We've talked a lot on this site about slow travel, points, and the gear that gets us through long stretches on the road. This post kicks off something new: a Japan section, where we'll be documenting the process of setting up a base camp in Otaru. The plan is to spend a few months at a time there, on tourist stays within the visa limits, while we keep traveling Asia over the next few years.
Why Otaru
Otaru sits on Hokkaido's coast, about half an hour from Sapporo, and it's become our pick for a base camp for a few reasons.
The biggest draw is skiing. Otaru is close to some of the best resorts in Japan — Niseko and Kiroro are the big names, but there are also smaller, far more convenient options right near town like Teine, Tenguyama, and Asarigawa Onsen. Having a base camp within reach of that much terrain was hard to pass up.
Home prices in the area are also surprisingly affordable compared to what we'd expected going in. That affordability opens up a second angle we're excited about: home-share opportunities during the months we're not there. We're still working out the details, but the plan is to offset costs by renting the place out while we're off looping through the rest of Asia.
It's easy to think of Hokkaido purely as a winter destination, but summer up here is its own draw. Temperatures stay mild while much of the rest of Japan swelters through humid heat, and the region opens up for hiking, cycling, and time outdoors in a completely different way than the ski season does. Otaru itself is a good base for that — canal walks and coastal views in town, with day trips out to hiking trails, lavender fields, and national parks across the island. We're looking forward to exploring that side of Hokkaido as much as the powder season.
The Loop
The core idea is simple: use Japan as a base camp for a few months at a time, and spend the rest of the time cycling through nearby countries on tourist visas. Since we're traveling around Asia for much of the year, that means constantly tracking visa rules, timing quirks, and reset periods across multiple countries — right now, our loop runs through Japan, South Korea, Thailand, and Vietnam.
Keeping all of that straight by hand gets messy fast, which is why we built a free visa day calculator: add your trips, past and planned, and it counts your days against each country's limit. It runs in your browser, with nothing to install.
This is why we built a free visa day calculator. Add your trips, past and planned, and it counts your days against each country's limit, including Japan's 180-day total and the Schengen 90/180 rule. It runs in your browser, with nothing to install: try the visa day calculator.
Where Things Stand
On the second home: we've made an offer on a place in Otaru and are waiting on a closing date later this year. We'll share more on the buying process — what surprised us, what we'd do differently — as it unfolds.
On the car: also in progress. Buying and registering a car in Japan as non-resident foreign buyers has turned out to be a more involved process than we expected, but we've connected with a local contact who's helping us navigate it. We're planning a dedicated post that walks through the whole car-buying process once it's done, for anyone else considering the same thing.
The Bottom Line
This is the first post in what's going to be an ongoing series: buying a second home, getting a car, setting up a base camp, and using it to loop through Asia. If you're curious about owning a second home in Japan, tourist-visa loops through Asia, or just want to follow along as we figure this out in real time, this section of the site is where we'll be posting updates.