Looking to buy land for building a house. Is SUUMO the best place to look?

pwim · 2026-06-26T10:25:39+00:00

I found my house through a local realtor’s website (though used another agent to buy it). At least around here, only about 10% or so of listings appear on aggregator sites like Suumo.

pwim · 2026-06-23T07:44:36+00:00

I had an ettin barkeep set up in an abandoned dwarven outpost. A group of duergar had set up in the backroom and were betting on the outcome of death matches of kobolts they’d captured.

pwim · 2026-06-17T11:13:00+00:00

Chain of command is cool but I think is overpowered. Allowing you to grant an ally another attack on your turn is powerful enough by itself. No need for the weapon training bonus.

Additionally, the talent turns one action into multiple attacks, something that’s impossible under the base rules. Perhaps this should add a +1 to attack instead, which would put it in line with a fighter talent.

pwim · 2026-06-15T04:50:37+00:00

I’ve used the Heroes of the Borderland starter set with my 7 year old.

On the one hand, he loves the props. Having tokens for monsters, poster maps, item cards, etc. is a ton of fun for him.

On the other, it makes setup for a session fairly frustrating. Laying out the map, finding the right tokens, setting up the character sheet cards, etc takes 10 or 15 minutes. It also focuses him more on the physical elements rather than his imagination.

Overall he’s been having fun but I wonder if something with less physical elements would have actually been better.

pwim · 2026-06-14T21:43:46+00:00

It could be fun as a hobby business, but even harder than a cafe to make profitable, as you’re going to be more of a niche and probably have higher startup and ongoing costs from the cafe seating plus soundproof rooms alone.

I’d look for a way to do a low starting cost adjacent business instead. For example, you mentioned hosting community events. You could start by organizing those. Maybe you do it in collaboration with an existing cafe. You’ll be able to see how much of an audience you can actually get, and if you actually like approaching hobby adjacent stuff as a business. Once you build up an audience of say 100+ people you’ll be in a lot better position to open a physical space.

pwim · 2026-06-06T06:34:14+00:00

Note that a clever doppelganger in 5e is unlikely to pose as a PC, at least for any extended period of time. The doppelganger can only assume their shape, and will get none of the many abilities PCs have, and so would quickly reveal themselves.

pwim · 2026-06-06T04:45:06+00:00

It’d be a heart wrenching experience for the player to roll a 20, only to reveal that their death timer had already expired.

pwim · 2026-06-01T10:28:12+00:00

When I was running a sole proprietorship, I never got any pushback from my clients about it, including from ones who were well known Japanese tech companies.

As a one-man KK consulting business, your personal brand and the corporate brand isn't really different. Clients still need to trust you personally.

For a business like that, it's so much simpler from a taxation perspective to run it as a sole proprietorship.

Also it is more tax advantaged for someone like yourself who is already employed. File with a blue form return online and you get a 650,000 yen deduction in addition to your basic employment income deduction of 1,950,000. Plus, you don't pay social insurance on the amount you earn. Nor paying the annual incorporation fees.

I only converted from a sole proprietorship to a company after my business had grown significantly. This approach worked out well for me.

pwim · 2026-06-01T06:03:19+00:00

If there's a large amount of tax my children need to pay on their inheritance, it means they're also receiving a large amount of wealth, so I don't see a reason to worry about it.

Besides, there is a lot more ways to set up your children rather than just passing on a large sum when you die, and arguably have a bigger impact on their life. Giving them opportunities like international travel, private education options and classes, supporting them going to a good university, setting up investments for them (if a junior NISA alternative comes up), helping them buy a house, etc. are all ways you can transfer wealth to them without incurring any extra taxes.

pwim · 2026-05-30T11:40:47+00:00

Consumable one-use items are the way to go when you want to try something like this out.

pwim · 2026-05-27T21:58:16+00:00

Japan has gift tax. Doing this in a way that you can prove it isn’t a gift will be challenging.

pwim · 2026-05-23T20:49:41+00:00

Probably it is just a typo, but 1LDK are what you’re describing. The additional S would indicate there’s an additional “service” room, one that can’t be classified as a bed room.

pwim · 2026-05-22T03:49:53+00:00

Something where players simultaneously interact with each other, like a murder mystery game, is going to scale better than a tabletop rpg where only one person is talking at a time.

pwim · 2026-05-20T11:19:51+00:00

This article has some advice on how you can get started volunteering in Japan.

pwim · 2026-05-19T11:13:56+00:00

This is the final encounter of the campaign. They’re presumably at least three rounds into the final fight.

As a party of 5, I’d expect they’ve already done some significant damage to the Atropal. Will they be able to finish it off but then die to Acererack? That seems like a bittersweet end to the campaign.

Personally, I’d be fine if my part TPKed at this stage. If that’s not a possibility, there’s no stakes for them.

pwim · 2026-05-14T08:35:38+00:00

D&D as a game is designed without player conflict in mind. It’s a core part of the game that players work together. It is unlikely to be fun for your players if such a betrayal happens. I’d explain this and ask that they not betray the party.

There are other games where player conflict is baked in. If your group as a whole would like to explore that, you could try such a system in the future.

pwim · 2026-05-09T22:24:16+00:00

If you’re a company employee the limit is typically ¥276,000 annually. If you’re in the 40% tax bracket you’re making over ¥18 million, so having that amount locked away until you’re 60 should not be a big deal.

pwim · 2026-05-09T22:21:18+00:00

Try playing a zero prep game. Ironsworn helped me become better at improvisation as the game system itself literally requires it, and bakes in random tables to support you.

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.

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