Ryan Ginstrom wrote:
> We figure that if we want to spend longer than that in another place, we'll
> move there for a year or two, although it's yet to be determined how we'll
> do that with our current commitments. I don't relish moving ourselves, two
> elderly parents, two dogs, two cats, and a hamster to some faraway place,
> just to do it all again after a year or two.

Moving with the hamster would be a bitch. I'm planning on moving to a
house in the next 6 months or so (same city), and hamsterless though I
am the logistics are going to be a pain.

> Instead, I think I'll wait till our commitments are a bit lighters, the
> mortage is paid off and the sprog has gotten the boot, before doing a little
> globe trotting. I already told my wife, the 3 million yen we saved by
> getting a 20-year loan is earmarked for the down payment on a sailboat. All
> I have to do now is learn to sail over the next 20 years...

Its pretty easy and a lot of fun. Try a single hand skiff. For about
100-250,000 yen you can pick up a used boat and learn a shitload more
about sailing sail trim and weight distribution than you can in a large
one, cheaper than sailing schools too. One man catamarans are fun too.




-- 
"Beyond the Euphrates began for us the land of mirage and danger, the
sands where one helplessly sank, and the roads which ended in nothing.
The slightest reversal would have resulted in a jolt to our prestige
giving rise to all kinds of catastrophe; the problem was not only to
conquer but to conquer again and again, perpetually; our forces would be
drained off in the attempt." - Emperor Hadrian AD 117-138