On my last visit to Japan, I brought home a cheap pair of reusable plastic chopsticks. The hard case they came with lets me toss them into my bag without worrying about them breaking, and usually I wrap a handkerchief or cloth napkin around the case.

I use these chopsticks more often than I would have expected. I used to be a fork person, but I've converted – once I got used to using them, chopsticks turned out to work better for the things I'd otherwise eat with a fork. Today I ate some salad on the plane that I brought with me to the airport, instead of spending $8 on wilted lettuce.

If you need a utensil, here are some options which I don't own but which seem nice (referral links):

• Plastic chopsticks – $8
• Titanium spork – $15 I have something like this for camping, but the Light My Fire-brand spork seems way expensive these days.

This article introduced me to a bunch of wildlife hand signals that I hadn't yet learned.

Have you been to Thailand? Are you looking to visit someday? Share your travel plans, questions, blog posts, and ideas with us in ![email protected] – also because I'll be planning a trip soon and I'd love your insight. 😉

👋🏼 Hello travelers! If you haven't already, please consider subscribing to ![email protected]. It's where I will post server update news. You're also welcome to post in Main with anything that's on-topic for this server.

If you're willing to share, I'd also love to read an intro post from you. I'm interested to hear how you found us and where your past and future travels are taking you. Thanks for being part of this community!

Hi everyone! I'm Matt, the admin of this instance.

I put together Globe.pub after leaving Reddit and wishing that alternatives existed for the communities that I used to frequent there. I'm a software engineer in my work, so starting up a Lemmy server has been a good test of my skills.

Some places I've been:

• France: I visited every few years when I was growing up. My parents wanted me to meet my mom's side of the family, who moved from Manila to a village east of Paris when my grandparents moved there in their old age. I'm still trying to keep my French fresh.
• Japan: I visited for the first time this year and I'm absolutely enthralled. I can't get enough of the modern cities and the proximity to beautiful nature.
• Ireland: I have family in Cork that I love to visit, and Dublin is full of the loveliest people. I had a trip planned to Galway in March 2020 😬 and I'd like to see more of the countryside too.
• Philippines: I visited once in 2010 and finally got back to see the family this year.

These days I'm trying to travel internationally more – as much as my job allows – and I'm getting into scuba as an inexpensive adventure hobby. I'm looking forward to traveling to warm water locations to get those dives under my belt.

I'd love to hear about you too – please post your own intro here in Main!

Hi folks – thanks for creating a new community! Thailand is on my list but I haven't gotten around to planning a trip yet. I'm excited to see what happens here. Say hi at ![email protected] and be sure to reach out if you're looking for help with anything.

Hello travelers!

I'm doing some brief server maintenance to update globe.pub to 0.18.4 and do some other networking housekeeping. Please expect some downtime over the next couple of hours.

I am signed in as an admin user of my instance. A different, non-admin user has created a community on my instance. I can't edit this community's details. If I create a post in this community, I can't use the ... menu to assign myself moderator of this community.

What do I need to do to give myself access to edit this community?

Ine is a scenic fishing village of around 2,000 people which sits on a quiet south-facing bay. Spend some time staying in a boathouse right on the water and take in the tranquil ocean air.

What were your favorite little spots that weren't horribly touristy that you hope other people get to see? A couple of mine are:

• Shimokitazawa - cute shopping district not far from Tokyo
• Miyajima Island - beautiful island with tame deer, easy mountain hikes, and lovely temples, off the coast of Hiroshima via ferry
• Kamakura - former capital of Japan with lots of temples, a historic electric railway that still runs antique passenger cars, and surfing at the beach. 1.5 hours south of Tokyo.

Of course a travel lock won't stand up to much abuse, but this one also doubles as a carabiner when used unlocked. $30 from Matador.

Sleep off your Kabukicho hangover on the Romancecar from Shinjuku to Hakone as you ride toward an onsen you can spend all day relaxing in. Not that I speak from experience.

I’m looking forward to:

• A week-long liveaboard somewhere warm
• Diving the sardine run at Moalboal, Philippines
• Australia’s Gold Coast

• Wear a sling bag for quick access to your stuff without having to go into your big bag on the airplane.
• You probably don't need the fancy laundry soap packets to wash your clothes in the sink. You can use a little bit of laundry soap bar in a plastic bag, or in a pinch, some hand soap.
• Nice sandals (like Bedrock) and zero-drop shoes (like Lems) can pack real flat into your bag and reclaim some space.
• Bring a Heroclip, a carabiner which can double as a hook to keep your nice backpack off the bathroom floor.
• Little A6 notebooks fit almost anywhere and are a great way to jot down notes during your trip.