Newsletter › #9
Digital Nomading in Kanazawa, Japan (Part 1)
【What I've been up to】
Hi, Reader,
I hope this letter finds you well — it's been a while.
From December 1 to 11 I was traveling in Japan,
trying out the digital nomad life,
so I paused the newsletter for a week.
I announced it on social media,
and any future changes to the newsletter
will be announced there too.
The trip had two parts:
- Part 1: December 1–8, a digital nomad program in Kanazawa
- Part 2: December 8–11, sightseeing in Osaka and Kyoto
I'll focus on the first part.
A newsletter isn't the place for lots of photos,
so if you'd like to see pictures from the trip,
head to my Instagram or Facebook.
There's a lot to share, so I'll split it into two issues.
This issue covers what the Kanazawa digital nomad program involved,
and what I took away from it.
The next will share the people I met,
how they live as digital nomads,
and the abilities and traits digital nomads need.
Let's get into it.
----
【Urban Retreat】
From December 1 to 8 I joined
a digital nomad program called Urban Retreat, run by LINNAS Kanazawa.
- Urban: the city
- Retreat: to withdraw
As the name suggests, the idea is to get away from the big city,
which is why it's held in Kanazawa.
【About Kanazawa】
To be honest, before I left I had no idea where Kanazawa was.
When I signed up, I'd never even heard of it.
Kanazawa is in Ishikawa Prefecture, in Japan's Hokuriku region.
I won't go into the geography —
you can find plenty about Kanazawa online.
Anyway, because Kanazawa is fairly remote,
getting there by bullet train from Osaka or Tokyo,
including changes, takes about 3–4 hours —
about as long as flying from Taiwan to Japan.
Plus the time spent getting lost in stations.
For example, changing trains at Kyoto Station,
I got lost for two hours and missed two bullet trains, ha.
Why did I get lost?
Because I did no research before I left —
no train tickets booked,
no itinerary at all.
And maybe because my English isn't great,
I often got nowhere when asking for directions.
In the end a Chinese-speaking station attendant
helped me buy a ticket to Kanazawa.
So do your research before you go,
or you'll end up like me 🤣
Because Kanazawa is a bit out of the way,
it escaped bombing in the war,
so much of its cultural heritage survives.
It's a beautiful city.
If you're tired of Tokyo and Osaka,
trust me — Kanazawa won't disappoint.
Here's a video of Kanazawa Castle to prove I'm not lying, ha.
---
【About LINNAS Kanazawa】
LINNAS Kanazawa is a hotel in Kanazawa, Japan,
founded by a few Japanese people in their early thirties (Aki & Hiro)
who love co-living, so they built this hotel.
It has a kitchen, multipurpose spaces (a gym and meeting rooms) and a lounge.
My favorite place was the kitchen —
basically my dream kitchen, and huge 🤩
In seven nights there I cooked six meals,
five of them hot pot,
because hot pot is so easy,
and with temperatures of 1–10°C
it was perfect hot-pot weather.
In short, it's a great hotel.
Even if you don't join the program,
I highly recommend staying there —
and use the kitchen; it's a wonderful experience.
The huge kitchen
Here's a video of the dining room and food.
Next, let me tell you
about the Urban Retreat activities.
---
【The activities】
The first evening was a welcome party:
As the name suggests, we introduced ourselves.
The participants were:
three Taiwanese (including me), four Japanese,
one Spaniard, one Bulgarian and one Swiss.
Introductions were all in English,
so I'd suggest having at least basic English for this program.
You don't need to be great, but you do need to dare to speak.
I hadn't spoken English in a long time,
so when my turn came I was very nervous
and rambled nonsense —
luckily everyone was very kind.
Every morning at 7:
a morning walk, meditation and yoga.
The morning walk was to Kenroku-en, one of Japan's three great gardens.
A teacher led meditation and yoga in person for one day;
the other days we followed a video.
Other daytime activities included:
【Calligraphy Art Workshop】
Yuki, a Japanese woman who has lived abroad for years,
taught us calligraphy.
We started with simple single strokes
and ended with free expression;
everyone had a great time.
Later I discovered Yuki is remarkable —
I'll tell you her story later.
Here's a calligraphy video.
【Matcha-Fulness Workshop】
We went to a tea ceremony school to experience Japanese tea culture firsthand.
The teacher was remarkable — the tenth generation of a tea ceremony family.
The art has been handed down in their family for centuries.
Watching the master's practiced demonstration,
I felt an inexplicable sense of being moved.
Here's a tea ceremony video.
【Zen Meditation】
We went to a local temple for a meditation session,
led by the head priest.
He walked behind us
carrying a bamboo stick.
He said, “If you get distracted, you'll get the stick.”
(He was joking, of course.)
But you could still feel the tension —
just like watching the young monk Ikkyu training in his temple.
【Omamori Drawing】
A Japanese artist talks with you
and, from your conversation,
paints you your own watercolor omamori (protective charm).
Her painting connects with how you feel in that moment —
a very special feeling.
The artist is Kayo Nomura; here's her Instagram.
My omamori
【Art Reflection】
Every evening, a Japanese man named Sou
led us in looking back on the day,
expressing it with brush and ink.
Afterwards we shared our work with each other.
It was fun:
you could draw or write anything at all,
as long as you could explain it.
At first I painted, but my paintings were so ugly
they were painful to look at.
So I switched to writing characters, and found a sense of achievement.
I'd capture the strongest impression or feeling of the day
in a single Chinese character,
copying different styles of it and refining it.
I really enjoyed the process,
because no one criticizes your writing.
All you have to do is
express how you feel and how your day went.
That's a rough overview of the activities.
Now for what I took away from it!
---
【What I learned】
If you'd like to live as a digital nomad too,
here are three things I discovered
and want to share:
1. Being a digital nomad isn't “traveling while working”
The program was only eight days,
so I was still basically a tourist.
Urban Retreat had activities every morning;
in the afternoon I wanted to explore Kanazawa;
in the evening we cooked and chatted together,
and after dinner there was Art Reflection.
So I didn't spend much time working or creating.
I'd meant to send out a newsletter,
but I asked myself:
“Do I want to focus on this experience, or on work?”
I chose the former and put work aside
to really live in the moment.
At least I had the choice of whether to work.
I saw some others in the group
miss activities because they had to work.
Being able to choose to just travel and not work felt pretty good.
I realized the point of digital nomading
isn't “traveling while working,”
but being able to choose when and where
you live and work.
---
2. I fell in love with co-living
Co-living means living together with others.
LINNAS Kanazawa (LINNAS for short) is a co-living hotel,
with a lounge, a big kitchen and multipurpose rooms for everyone to use.
Because of my family circumstances, I've rarely lived with family since I was ten.
Making dinner together with family is a memory I never had as a child.
I used to enjoy living alone, but now I long more for family life.
At LINNAS I cooked dinner myself every day.
I'd round people up to go to the supermarket,
cook together and eat together —
like having a family with no blood ties.
When I got back to the hotel, the first place I went wasn't my room but the kitchen,
because I could always find a few people there to chat with.
Even though I was traveling alone,
it felt like coming home.
I completely fell in love with this way of traveling.
If you've never tried a co-living hotel,
I highly recommend it next time.
---
3. Travel without shopping
I was in Japan for 11 days in total,
and bought only four MUJI travel bottles, for 400 yen,
and a little Mario night light —
which I actually bought on Shopee, back home, not in Japan.
I saw it in Shinsaibashi, Osaka, but didn't buy it then.
Later I thought it would make a good Christmas gift exchange present,
so I ordered it on Shopee. It cost about NT$100 more,
but I thought it was worth it, because I didn't have to spend time hunting for it.
I had just one shopping goal for the trip: a Coach bag for my mom.
The bag I'd given her before was about to fall apart,
so I wanted to buy her a new one.
Unfortunately I couldn't find a style she liked, so I didn't buy one.
This was my sixth trip to Japan, and the one where I bought the least.
Since I started living minimally,
my desire to shop has dropped dramatically.
I didn't buy souvenirs for anyone, or shop on anyone's behalf.
I love traveling this way — free, unburdened and clear.
---
【Conclusion】
This digital nomad experience
wasn't just about living somewhere else for me;
it was about practicing how to choose my life again:
choosing to focus on the present, choosing to connect with people,
choosing to own a little less and experience a little more.
Digital nomading may not be your ultimate goal,
but it reminds us of something important:
real freedom is having the ability to choose.
---
That's my introduction to and reflections on this digital nomad trip.
Next time I'll share the three people I met,
how they live as digital nomads,
and the abilities and traits digital nomads need.
Stay tuned.
---
【Coming up on the show】
The show took a week off last week;
this week's episode will cover this digital nomad trip,
with even more detail. Follow the show so you don't miss it (it's in Mandarin):
please subscribe, comment and leave a five-star rating!
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That's it for this issue of the FIRE Life Weekly.
If you have any questions about the show,
or suggestions for the newsletter,
just write to me at doug@firetw.com.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Have a lovely week,
and see you next Monday.
Doug