Fingerprints done, that’s a load off! How much did it cost?!

Did you enjoy yesterday’s episode? Didn’t get it published till this morning… I was SO TIRED!

Am I done with Taipei? Maybe not just yet. But the weather is about to turn.

Run done, 7km, tomorrow, go again or take a rest? Looking forward to getting back to my old routine.

And more people working online and travelling in their spare time… or most of the time.

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Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

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Hope you have a great one!!

00:00 Rooftop intro in Taipei

00:30 Digital nomad dreams

01:51 YouTube money and taxes

04:16 Fingerprints and fees

08:11 Deadlines and next steps

11:11 Audio editing and distractions

13:20 Stay in Taipei or leave

15:54 Visa runs and budgeting

19:51 Routine fitness and content ideas

23:31 Weather flights and hostels

34:14 Food talk and wrap-up

37:34 Outro and credits

38:05 Hostel chatter aftercut

Steve, if you’re not going to do cultural stuff, why are you still in Taiwan?

Off to the museum today, how as it? Cheap!

Fingerprints, apostille and visa applications, how is it going?

How is the hostel? YOUNG! Lots of recent grads taking a few weeks off before finding or starting a job. They talk about going to all the places I’ve been!

And an interview with another expat, Russ, from the USA! Hear what level of Chinese he’s at already! What was his key to success?? The cycling book: https://onsgo.org/a-cyclists-guide-to-taiwan-is-out-now/

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***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

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Hope you have a great one!!

00:00 Taipei Trip Setup

01:37 Fingerprint Job Paperwork

02:26 Apostille Explained Frustrations

04:30 Why Taiwan Content Practice

07:41 Livestream Math Costs

09:38 Hostel People Stories

14:17 More Fingerprint Logistics

19:35 Museum Peace Park Visit

22:29 Gold Silver Tael Rabbit Hole

27:39 Teasing Russ Interview Topics

34:26 Meet Russ At The Bar

35:18 Russ APRC And Health Insurance

37:12 Russ Taiwan Timeline Return

39:22 Why Taiwan Geography Access

40:53 Why Taiwan Happened

42:04 Mandarin Accents Talk

42:38 Residency And Citizenship

43:38 Taiwan Pay Reality Check

45:52 Stay Or Return US

47:27 Public Health To Data

48:28 Broken Systems And Faxes

50:17 Coding Stack And Workarounds

52:08 Taiwan Work Culture Shock

54:24 Freelance Clients In AI Era

56:12 Vibe Coding Security Risks

01:00:26 Taipei Itinerary And Hikes

01:03:01 Beyond Taipei Day Trips

01:03:14 Taroko to Hehuanshan

01:03:51 Tainan Colonial History

01:04:03 Outer Islands Overview

01:04:36 Cold War Bunkers

01:04:57 Island Defense Geography

01:06:27 Exploring Tunnels Yourself

01:07:24 Beating Taipei Humidity

01:08:10 Arcaded Sidewalk Architecture

01:09:11 City Life vs Outdoors

01:10:35 Driving Taiwan vs China

01:11:56 Cycling Around Taiwan

01:14:35 Bike Routes and Road Safety

01:16:55 Weather and Solo Touring

01:18:07 Spiders Snakes and Strays

01:20:00 Deer Bears and Wild Pigs

01:22:13 Dogs and Safety

01:22:26 Taiwan Bucket List

01:23:00 US Job Logistics

01:24:20 Chinese Level Check

01:25:11 Why Chinese Gets Rusty

01:26:50 Learning Journey Abroad

01:29:20 Motivation and Tones

01:32:04 Study Resources and Hanzi

01:34:48 Favorite Words and Slang

01:37:05 Taiwanese Language Basics

01:39:21 Bopomofo vs Pinyin

01:42:03 Wrap Up and Thanks

Fukuoka - why did you stay? Thinking about the costs.

To Osaka, thinking it would be better to fly out, it just cost me more.

To Taipei, why didn’t I come here earlier?

How long will I stay?

AND HF! The size of a spider in Taiwan!

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***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

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Hope you have a great start of week!

00:00 Weekend Travel Debacle

02:00 Capsule Hotel Chaos

05:44 Bad Sleep And Sickness

07:53 Budget Plan Breakdown

12:09 Flights Fares And Fees

14:27 Why I Chose Taipei

17:44 Japan Crowds And Prices

20:35 Rethinking Travel Style

21:48 Content Grind And Earnings

23:06 Recording Runs And New Ideas

25:30 Language Audiobook Concept

27:01 Ximending Vibes

27:34 Why It Feels Japanese

28:05 Taiwan History Tangent

29:45 Hostel Prices Regret

31:32 Rooftop Reset Routine

33:04 Fingerprinting Fiasco

34:55 Russ Saves The Day

36:32 Strike Three Reflections

38:12 Hostel Characters

41:24 Slower Travel Era

42:01 Donations And Producer Credits

44:25 Staying Put In Taipei

45:57 Wrap Up And Links

Recording this one quietly because I’m not sure if this is a cult! 9Hours capsule hotel… complicated set up. Different floors, reception, storage, capsules… all through one elevator per gender.

Still in Fukuoka, will I be able to make it out tomorrow, or will I have to leave another way?

Busan ferry SOLD OUT!

Manila at midnight? Is it safe?

Taipei, what do you say? Can we make it tomorrow, eh?

And what did I do in my last day in Fukuoka? Walked around, livestreamed, went to an art gallery, and to the ruins of the Fukuoka castle.

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***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

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Hope you have a great weekend!

Steve! Enough with the content talk, how is Japan?? Have you done anything else?!

YES!

Staying one more night in Fukuoka, debating whether it’s a good idea to take the boat to Busan, stay a day or so, and then fly to Taipei. I feel like I’d be repeating myself. Of course, I could just always return to Beijing.

Went to the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum… lots of China/Taiwan stuff. It’s Museum Week and it was free to go. Good thing, cause it rained today. Tried to make an origami crane and couldn’t for the life of me follow the instructions. It was neat because they had you take a picture of yourself and then printed them out on fake money. The idea was that your face would join the ranks of other people who made cranes on dollar bills and be part of the exhibit. Mine didn’t work.

Thought about going to the Toy Museum, but it was 45 minutes away and didn’t indicate it was free during this special week.

MOS Burger for lunch… not worth it.

TRIED to be healthy by going to the vegetable market but they needed the physical card so… no go.

Then did a bit of a walkaround with a live stream, yet another shopping district. But, really, how many shrines can you see anyway?

Then tried one of the wait-in-line restaurants with only two tables and a bar in it… 1780 for the bowl of noodles (it was good), plus 380 for a single person table charge! Better than the Icharin I mentioned yesterday (I think I did), but $17 for a bowl of noodles?!

And should I hit up one of the gyms while I’m here?!

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***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

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Hope you have a great one!!

00:00 Recording Setup Banter

00:45 Fukuoka Plans Busan Or Taipei

02:26 Audio Settings Mishap

04:25 Livestreaming Shrines And Temples

07:13 Temple Gate Close Call

09:43 Gym Versus Culture Debate

15:37 Asian Art Museum Highlights

19:05 Origami Money Crane Struggles

22:53 Rain Relocation And Photo Gallery Idea

26:53 Food Finds Mos Burger And Noodles

33:39 Pricey Noodles And Japan Portions

38:55 Wrap Up Links And Support

520! Did you forget? What if you’re in another country?

The lady at the front desk speaks Chinese, from Xiamen. Lives and works in Fukuoka now.

Hostel is nice, got to make good use of it today cause I slept most of it.

Did venture out a little bit, through the Kawabata shopping lane and stopped by a cafe that smelled really good. Carried on and somehow (again) found the red light district, which was literally just across the bridge from the rather large Canal City shopping mall.

Did some live streams, and thinking, How do touring musicians do this?

How’s the pcast sounding so far? I noticed the noise gate was kicking in so you can’t hear all of the background noise.

And how are you feeling?

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***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

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Hope you have a great one!!

00:00 Hostel Check In

00:29 Street Podcast Setup

01:29 Podcast Evolution

03:51 Wu Er Ling Greetings

04:17 Girlfriend Motivation

06:47 Chinese At Reception

09:11 Feeling Sick In Fukuoka

09:55 Kawabata Food Crawl

12:53 Shrine And Red Lights

14:45 Snack Bar Theory

18:46 Beard And Hair Plans

20:16 Canal City Fountain

21:14 Gimbal And Livestreams

25:32 Document Or Reveal

29:48 Touring Creator Life

34:21 West Africa Dream Trip

36:09 Rest And Next Stop

37:31 Closing And Links

Could’ve taken the bus for a FRACTION of the cost of the train. AND had a place to sleep! Oops. 1700 yen vs 21,000 yen PLUS 6100 for the hotel. Ouch.

Off to Fukuoka for the day, taking the bus! Was alright. Slept most of the way. Free WIFI on board so tried looking up hostels on the way. This idea failed. Two were closed by the time I got there and just about everywhere wants you to book online. New trend?

Throat feeling rough, coming down with something. How am I sleeping? I’m not! Last night was a snorer, yesterday night was getting woken up at 4.30 when the buses start moving around.

Watching sumo at the station, I can honestly say I don’t understand the sport.

And hey, did I tell you about the Nagasaki red light district?

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***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

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Hope you have a great trip!!

00:00 Street Intro in Fukuoka

01:42 Why Travel Create Content

06:16 YouTube Earnings Reality Check

09:40 Hostel Life and WiFi Hassles

15:36 Recording on the Road

17:36 Bus vs Shinkansen Math

25:06 Sore Throat and Remedies

28:28 Fukuoka Plans and Next Stops

32:48 Sumo and Red Light Tales

41:52 Wrap Up and Links

Hey Happy Birthday to me… podcast!

Welcome to Nagasaki! What a trip! Forgot the PIN to my credit card so it took a little work to get everything booked. Cashier only took cash or card, no tap. Luckily another service staff member helped me book the ticket online. That way, you enter the card number and a password then use that same card to pick up the tickets at the station. A run around but it got done. Maybe should have taken the night bus

Why Nagasaki? Very good question. Why not? The bomb exploded here and I wanted to see what the city was like these days. I was in Hiroshima ten years ago so figured Nagasaki would be a good complement.

Got in very late, bad planning on my behalf. But I wanted a full day in the city, guess I could have stayed overnight in Osaka and then taken the first train out in the morning.

Stayed at Toyoko Inn, good for the late check in, but to renew was expensive so I found a hostel down the street at half the cost. Not only that, Belleview hotel was locked when I got in and later in the morning when I checked they said book it on the app, it’s cheaper. Mostly digital checking out and amenities are left at the front desk.

Atomic bomb museum, how was it? Gentle. They do make it a point to show how the bombs destroyed human lives, but they also put it in the context of why it happened: the Japanese were expanded their empire in the Pacific and that put them in conflict with a bunch of other countries.

The city was largely rebuilt after the bombs were dropped, shown by a pair of pictures showing the city after the bomb and then again in 1950.

It’s hot here, and that bomb was dropped in August. I can only imagine how much worse it would have been. Not only that, a lot of the declarations and policies weren’t signed or put into effect until the 1980s or later… the US was testing a nuke every week for the last forty years!

And hey, how was the rest of Osaka?

-Got the Osaka Castle run done! Twelve kms all up in 1hr 27min.

-Got kicked out of a bar! Nihongo? Nope. Out. Sorry! So kept walking and found a taco bar. Stopped there for a feed and a few.

-Then found another okonomiyaki place along the main road. The cook/owner knew some English as did one of the older patrons. So we sat and tried to communicate.

-I forgot to tell you about the bird at Osaka Castle!

What have you been eating?

-Soft boiled eggs from the Family Mart

-Milk

-McDonalds Samurai Burger

-Starbucks coffee, cinnamon bun and donut

-Sushi and vegetables from the store

-Okonomiyaki = fried pork and squid

yaki = fried

soba = noodles

teppan = flat iron board

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***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

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Hope you have a great one!!

00:00 Birthday Bench Intro

01:56 Osaka to Nagasaki Missteps

03:41 Late Arrival Hotel Shuffle

06:35 Why Nagasaki Matters

07:39 No Japanese No Problem

08:43 Ticketing PIN Disaster

11:35 Train Staff Saves the Day

13:54 Transfers and Shinkansen Notes

17:47 First Impressions of Nagasaki

19:07 Atomic Bomb Museum Visit

20:33 Rebuilding and Hard Reflections

23:47 Museum Context Matters

24:22 Japan’s Imperial Past

26:03 Nuclear Tests Aftermath

27:10 Climate Change Rant

27:47 Donations And Wrap

28:08 Hypocenter Landmarks

30:10 Livestream At Ground Zero

31:49 Green City And Safety

33:55 Next Stops Itinerary

35:14 Osaka Bar Rejection

37:11 Late Night Food Crawl

41:13 Whiskey Gift Hunt

43:23 Osaka Castle Birders

45:05 Five Years Of Podcasting

46:21 Final Sign Off

Up early-ish and out the door for a 7 km run. Ran a lot quicker today than previous days. Made my way through Utsubo Park, very nice peonies I think they were.

Osaka Castle for the afternoon. What’s next?

Starbucks vanilla donut?? How was it? Not worth it!

Bought some summer clothes from Uniqlo! UV protection gear. Nice and breathable!

And I think I figured out a simple way to do Chinese subtitles in FCP: just export the default captions! Should speed up production a little bit.

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***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

Newsletter over at stevensirski.substack.com

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Hope you have a great one!!

00:00 Morning Run Recap

00:35 Podcast Bench Setup

02:42 Utsubo Park Roses

04:12 Running Castle Loop Plans

06:38 Subway and Castle Ticket

07:18 Inside Osaka Castle

09:23 Osaka in One Day

12:52 Where Next in Japan

17:13 Starbucks Donut Rant

19:03 Uniqlo Summer Gear

20:12 UV Gear Shopping

21:36 Arm Sleeves And Hat

22:15 Luggage And Uniqlo

23:06 Air Quality And Trump

23:57 Stocks And Disclaimers

26:10 New Channel Plans

29:30 Bilingual Captions Problem

33:10 Green Screen Subtitle Hack

37:09 Descript Costs And Goals

39:36 Hostel Teacher Talk

41:30 Foreigners And Opportunity

45:00 Wrap Up And Links

Out for a run but it was hard to get going! Didn’t get last night’s episode up until around midnight. Hope you enjoyed the talk with Art after yesterday’s episode. His website is artimax.com

Logistics of running! Japan obeys the rules and that means stop lights! And there are quite a few of those in the neighbourhood! Found it a bit difficult to navigate, not least of all because everybody was on their way to work.

More live streams! YouTube and TikTok, both through Shinsaibashi.

Starbucks has donuts here! And how is the food? What have you been eating? And how much is all of it?

And the shocking realization… that I’ve been here before. WHY??

Donate to the show! PayPal link below!

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***

Show notes n tracks up on stevensirski.com

And on Notion: https://stevensirski.notion.site/SSAB-The-Audio-Blog-of-Steven-Sirski-00acfe344e164bfab191d3cddf6952b2?pvs=4

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Hope you have a great one!!

00:00 Botched Cold Open

00:16 Osaka Street Setup

00:45 Lost a Day

01:39 Late Upload Fallout

03:26 Osaka Déjà Vu

05:33 Street Recording Gear

07:56 Running Rules Japan

09:20 GoPro TimeWarp Runs

13:08 Gym Costs and Options

14:17 Laundry Fail and Costs

15:57 Livestreaming Both Platforms

17:47 Why Live Over Curated

19:24 Podcasting for Mom

21:19 Socials and livestream plan

22:19 Osaka walk and districts

23:43 Starbucks taste test

24:31 Meals and money talk

26:44 Hostel limits and groceries

29:23 Soft boiled egg discovery

30:41 Grungy hostel reflections

32:34 Live podcast or edited

33:35 Next stops and fingerprints

37:11 Job change and travel doubts

38:38 Wrap up and links

40:26 Final goodbye and street noise