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Can I Afford Japan?

About

We keep coming back to Japan

Adam, Lindsay, and their three girls, Lily, Cora, and Harper. Full-time travelers since 2022, and Japan is the one place they never seem to leave for long.

A family of five wearing matching pink smocks, blue aprons, green rubber boots, and face masks sit on a yellow bench in a tiled room while holding small otters in their laps.

The short version

In May 2022, Adam and Lindsay sold their house in Indiana, packed five bags, and left with three kids aged 6, 5, and 2. It was supposed to be a one year trip. Four years and more than 33 countries later, they're still going, worldschooling the girls along the way.

Japan wasn't the first stop, but it's the one that stuck. After a first trip in 2022 and a longer one in 2023, they kept coming back: months at a time in Osaka and Fukuoka, repeat trips to Tokyo, enough visits that Japan is now Cora and Harper's favorite country in the world.

This site is the real prices from those trips. What a temple actually costs (nothing). What dinner actually costs. What a discount code actually gets you. No guessing.

countries visited
33+
countries visited
full-time since
2022
full-time since
in the family
5
in the family

Meet the family

Five people, one shared passport stamp collection.

  • A young girl with blonde hair sits on a bearded man's shoulders, both smiling at the camera outdoors at Tennoji Zoo in Osaka, Japan.

    Adam

    Filming, editing, and the tech side

    Background in software engineering, traded it for full-time travel in May 2022. Handles the camera and the code editor in roughly equal measure.

    Favorite country: Italy

  • A woman and a young girl smile inside a cable car gondola at Ba Na Hills.

    Lindsay

    Trip planning

    Plans every itinerary the family runs, and now does the same for other families as a certified travel advisor.

    Favorite country: Japan

  • A young girl with blonde hair smiles at the camera wearing oversized black-framed glasses and a Stitch t-shirt inside a Japanese department store.

    Lily

    The eldest

    Keeps a running rank of every country they've visited and will try anything on the menu at least once.

    Favorite country: England

  • A girl in a yellow dress sits inside a large decorative spider crab sculpture on a wooden deck along the Osaka waterfront, arms raised and mouth open in an excited expression.

    Cora

    The middle

    Shy until she isn't, and once she decides you're her people, you're her people for life.

    Favorite country: Japan

  • A young girl in a pink rainbow birthday shirt stands smiling at the camera, holding a small pink purse with a stuffed animal inside.

    Harper

    The youngest

    Was two years old when the family left Indiana and has never really known anything else.

    Favorite country: Japan

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