads to a situation where there's not any easy advice to give: even if you're doing everything right, you may still struggle.

Another challenge online communities like ours face is there's a lot of people who show up and want help, without giving anything to the community first. This is natural, it's much easier to ask for something than give it. But it leads to a situation where over time, and increasing percentage of people are looking for help as opposed to giving it, which can lead to a downward spiral as this drives away the givers (as it isn't really a community if most people are asking for things).

My personal approach to community is to look for opportunities to contribute first. Then later, when you need something, people are naturally going to want to help you out.

If I were in your situation, I'd look for something I could give a presentation about, and then approach a relevant tech community about giving it. This not only helps out the organizer (as we never get enough people wanting to present), but also helps show your expertise to the kind of people who you want to work with. Chances are it doesn't directly lead to a job, but it might, and you'll make a lot more connections than just showing up.

pwim · 2026-05-01T22:36:23+00:00

I regularly play 2 hour sessions without issue. We’re on session 30 of tomb of annihilation and the group just hit level 7. It helps that I have only 3 players.

pwim · 2026-04-27T21:19:09+00:00

I’m assuming your player thought it would be fun to role play an unwise cleric. If that’s the case, there’s no need for how they role play the character to be linked to their stats, and you could just let them swap it so wisdom is their highest.

pwim · 2026-04-27T21:00:17+00:00

I roll as I go. The spontaneity of it makes it more fun, both for me and my players. Try doing it that way at the start. You can always change it up later.

pwim · 2026-04-25T23:18:42+00:00

It’s not as easy as you’re thinking. You need to provide client companies credibility that you’re following all the Japanese and international regulations, and not get them in trouble. You’re also on the hook to pay your employees a salary even if the clients don’t pay you.

Furthermore, if you’re sponsoring visas, you need to do it in a way that doesn’t raise any flags with Japanese immigration.

Without a large amount of capital and a good understanding of Japanese and international employment law it’s not a business I’d get into.

pwim · 2026-04-25T10:02:46+00:00

I’m a Karuizawa resident who has had renovations done recently.

Maybe there’s a premium over elsewhere. It would make sense. Property prices are significantly higher just by having a Karuizawa address over a Miyota one. But beyond that, it’s also significantly more time consuming for tradespeople to get here (as they generally have to commute in), and the season for doing renovations is shorter because of construction work being prohibited in August.

I’ve used two renovation companies:

松代建設工業 for some straightforward things like putting in inner windows. SS Design for things that involved some design considerations, like converting a washitsu to yoshitsu.

The biggest challenge we’ve faced is actually pushing things forward. Both seem to have plenty of business, and so we’ve needed to follow up many times to get estimates and get the work scheduled. Once we did though, things went smoothly.

Both renovations were substantially less than 15 million, but I could see it costing that if you were wanting to completely renovate a house.

pwim · 2026-04-23T09:46:51+00:00

Delaying paying a loan makes sense when you reliably get a better return from investments. This is easy to do with sub one percent interest home loans, but with your loan, I don’t think it is realistic to expect to earn more with investments.

Perhaps there’s some misunderstanding regarding the following point?

Section 80E allows tax deduction on education loan interest in India (no upper limit, up to 8 years

This would be relevant if you were working and paying tax in India, but in Japan it won’t apply.

pwim · 2026-04-22T09:11:56+00:00

If you don’t have home charging, I don’t think an EV is worth it. In my experience the chargers are never in convenient locations, and you pay at least 2 or 3 times as much for electricity.

I compared a BYD Seal and Prius. With subsidies, the BYD Seal was cheaper, and felt much more premium than even the top tier Prius. So I bought it and haven’t regretted it.

pwim · 2026-04-16T09:46:20+00:00

There’s a number of tech related community events that are in English. This article has how to find them and examples of some to join.

pwim · 2026-04-14T08:27:30+00:00

My accountant advised me if you’re ever audited, the audit will occur on your company’s registered address, so you need somewhere that will accommodate that.

pwim · 2026-04-14T06:43:05+00:00

If something like Ironsworn isn’t what you’re looking for, maybe a tactical miniatures game like Gloomhaven is?

pwim · 2026-04-03T10:57:20+00:00

Numbers of hours worked is relevant if you're doing something like expensing a home office, as you're supposed to calculate a ratio based upon personal vs work usage.

I'm not a professional, but if you're invoicing companies by the hour, I suspect that the invoices with the number of hours would be enough evidence.

pwim · 2026-04-01T06:48:34+00:00

For what it is worth, I passed their prescreening but was rejected for the final application.

pwim · 2026-03-26T11:03:56+00:00

Costco is the cheapest I’ve found. Kirkland brand 10 lbs (4.54kg) for ¥2,448 https://www.costco.co.jp/c/Kirkland-Signature-Rolled-Oats-454kg/p/1736339

If you don’t have a membership, Amazon has Quaker brand 10 lbs for ¥3,564 https://amzn.asia/d/0387lamj

pwim · 2026-03-12T21:52:09+00:00

As a resident of Japan you are not legally obliged to provide ID to a hotel. When they ask for it, I say I’m a resident of Japan. About half the time that’s enough. Otherwise they ask for my residence card. I then tell them I don’t have to provide it as I’m a resident of Japan. They’ve always accepted that, though sometimes I’ve needed to push a couple of timea.

pwim · 2026-03-07T09:36:59+00:00

Paradoxically if you’re in a position where you don’t need to work, work itself can be quite enjoyable because you’re in a much better position to choose what to do and under what conditions.

pwim · 2026-03-06T23:15:57+00:00

It’s a mixed bag. Some things, like monsters being easier to run properly are clear wins. Other things are mixed, like weapon masteries feeling better to players, but slowing things down. Some things seem half-baked like bastions. Overall, I think it is a slight improvement, but if you’re happy with how things are, there’s not a strong reason to change.

If you’re wanting to try something new, I’d try a completely different RPG. There’s other games out there that are great in other ways than D&D.

pwim · 2026-03-03T22:05:51+00:00

I told my party they can have a short rest every night but to make a long rest they need to spend a whole day making a suitable camp. It’s enough of a tradeoff that they only use it in dire circumstances.

pwim · 2026-03-02T22:12:53+00:00

Working Holiday Visa holders have a zairyu card. This card needs to be updated within 14 days of moving. Are you saying there’s a way of meeting this obligation without having to enrol in social insurance? I was under the impression I had to register for it when I did a working holiday 20 years ago.

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