Spending Money Should Be Fun.

At home, the Jimny Nomad I waited a year for finally arrived.
In short, it’s like a tiny Jeep.
Looks cool.
But functionally, it’s not exactly mind-blowing..
Still, with cars, looks come first. And it looks damn good.
Even if it wins on a spec sheet, I don’t want something that bores me every day when I get in.

Well, with a car, fine… you replace it eventually.

But what if it’s a house? You can brag about insulation grades and seismic ratings all you want—if it’s boxy, ugly, and awkward to live in, then what.
The GT-R I used to drive and this Jeep too… well… neither of them is “good for you” in any logical way.
But living with that kind of troublemaker is more fun than dating the straight-A kid. Every day’s better.

A house is the ultimate version of that.
Once the build starts, you get anxious, go check the site, take photos, and ask social media or AI whether there’s any “corner-cutting,”
then some know-it-all “pros” and lying AIs feed you extra nonsense,
you get confused on your own, you go neurotic,
you drive the builder crazy, the builder’s motivation drops, and you end up with a weird house..

This happens… and honestly, custom homes these days? It’s happening a lot..

So then… a spec home built by a trustworthy company…
Yeah, that probably doesn’t exist in this world (lol)

At least with a car, you can see it before you buy—same as a spec home.
With a custom home, there’s no finished product, and you’re buying based on a salesperson’s smooth talk, so it’s a mess

Spending money on something that isn’t fun is the ultimate waste

My buddy Aoki-chan—who works the Olympics—keeps sending me fun messages all the time..
Japan is winning a ton of medals too, and I’m honestly impressed.
Japanese people might just be naturally good at sports where you spin around in the air.
Gymnastics, skateboarding, snowboarding—same vibe. Those events are a mix of instinct, guts, and brutal repetition.

Italy… I want to go.
Ferrari, Fiat, Smeg… a country where design beats performance..
I seriously want to go…
And I want to go because the food looks insane.
Last year I tried to run the numbers to go with my younger daughter, but it’s a totally different order of magnitude than Korea, so the calculation ended right there (lol)

So yeah—rare moment for the foul-mouthed me—but the president I genuinely respect is Aoki-san.
In the building world, he’d be like a top-tier master carpenter—normally, someone like that would move into CEO work and sit back, acting important.
But he doesn’t. It’s like the head of a housebuilder is still on site, up on the roof, building.
He still goes to the site like it’s nothing..

Even during this Olympics he said, “I don’t get 50 days off.”
In this video he says, “When you think ‘this is good enough,’ that’s when you quit,” but he’s probably the type who will never think “good enough” until he dies.
That’s how making things works.

So I don’t call him a photographer or cameraman—I call him a camera shop guy.
He brings his tools, stands on site, and works. That vibe is the ultimate craftsman.
He’s got a good personality too, so even when he’s out on site, he’s got a sharp brain keeping the company running..
Me? I’ve got a bad personality, so when I turn around on site there’s not a single person there lol