An annual tradition. Here are my picks for best purchases of the year.
2021 Review
Every year I start by reviewing how last year's picks held up — so let's do that first. The 2021 post is here.
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This year's biggest change: we moved to Osaka (yamotty Moves to Osaka), which completely changed our lifestyle — so Nihonbashi Central Osteopathic Clinic, my 2021 top pick, dropped out entirely since it's no longer accessible.
Results: 4 A ratings, 1 B, 5 E (E = didn't need it in my life). Need to get better at this.
Best Purchases of 2022
Given my self-assessment as a bad shopper, I've been strict with myself this time — only things I genuinely loved. Seven made the cut.
1. Chiropractic Treatment
Most physical problems stem from nerve problems, and nerve problems stem from skeletal misalignment. I started going weekly to get my alignment corrected, and somehow everything got better — I'm in great shape overall. If regular massage is symptomatic treatment, chiropractic is root-cause treatment. Insurance coverage in Japan is limited, so the cost is real, but it was the best investment of the year.
I'm not revealing where I go because it would give away my neighborhood.
2. Honda Freed
After years of Times Car Share, I cancelled and bought a car. I use it almost every day now.
When we lived in Tokyo, I always balked at the cost of daily car use and defaulted to "rent when needed." After moving, I ran an experiment: for one month, I rented a car through car sharing every single day whether I needed it or not, to simulate ownership.
The transformation was dramatic — not just practical, but psychological. The barrier to jumping in and going somewhere dropped to zero. Restaurants, parks, the ocean, the mountains on weekends — our living radius expanded enormously, and I could take the kids places without hesitation.
3. Our Osaka Apartment
We sold our 2-bedroom Tokyo apartment and bought a 4-bedroom in Osaka. Plenty of private rooms, great for remote work. The Osaka purchase price was about 80% of what we got for the Tokyo place.
Every market is different, but I'm a buyer — housing quality has a direct impact on happiness. You use your home every single day, and the structural quality difference between owning and paying the same amount in rent for an equivalent place is enormous. The foundation matters for bodies and homes alike.
Getting a mortgage as a founding CEO was genuinely difficult, but I'm glad we did it. Not revealing the building name.
4. RICOH GR IIIx
(Product links)
I was genuinely surprised how far digital cameras have come. A few sample photos:
(Photos)
I'd owned a DSLR before but eventually stopped using it because it was too cumbersome. This compact camera fits in a pocket and I reach for it naturally. The snapshot quality is remarkable — after getting it, photos taken on my iPhone started feeling like "images" rather than "photographs."
5. Life Net Supermarket
After moving to Osaka, I fell outside the delivery area for Ito Yokado's net supermarket, which I'd been a heavy user of in Tokyo. For a while I was using other services instead — useful for collecting competitive insights, but not the same. Then in mid-November, Life's net supermarket — run on Stailer, 10X's platform — launched in my neighborhood.
From that point I went into dogfooding mode. Over 45 days I ordered 16 times, spending nearly ¥100,000 — essentially our entire food budget for the period.
Life has multiple private-label lines and the product selection is genuinely fun. The app experience was also excellent — I kept thinking, who built this? They did a great job.
6. MOTU M2 + Cloudlifter CL-1 + SHURE SM7B
(Product links)
With online meetings and podcasts filling more and more of my day, I've become increasingly particular about audio quality. This year I made a significant investment in my setup.
Upgraded from a Blue Yeti to a SHURE SM7B (microphone), added a Cloudlifter CL-1 (preamp booster), and a MOTU M2 (audio interface). I noticed a real improvement in quality immediately — and then recently finally learned the "right" way to use it all, and the effect jumped again.
(Audio samples)
I bought all of this myself, only to later remember that our company has a home office equipment subsidy. Whoops.
7. Mitene Calendar (みてね)
Mitene (みてね) is a popular Japanese family photo-sharing app. If you have young children and haven't ordered a Mitene calendar yet, there's still time — order right now. Especially if your kids are old enough to write: the value multiplies by 10. You can use the numbers they wrote by hand to make the calendar.
I started making these last year, and when this year's calendar arrived, my son's handwriting had grown so much since last year. It hit me hard.
The January 2023 calendar has a photo from our first days in Osaka — me walking both boys to school and kindergarten. They had every reason to be anxious, but their smiles were blinding.
That's the list.
On the selling side: I tried selling old clothes and sneakers at Second Street (a Japanese chain that buys secondhand goods on the spot) and it was surprisingly good. Sellable items went for similar prices to Mercari, and even items with no market value came away at 50% of Mercari pricing — all within about an hour of assessment and done. Compared to the time and hassle of individual listings, the value was excellent. Highly recommend it.
Looking forward to a demanding year ahead — but I'll enjoy building up material for next year's list, and the next Mitene calendar.
