Joe Biden made a victory speech as the President-elect today after mysterious ballot-counting processes. However, the Supreme Court of the United States will decide who the real winner is because President Donald Trump is filing cases to courts of several States on the results. No matter which will be the next President of the United States, his policies will affect Japan a great deal because the Fifth Air Force Commander, the head of the US-Japan Joint Committee, actually controls Japan’s politics.
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Hong Kong Is Dead
Visiting Hong Kong has been one of my favorites since I first visited in 2004. I’ve done it eight times so far. I loved to stroll on Sai Yeung Choi Street South, where people were very cheerful and energetic, to enjoy wonton noodles, steamed duck, and gwilinggao at restaurants, to get Nokia’s brand new and second-hand smartphones and accessories at mobile phone shops of the Sincere Podium building in Mong Kok, and to open and use a bank account of HSBC Hong Kong. I saw the Big Buddha at Ngong Ping, visited a prison museum at Stanley, stayed at a hotel in Chungking Mansions, worshipped at Che Kung Temple, had a fortune-telling session at Wong Tai Sin Temple, and extended my journey as far as Macau and Shenzhen. All the memories of those places were impeccable.
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Revolution With Revolut
I live in Japan. I have bank accounts in Japan to get a monthly income and make regular payments. Besides, I have bank accounts in the United States and Hong Kong, keeping some of my money in different banks and currencies to minimize risk. I manage my assets in these countries because there are more investment options than in Japan.
A consideration is how to transfer the money you get in Japan to a foreign bank account. Wire transfers at a bank in Japan are expensive. I tried some online international money transfer services. All of these services require at least 2,000 JPY per transaction, so sending tens of thousands of JPY with them is costly.
Having two PayPal accounts can resolve this problem. I got two PayPal accounts with my different email addresses and linked one of the PayPal accounts to a debit card of the bank account in Japan, and the other to the bank account in the US. When money was credited to the Japan bank account, I logged in to the PayPal account linked to the debit card and sent money with the debit card to the PayPal account linked to the US bank account. Then I logged out and logged in to the other PayPal account, and I withdrew money credited to the account to the US bank account linked to the PayPal account. The fee is cheaper as long as you send a small amount of money. Unfortunately, you cannot send money from Japan to Hong Kong because if you live in Japan, your PayPal account doesn’t allow you to link bank accounts in Hong Kong.
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Changes of the World From COVID-19
COVID-19 is dreadfully spreading throughout the world, hospitalizing more than 3,100,000 people and taking the lives of more than 200,000 patients as of April 29, according to Johns Hopkins University. It is no exception here in Tokyo.
The virus is forcing all people in the world to change their lifestyles. Many have been grounded for months. Essential workers, such as doctors, healthcare workers, firefighters, law enforcement officers, supermarket clerks, garbage collectors, delivery service personnel, and staff involved in public transportation, work outside facing the fear of infection.
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Prelude to WWIII
The second year of the Reiwa period began with a nightmare. More precisely, at the beginning of the year, nobody could predict what would be going on just two months later. I am talking about what the entire world is fighting against—COVID-19.
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The Words of the Year 2019
Looking back on what I experienced in the year 2019, the words of this year are: Hokkaido, Mercari, and Grand Cherokee.
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