The Month Of Yuki Matsuri: January 2025 Recap

Welcome to 2025! I’m currently writing this while marveling at the beauty of freshly fallen snow and hoping that this calm environment will help me write more for this very blog (I’m very behind schedule🤣). So let’s get into it!

I Visited Japan🇯🇵!

It’s a long story, but while I was planning a trip to Japan with my Partner and college friend this spring, my Mom randomly told me that she was going as well – 2 months before me. I asked why and if we could combine our trips so we could see each other.

And her answer? Yuki Matsuri. It’s a snow festival in Sapporo, which is the capital city of the Hokkaido Island in northern Japan. And 2025 was their 75th annual Snow Festival! At this festival people create building sized sculptures out of snow and obviously that requires cold temperatures so it happens annually in February. Well fair enough Mom – you enjoy 🙂 .

A bit after she had booked her trip we discovered that her travel partner wouldn’t be able to go…so I valiantly offered to step in 😉 . We had a lovely time in Tokyo, Kyoto and Sapporo seeing those snow sculptures and some ice sculptures for good measure. I’m behind on posting on Insta as always, but I’m working on it and posts are rolling out over there showing our travels. In the meantime, below is a Mt. Fuji Tour, Japanese Calligraphy Class and Samurai Katana Experience that I enjoyed.

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I Planned Travel

Sooo I ‘accidentally’ booked all of my travel for 2025. That was fast 🙂 . I got a little excited about traveling to countries and cities (and even states – hello Colorado!) that I’ve never been to before and before I knew it, everything was booked and lined up nicely in my TripCase.

Below is an overview of where I’ll be so feel free to reach out in the comments or email me at purple [at] apurplelife.com if you want to grab coffee while I’m in the area!

2025 Travel Plans

• Tokyo, Kyoto and Sapporo, Japan🇯🇵
• Auckland, New Zealand🇳🇿
• Tokyo and Osaka, Japan🇯🇵
• Seattle, WA🇺🇸
• Lima and Cusco, Peru🇵🇪
• London and Liverpool, England🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿
• Edinburgh, Scotland🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿
• Bath, England🇬🇧
• Iceland🇮🇸
• Denver, CO🇺🇸

I Got Prescriptions In Another State

As I’ve mentioned, I’ve had challenges in the past getting prescriptions in different states. The US health insurance system is mostly state-based and when I try to get things done out of my state (WA), it hasn’t always gone well.

I am often paying out of pocket for things that should have been covered by my WA insurance, but I accepted that as the cost of being a full-time nomad. But no longer! I figured out how to get prescriptions filled in other states and I wanted to share how I did it in case it can help anyone else.

Here were the general steps I took:

1. Figure out who is your pharmacy provider through your health insurance
2. Find out what pharmacies in other states are “in-network”
3. Confirm what prescriptions are covered by insurance and order them through your doctor (e.g. generic vs brand name)
4. (If necessary) Contact insurance provider for a travel override

As I mentioned in the below post, I’m on an Ambetter Silver Plan this year so I went to the Ambetter website and poked around until I discovered that their prescription coverage is managed by Express Scripts.

• I Joined The Health Insurance Marketplace

So I went to the Express Scripts website and found that they had a directory to see what pharmacies across the country are “in-network.” Jackpot! I used that to find pharmacies in other states I would be visiting.

Then I checked what prescriptions my plan covers. I intentionally chose this plan and am paying more per month than needed because it claimed that it would cover my usual medications at $0 for generic and $25 per for brand names.

I then submitted a refill request through my doctor in WA’s online portal (after updating my insurance info for the year and the pharmacy I wanted to use in the same portal). I explained that I would prefer the generic brand of my medication and that I would like a 3 month supply because I would be traveling to Japan and New Zealand for 3 months.

My doctor put the prescription through and after a few unrelated issues, I was told by the pharmacy that my insurance had rejected their submission and that I needed to call them. Uh oh 🙂 . Luckily the customer service person I spoke to was absolutely amazing and helped me.

They were able to put through my travel override and I asked what the standard procedure was for this since I haven’t had to call my insurance provider before – usually my doctor submitting a travel override was enough.

So maybe it’s just this insurance or it’s a new thing in the industry, but apparently after I request a refill, I need to call the insurance company so they put through the travel override. Alrighty – that’s another annoying step, but I’ll take it to get 3 months of prescriptions in advance before traveling.

So that’s what I learned! Instead of my usual protocol of stocking up on my medication when I’m in México, I was able to fill my prescriptions in my home country for $0. Sweeeeet!

I Tried A New Travel Insurance

As I mentioned in the below post, after 4 years of having World Nomads Travel Insurance and never submitting a claim, I decided to try a new travel insurance: SafetyWing. I bought insurance for my trip to Japan and New Zealand and paid $2.01/day. Not bad at all. I’ll report back how this company does if I ever need to submit a claim.

• I Joined The Health Insurance Marketplace

I Learned To Knit!

A few of my SILs are amazing knitters who make gorgeous homemade clothing all the time that I can’t believe didn’t come from a store. I crocheted when I was super young, but I haven’t since and have forgotten how.

One night, one of my SILs taught me how to knit and it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be! I had a lot of fun, quickly became obsessed, and made a scarf in a matter of days. Not bad for a first attempt!)

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I Practiced Coloring

Speaking of finger exercises, my SIL and BIL made me a travel coloring book for Christmas, which was so kind! I had a lovely time coloring it and decided my skills may lie between the intricacies of an adult coloring book and the large shapes of a kids coloring book 😉 .

I need to up my skills and also strengthen my fingers. I’ve been losing that strength since I stopped taking handwritten notes in college. Between this and knitting, I feel like my fingers need to start lifting weights or something. I’m going to look into finger exercises for this kind of thing – if you know of any, feel free to let me know.

I Did My Nails (A Lot)

In a surprise to no one, my Dashing Diva nail sticker obsession is still on a tear.

• Review: Dashing Diva Gloss Nail Stickers – A Nomad Beauty Revelation

My MIL got me and my SIL a pair for Christmas and I taught them all how to use them, which was a fun project. My love of nail stickers is infecting the whole family 😉 .

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I Downloaded All My Insta Photos

Meta platforms, which include Facebook, Instagram, Threads and WhatsApp, are making changes to make these spaces worse. Here’s a summary of what happened:

I stopped using Facebook like a decade ago, I’m cutting back on WhatsApp and I’m never getting Threads, so I downloaded all my photos from Instagram in case I decide to leave. I’m personally seeing similarities between what’s happening on Insta and what happened on Twitter when that platform got rid of moderation and became a cesspool of nonsense instead of the loving place where I hung out with my finance friends in the past.

In case it’s helpful, here’s how you can download all of your photos from Instagram:

1. Go to your Profile
2. Click the 3 horizontal lines on the top right
3. Go to “Accounts Center”
4. Click “Your information and permissions”
5. Go to “Download your information”

You’ll get an email when the info pull is done with a link that lets you download all of the files onto your computer.

I Played Video Games

I’m back on my Sims 4 bullshit and this time I did something kind of ridiculous. After becoming obsessed with knitting, I noticed that the Nifty Knitting Stuff Pack was 30% off for the Sims’ 25 year anniversary – and I couldn’t resist 🙂 .

I also had a great time playing my new Snowy Escape Expansion Pack while in Hokkaido, which is the inspiration for the pack. I also tried to play my first Sims Legacy challenge, but quickly failed. I guess I’m just meant to be a one and done girlie 🙂 .

I Hung Out With People

This month involved some of my usual virtual meetups, such as that weekly call with my Mom and Weekly Movie Nights where we watched the below. If you’re curious about my ratings of movies, I have a Letterboxd account here. I also had several sleepovers with a college friend, family and other friends. It was a fun-filled month 🙂 .

Films

1. Blink Twice
2. The Wild Robot
3. I Saw The TV Glow
4. Fall
5. The Little Mermaid (2023)
6. Talk To Me
7. Quiz Lady
8. Damsel
9. Red One
10. Gone In The Night

TV Shows

1. High Potential
2. Grand Design
3. Wildcard Kitchen
4. Abbott Elementary (S4E9 ft. Always Sunny)
5. What We Do In The Shadows (S6)
6. Tabatha’s Salon Takeover (S1-S2)
7. Tabatha Takes Over (S1-S3)

Season 6 was the last season of What We Do In The Shadows and I appreciate that they didn’t just drag the show out forever until it was a husk of its former self (like a lot of shows do – get that money I guess). But Shadows didn’t do that. They ended when they wanted to and when their audience (including me) still loved the show and I think they ended it well. I’ll miss Shadows, but I have a full six years to rewatch whenever I want so it’s all good.

The last two shows on this list are from back in the day: 2008 specifically, which was soon after I started college. I got the urge to watch them so I had to find a way to do it. They’re currently only streaming on Peacock, but Peacock doesn’t offer free trials anymore so I was curious to see if I could find another free solution.

Surprisingly I did. A reddit thread tipped me off that Instacart users can do a free trial of Instacart+ and with that trial comes Peacock…for free. The internet can be a trash place sometimes, but I love it for things like this: random tips shared from a stranger to try and help other people…maybe that should be the new headline for this blog 😉 .

I Read 25 Books

Here were my favorite reads this month:

1. Green Money: How to Reduce Waste, Build Wealth, and Create a Better Future for All by Kara Perez
2. Free From Falling by E.L. Massey
3. Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe

To see the other books I read this month and my ratings of them, I have a Goodreads account here. I was a reading fiend this month and I’m really happy about that 🙂 . I thought traveling and being present would cut down a lot on my reading time, but it didn’t. Maybe those days of waking up at 2am and trying to get over jetlag had some positives 😉 .

I Wrote 5 Posts

In case you missed it, this month I published the below posts:

1. 10 Years Into My FIRE Journey: From $53K To $912K
2. I Was Supposed To Retire Today: How FIRE Can Go Better Than Forecast
3. The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2024 Recap
4. Lessons Learned From A Decade Of Blog Writing
5. My Mom Retired 10 Years Ago At 55: A Q&A

I also had another interview with CNBC to celebrate Black History Month. That should come out soon and I’ll include a link to it in a recap when it’s out.

I was also asked to join the panel to select finalists and winners for the Plutus Awards, but I don’t think I’m going to do it. Since retiring, I haven’t had my finger on the pulse of the finance content creator space like I did when I was pursuing FIRE. I also feel like this lack of knowledge of the space has increased a lot since I stopped being active on Twitter almost 2 years ago, which was previously my main hangout space with finance peeps.

And in this month’s episode of ‘who offered me money for weird things I declined’ there were these gems:

• Offering me $2,000 to post 4 Insta stories about an alcohol brand
• Asking me to review a book about stock picking
• Wanting me to shill precious metals
• Asking me to promote teeth whitening strips
• Requesting I promote a job marketplace
• Asking me to be a live fashion seller

On a happy note, I also scheduled several meetups with readers around the world this month. As I mentioned, if you are located in any of the places I’m visiting this year that I listed in the section above, feel free to reach out if you want to grab a coffee. I love meeting y’all IRL!

Physical

Sleep

Before I left for Japan I got sick…again 🙂 . Luckily it wasn’t COVID this time, but that sickness understandably messed with my sleep for a bit. Maybe there’s a downside to being around my niblings more 😉 . They appear to be germ factories…though maybe this will make me stronger in the long run. We shall see!

I got over that sickness before I left, thank goodness, and since then I have been sleeping well for a jetlagged person on the other side of the world 🙂 . I’ve been taking full advantage of my new retirement hobby of napping to help me beat the jetlag sooner and it only took a few days instead of the expected 14. Sweet!

Food

My food this month was awesome! I ate keto for 51% of the month and took 15 days off keto and I regret none of them 🙂 . It’s been wonderful exploring Japan through its cuisine, but hilariously, I’m excited to get back to keto and not feel sluggish and bloated all the time. Carbs and I really don’t get along outside their taste.

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Exercise

My exercise this month was focused on walking, yoga and the PT exercises I’ve mentioned in the past to prevent my self-inflicted running injury from flaring up again. I also ran a few times but as expected, my run frequency decreased in the frozen tundra of NY State before I left and in Japan while I was out exploring in the cold. I’m glad I’ve still been doing some exercise, but I’m excited to get back to a more consistent schedule in February.

Mental

Learning

So it’s time for my favorite segment: Fun Facts Nobody Asked For! Here’s what I learned and explored this month:

Japan

Originally what I knew of Japan’s history was basically encapsulated in the below comedy/history video, but no longer! I’ve learned all kinds of things living in this country.

• Japan has a population of about 126 million and compares to the US in size like this:

• Tokyo has a population of 14 million downtown and a whopping 41 million in the the metro area. It’s the most populated metropolitan area in the world
• Kyoto has a population of 1.5 million and was the capital of Japan as well as the center of the country’s political life for over a thousand years from 794 to 1868
• Sapporo has a population of almost 2 million and I was shocked to learn that it’s one of the snowiest places in the world (though I guess that makes sense for a place to hold a Snow Festival 🙂 ). The city has an annual average snowfall of about 5 meters or 16 feet. In fact, Japan is apparently the snowiest country in the world, which I did not expect
• To combat this snowy atmosphere, Sapporo has mostly heated sidewalks and an underground walkway that you can use to get around a lot of the city without braving the snowy outdoors. When I arrived I was confused why there weren’t many people on the streets and it turns out – they were below me! The underground is super fancy with restaurants and shops like an underground city
• One part of Japan I was really excited about was riding their Bullet Trains, called Shinkansen! They have a max speed of 320 km/h or 200 mph and the one I rode from Tokyo to Kyoto went 285km/h or 177mph. It was pretty wild. My Mom told me one of her highlights of this whole trip was actually seeing how fast bullet trains flew by at the train station. I tried to catch one on video, but it was too fast!

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Birds

Speaking of birds being awesome 🙂 , I always get excited going to new countries to see birds I’ve never seen before and Japan delivered! Here are the birds I saw broken out by location:

Japan

Eurasian Tree Sparrow, Gray Heron, Carrion Crow, Large-Billed Crow, Eastern Spot-Billed Duck, Mallard, Eurasian Coot, Mountain Hawk Eagle, Asian Tit, Long Tailed Tit, Varied Tit, Black Headed Gull, Great Spotted Woodpecker, White Tailed Eagle, Smew, Tufted Duck, Long Billed Titmouse, Eurasian Nuthatch, Brown-Eared Bulbul, Hawfinch, Dusky Thrush

NY State

Dark-Eyed Junco, Hairy Woodpecker, Black-Capped Chickadee, Northern Cardinal

When I was still in NY before starting my travels, my niblings showed me bird live feeds on the website of my favorite bird identification app Merlin by Cornell Labs. I didn’t know those existed!

Astronomy

I didn’t expect to have any astronomy wins this month, but that wasn’t the case. I enjoyed some beautiful sunrises and sunsets in Tokyo, spotted Saturn and Jupiter in Kyoto and watched fireworks in Sapporo. I also was able to see a lot of stars, such as Vega and the constellation Cassiopeia, with the lack of light pollution outside of Sapporo.

Creativity

Harnessing my creativity was a challenge this month, but I expected that and planned for it. I intentionally did a lot of writing before leaving on my trip so I wouldn’t feel the need to choose between exploring a new country and keeping my self-imposed every Tuesday posting schedule. And it worked!

I didn’t fall behind and instead had a lot of posts ready in advance, so I didn’t ever force myself to write if there was something else I wanted to do. I’m going to put on my calendar a reminder to do pre-work before any other periods of fast travel that I have coming up.

Emotional

My emotions this month were good overall, but also a bit weird. This was the first time I was more sad to leave my Partner’s family than excited about my next adventure. Maybe that’s because I was leaving my Partner behind along with his family after having a lovely Christmas season together – I don’t know.

But I’m taking my reaction to mean that my goal to see family more often this year is the right one and that I should seriously think about possibly getting a homebase near them soon. Damn my emotions 😉 ! Luckily once my trip was underway and I had reunited with my Mom, my excitement for our adventures came flooding back, but my initial reaction gave me pause.

Money

As I mentioned, I planned all of my travel for 2025 this month. And it’s all paid for so I have a pretty good idea of what my main expenses of Airbnb rent and travel will cost this year and it’s looking good so far 🙂 .

On the other side of the equation, I hit a new all-time net worth high earlier in the month and my money ended the month like this:

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Conclusion

And that’s what I got up to in January! It’s been a wonderful month exploring a new country, learning new things and getting used to a new-to-me culture. It’s been a great start to 2025 and I’m excited to return to New Zealand🇳🇿 in February. Until next time!

If you’re interested in the other weekly and monthly retirement updates I’ve written, they’re all here:

Weekly (2020)

1. Early Retirement Week 1: The Freak Out
2. Early Retirement Week 2: The Vacation
3. Early Retirement Week 3: The Whiplash
4. Early Retirement Week 4: The Heartbeat
5. Early Retirement Week 5: The Election
6. Early Retirement Week 6: The Trophy
7. Early Retirement Week 7: The Train
8. Early Retirement Week 8: The Challenge
9. Early Retirement Week 9: The Question
10. Early Retirement Week 10: The Game
11. Early Retirement Week 11: The Recharge
12. Early Retirement Week 12: The Holiday

Monthly (2021)

1. The Month Of Rest: Early Retirement Month 4 (January 2021)
2. The Month Of Birds: Early Retirement Month 5 (February 2021)
3. The Month of Change: Early Retirement Month 6 (March 2021)
4. The Month of Atlanta: Early Retirement Month 7 (April 2021)
5. The Month of Portland, Maine: Early Retirement Month 8 (May 2021)
6. The Month Of New Hampshire: Early Retirement Month 9 (June 2021)
7. The Month Of The Northeast: Early Retirement Month 10 (July 2021)
8. The Month Of New York State: Early Retirement Month 11 (August 2021)
9. The Month Of City Hopping: Early Retirement Month 12 (September 2021)
10. The Month Of The Southwest USA: October 2021 Recap
11. The Month Of Santa Fe: November 2021 Recap
12. The Month Of Family: December 2021 Recap

Monthly (2022)

1. The Month Of Freezing My Balls Off: January 2022 Recap
2. The Month Of Thailand: February 2022 Recap
3. The Month Of Spring(?): March 2022 Recap
4. The Month Of México: April 2022 Recap
5. The Month of Mérida: May 2022 Recap
6. The Month of Seattle: June 2022 Recap
7. The Month of Washington State: July 2022 Recap
8. The Month Of New Hampshire: August 2022 Recap
9. The Month Of Maine: September 2022 Recap
10. The Month Of Acadia: October 2022 Recap
11. The Month Of Argentina: November 2022 Recap
12. The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2022 Recap

Monthly (2023)

1. The Month Of Snow: January 2023
2. The Month Of New Hampshire: February 2023
3. The Month Of Sea: March 2023
4. The Month Of California: April 2023
5. The Month Of Seattle: May 2023
6. The Month Of Chicago: June 2023
7. The Month Of Montréal: July 2023
8. The Month Of Troy, NY: August 2023
9. The Month Of Australia: September 2023
10. The Month Of New Zealand: October 2023
11. The Month Of Puerto Vallarta: November 2023
12. The Month Of Warmth: December 2023

Monthly (2024)

1. The Month Of Family: January 2024 Recap
2. The Month Of Costa Rica: February 2024 Recap
3. The Month Of San José: March 2024 Recap
4. The Month Of The Solar Eclipse: April 2024 Recap
5. The Month Of Arizona: May 2024 Recap
6. The Month Of Upstate NY: June 2024 Recap
7. The Month Of Montréal: July 2024 Recap
8. The Month Of Canada: August 2024 Recap
9. The Month Of Iceland: September 2024 Recap
10. The Month Of Switzerland & Italy: October 2024 Recap
11. The Month Of Amsterdam: November 2024 Recap
12. The Month Of Holiday Cheer: December 2024 Recap

What’s a fun fact you learned this month?