はじめに：ソロエピソードの意図
Hi everyone, you are listening to 英語でサイエンスしナイト. Iam Asami, your host today, and this is a soloepisode.
So if you want to hear Len's voice, go skip thisone and listen to other episodes.
But I wanted to film, not film, record a soloepisode right now because, well, we need a new
episode. And two, I felt like the past severalepisodes have been quite very serious. And while
we do enjoy serious discussions such as AI inhigher education or thinking about, um,
what else did we just talked about? Like, yeah,books, conferences, things like that. You know,
those are very much a part of reality here, butalso that is not the only reality out there.
And I think it's very, um, not very representativeof who I am as a person, you know, if I only just
do serious brainy episodes. So here goes nothingof my sillier episodes. So relax, wind down.
It'll be a short one. Just enjoy. So this episodewas inspired by, um,
インスピレーション：ポッドキャスト「35歳右にいくか左にいくか」
if you've been listening to us, you have heard usmention them several times. It is a podcast
of two college friends who are no longer collegeage, Nai-chan and Maki-san. And they're just
yapping about their lives, their work, theirfamily lives, their everything, everything that
happens as late thirties, early forties, you know,as they, as they venture into this journey called
life. So give a listen if you haven't. Um, it's avery fun show where it sounds like you're just
eavesdropping in two best friends discussions andchats. Anyway, in episode 269, um, so
this one is entitled
they are talking about how Nai-chan is in marketfor
this and that. Sorry, Nai-chan.
Um, but, um, anyway, I, you know, once in a whileI love thinking about materialistic needs and
being shallow as fuck. So here is the episodewhere I do that, um, to the microphone. But before
衣類：ミニマルなワードローブ戦略
that, maybe, um, I want to kind of clean about howI usually spend my money on. And, you know,
I thought about what is like my bigger expensesand, um, started thinking about, you know, okay,
let's think in terms of
like
I am in my early thirties, like I should havestopped growing, I think at this point. So, um,
I try to wear the clothes that I can wear longer,try to buy clothes with intention of wearing this
for years and years. Now, it's not always sort ofrealistic because, well, you know, just because
we stopped growing vertically doesn't mean wedon't grow in other directions. And also, I think
as a woman, you know, depending on part of yourcycle, your body is just different every day. So
I, while I don't try to squeeze into, you know, myhigh school jeans, for instance, I do try to,
you know, assume that I can keep wearing the samething for the next foreseeable future
and buy things in such a way. So, um, I'll sharewith you later about sort of my new, um, purchases
of article of clothings that I sort of bought withthis, um, concept, I guess, sort of like the idea
to keep wearing the same thing longer, um, or keepwearing something that is already in your closet
and make use of it. Uh, I think I'm doing prettywell on this, uh, department actually, because,
well, it helps that I moved a lot in the past fewyears, um, and each moves come with a cleanup or
sort of purge of one's wardrobe. And in Hong Kong,I don't have to have winter clothes for the most
part. I do have sort of thicker jacket, but youknow, nothing crazy about it. So I am able towear,
like, I would say 80% of my daily clothes, um,that belongs to my wardrobe. Um, this is also
helped by the fact that I don't have to wearoffice casuals for my work. I just wear what Iwear on a
weekend as well to work, you know, um, and mystyle is not like vastly different between myweekends
and my workplace. So that helps. And so I wouldsay 80% of my wardrobe is that, you know, I,whatever
I wear for every day that is suitable for HongKong's humid and hot, generally, climate. And
maybe 10% of a little bit more sort of adventurouspiece of clothing, this might be more, you know,
wedding guests dress or sort of occasion wears orsomething that I want to wear when I want to look
nice, things like that. So it's like maybe 10% ofit. And I would say the remaining 10%, but I feel
like even realistically, it's even less than thatis sort of, you know, accessories, right?
Like I have one backpack for my work, one backpackfor hiking, one tiny clutch for sort of theater
going activities. And I guess that's Oh, and onetote bag that I recently bought that I also talked
about to Nai-chan. And other than that, yeah, no,I just have a bunch of, you know, museum, like
canvas tote bags, but which I do use as well. ButI don't really have bags. And I have maybe
six, seven pairs of shoes that includes theworkout ones and hiking ones and my daily ones.
So that's very few of them. And so I am prettysort of I have a very minimal wardrobe.
And I would say I make the most use out of it. Sopretty happy with how things are going in my
wardrobe there. And once you know, like once youhave a good idea of what's in your wardrobe,
right, like, I don't know how many of you can saythat you know exactly what's going on in
your wardrobe because there are times like when Igo back to my parents place and see their closet,
they have a huge collection of clothes that youknow, they have kept since they were in their
20s. And many of them I never see them wear, butthey still have it. And this is not the case for
me. I only mostly have clothes that I wear. Sothis does help when you're buying new clothes.
Because you can think about, okay, does this gowell with what I have? And you know, you have a
pretty good idea of what you do have. So there'sthat.
食費：自炊と外食のバランス
飲食中の食はそうだな。前提として I usually make my own lunch. Solunchtime,
it's just my lunchbox. And I meal prep all of thaton Sundays. So I would say four to five times
of the week, I am eating my lunchbox meal for mylunch. But Hong Kong is very 外食文化,
so it does make it easy to buy and like eat food,eat a good meal outside, especially during the
weekdays. Because I go straight to ballet afterwork and stuff. I just like grab some onigiri or
sandwiches or something at the supermarket andlike call that a dinner. Probably not the best
thing to do. But you know, you do have to do whatyou have to do. So like for dinners, I do eat out
often. And sometimes it's with friends too, youknow. And in Hong Kong, it is a lot more cost
effective to eat local food. Surprise, surprise,you know, kind of like Chinese food is much easier
to eat and much, much more cheaper, much betterquality. Koreans pretty good too. But I feel like
there's not many options for casual Italian food.Like Italian, any Western food tends to be just
very high-end. And you know, while it's nice tohave the option for, you know, date nights or
something like that, this is not my daily dinneroption. So yeah, that. And don't even get me
started on Japanese food. I mean, there areJapanese food here. Hong Kong people love Japanese
food. I just don't crave it because I just feellike it's overpaying for what it is. And I'd
just rather wait until I go back home or I try tocook myself most of the time.
Having said that, I did go to Sekai no Yama-chanin Hong Kong. This was my Yama-chan debut,
actually. I've never been to one in Japan, Ithink. Is Yama-chan like a Nagoya establishment
and not really anywhere else? I'm not sure. I'venever really seen it in Tokyo,
although I'm sure there is some, like, there aresome branches there. Anyway, but yeah,
Yama-chan in Hong Kong, I will make an exception.I'm happy to pay for that.
Um, yeah.
住居費：香港の家賃事情
Which is not surprising, it's no news. Havinglived in pre-COVID New York,
I would say Hong Kong feels more expensive thanNew York pre-COVID. I don't know what it's like
nowadays, but I think it's comparable to New York,but maybe even worse in terms of square
footage. Because in New York, rent was expensive,but the rooms were also of a decent size.
Here in Hong Kong, you see regularly peopleputting the listing up on market that it's, like,
like a very tiny apartment that just like simplydoes not exist in New York, I think.
So in terms of that, like, it feels kind ofexpensive. But it is neither here or there,
I think. Can't do anything about it, right? Imean, there are cheaper options if you go sort of
like outside to, you know, a bit more residentialarea, a bit away from central area. But I am aware
that, like, my rent part of it is just thelocation, and I am happy to pay for the location
for a few reasons. So that was ishokujuu. Sothat's just like covering the basic basic,
経験への投資：旅行の価値
right? So what do I actually spend money on thatis sort of like a luxury item or just like
extra things? I would say traveling is usually mymost expensive activity
that I do. I like going to solo travels. I alsotry to go home to Japan once or twice a year,
which is a lot more doable now that I live inAsia, but it's still, you know, it's not nothing.
And I also, yeah, like, I think it's also,traveling is, the nice thing about traveling
is you will never ever regret spending moneytraveling. Whether it is to countries and
cultures you've never seen before, or even just toget away from your daily grinds,
sort of have a nice mental space to look at yourlife from bird's eye point of view.
I find traveling to be very useful for that. Andin a way, traveling is a little bit ichigo ichie,
right? Like going to, let's say, New York as 15year old is really going to be different from
going to New York as 35 year old or 45 year old.So I think there's just like a very different
effect, a different timeline of your life. So Iusually just sort of, my go-to saying is that
ikitai toki ga best timing, right? So as soon asI'm like, oh, I want to go, instead of just
thinking about going, I'll try to put it intoconsideration. Okay, what part of the year do I
want to go? Where can I go? And let's make ithappen. I have this mindset more probably because
I am now in Asia, and I am working in a companywhere I don't have like infinite amount of annual
leaves, or PTO, if you call it that. But I don'thave infinite amount of that, but I also don'thave
too much difficulties obtaining one, you know? IfI say, hey, I want to take time off from between
this time to this time, my boss is like 99% of thetime, it's like, sure, no problem. So I shouldtake
advantage of that. And I think when I was in theStates, while I still, I think, enjoy traveling,
I just was not in a financial situation to be ableto afford that much traveling, you know?
And I kind of, it's sad about that, because whileI was in the States, I really wish I had a guts to
go to South America, which I didn't. And now I'mso, so far away from South America, who knows when
is, when I will be able to go there. If you canafford it, and if you can take time off, you will
never regret taking, traveling as your expense. Sothat's one. And my, I guess, second most expensive
健康維持：バレエ、ジム、食事
activity is my ballet and gym. But these arealmost like a rent for me. I treat them as just
like 必要経費, right? Almost like a 固定費. I know howmany times a week of ballet I usually go to,
which is, I would say, averaging twice a week. Andgym, maybe three to four times a week.
So it's pretty much just, it's, it's necessary formy mental and physical health, and I am not
going to negotiate that. The same thing kind ofgoes for 食, 衣食中の食. While I don't cook fancy
things, I try to cook something that isnourishing, and have good balanced meal, and trynot to eat
too many types of the same thing all the time, sothat I have a bit of variety. Always buy fruits
or some kind of healthy snacks in the fridge. Andyeah, that kind of thing, you know? So I think
just your health, like being healthy, ends up, youknow, being sort of my number one asset for me.
Now, not all of us have the same sort ofprivilege, and I'm saying I'm pretty healthy now,
but who am I to say that I might develop somechronic disease later down the road? And, but for
all the things I enjoy in life, whether it's work,or travel, or everything, like health is base of
all of it, and my life will be considerably moreexpensive if I have like illness to take care of
right now, so I don't mind spending a little moreto keep my body and mind healthy. So there's that.
So it's a rent. It's a non-negotiable. I don'tthink about how much money I'm spending on it.
文化体験：コンサート鑑賞
What else? I guess I also try to go to concerts ordance shows maybe every other month or so.
I want to make this into a monthly thing. I shouldlook into things that would make it possible to
happen. Again, it's kind of similar to traveling,where it's like ichigo ichie, so like
experiencing this as a 33 year old right now isgoing to be different for experiencing atdifferent
points of time in my life. So I also try not to bestingy about it, especially because my kind
of concert tends to be more classical music, andthese are relatively inexpensive, and they are
available almost throughout the year, so that'svery easy for me to access. I know like, you know,if
you wanted to go to like Taylor Swift concerts, Ihave no idea how expensive the tickets are, but
it's like a whole ordeal, right? Like, you know,you have to like plan for the travel and book the
thing like a year in advance and etc etc. Like myconcerts are much more chill. I can just decide
to go like on the same week, you know, or likeeven the day before or something. I guess lastly,there's
読書：本と漫画への出費
like book and manga budget? I don't really have abudget for that. I am going to admit my own
privilege in saying this, but even as a kid, bookswere not something that I had to sort of like
buy on my own pocket money. Most of the time, if Isaid I want this book, there was no question
asked, and I was able to get it. And especiallywhen my grandpa was still alive, every little
okozukai opportunity, you know, whether it'sotoshidama or birthday, he used to give us,
I mean, sometimes real money, but half the time itwas given in toshouken, like voucher and like
coupon cards for bookstores. So you can only buybooks with those anyway. And so I think I justhave
it in my mind, just ingrained deep in my parts,like, oh, like, why bother thinking about how
much money you're spending in a book? But withbooks, it's more about like the time, like,
can do I have time to read this? And the answer isyes, I can always make time like I can stop
scrolling some dumb shit and like read somethingmore interesting. But it is a lot easier said than
done. So there's that. Hopefully this podcast tokushokai is going to be a good excuse for me to
actually read new books, not just rereading what Ilike and talk about it. Yeah, well, I think
まとめと今後の展望
that's it. Didn't I say didn't I start thispodcast episode thinking that I'm going to gothrough a
few things that I bought recently, but I thinkit's a good time to end here. Maybe I'll show,
do another episode where I talk about what Ibought recently that made me happy.
If you like this kind of episode, let us know withcomments or write to us. I think there will be
links in the show notes.
All right. Thanks for listening. Bye-bye.
エンディング
That's it for the show today. Thanks for listeningand find us on x at
egode science. That is E I G O D E S C I E N C.See you next time.