Last Updated: Jan 18, 2024

Spending on Japan

A Rant on My Insane Investing Strategy

This story was originally published on donnykimball.com and has been syndicated here on Medium

Disclaimer: This is not financial advice…

— Donny Kimball

It was the summer of 2021 and somehow Cheesie and I found ourselves down in Kamakura for the hydrangeas. At the time, I was just transitioning out of my role as Head of Digital Marketing at AdVertize, the agency startup I had been helping to build. As would almost certainly be the case for anyone in my position, I was feeling pretty nervous. After all, I had been keeping a full time gig as a financial safety blanket that, at the time, allowed me to recklessly drop money on traveling across Japan.

Somewhere along the way, we found ourselves at Kamakura’s Zeniarai Benten. Half shrine, half temple, this ancient amalgam is a prime example of the former syncretic union between Shinto and Buddhism (known as Shinbutsu Shugo in Japanese). While these days it’s technically classified as a shrine, you’d be hard pressed to tell otherwise if you’re used to temple architecture. Anyway, Zeniarai Benten is best known for its practice of washing money. Allegedly, if you cleanse your cash here, the deity will do you the kind favor of doubling it for you.