If you have an iPhone, add the Suica card to your phone. The Suica card is used for all the transit systems in Japan. You can add value to it in the wallet app. If you use Apple Maps for navigation, it will tell you how much the trip will cost and if you don’t have enough value, it will prompt you to add more. Make sure you enable Express Transit Mode with your Suica card
If you have an Android, you’re stuck with the physical card.
To book Shinkansen tickets, use SmartEx. They also have an app. You can bind your Shinkansen tickets to your Suica card so you just need to tap your Suica card to get into the Shinkansen. To get your Suica card’s ID number, download the Suica App and press the (i) button to view it.
For eSIM I used Mobal.jp’s eSIMs. They’re pretty cheap. I personally used ~ 1 GB per day but I’m a power user. One caveat is that your phone MUST BE UNLOCKED for this to work. If it’s not unlocked…. pick up a hotspot at the airport?
Download offline maps for your map app of choice Apple Maps and Google Maps.
Download offline translations for Apple Translator or Google Translate.
If you have T-Mobile, make sure you enable data roaming as data is free.
A couple of friends persuaded me to attend EDC. Before then, I’d always associated ravers with a negative stereotype–I’d seen people make raving their identity and it put me off.
I’d enjoyed some EDM before, but most of my music tastes leaned toward rock and pop. In fact, I seldom listened to music; I preferred spoken content like YouTube videos, shows, or podcasts.
Every Tuesday, a group of friends and I would play Factorio1 and as it got closer to EDC, we switched from trying to finish Aquilo to designing our totems2. I joined late in the design phase, but I enjoyed every moment—equal parts nerdy experimentation and creative iteration. I hadn’t touched microcontrollers in seven years, so diving back in was especially fun.
It had occurred to me after I arrived in Vegas that I had no idea who most of the artists were at EDC and I have no idea what genres I would enjoy. I sat down with Brian and he picked out a couple of sets based on my taste and I also shoved all of my past “liked” songs on YouTube Music into Chatgpt/Gemini and asked them to make a schedule for me based on what I’ve liked in the past.
None of that mattered. I definitely found genres and artists that I liked. But none of that mattered. What really stayed with me was the connections I made. The people I was surrounded with. This feels very cliché to say, but being surrounded by friends, friends I see often, friends I barely see, new friends, old friends, was the best part. Everyone was wholesome (for the most part) and invited me in with open arms3. For the most part, I just followed different friend groups around, catching up, making memories. I made connections with friends in ways that I do not think would be possible elsewhere.
By sunrise on day one, I felt exhilarated and exhausted–and then it hit me: two more days of this. Somehow I mustered the energy for the rest of the festival and each sunrise left me even more awe-struck.
One of my friends put it best:
I know it appears like a debauchery gateway from a distance but it’s truly something beautiful
The days after EDC, but before I left, I was internally deciding whether or not I should come back. Am I a raver? Am I going to be one of those? I didn’t know it at the time, but I had already made my decision. While I was on the plane heading back home I received a text from Insomniac, the producers of EDC:
EDC: … Presale for EDC Las Vegas 2026 starts THIS Friday @ 10am PT
I knew what I had to do. I’m going next year. I am a raver.
Thank you to everyone who helped make this experience possible.
If you’re curious what my (rapidly growing) EDM playlist looks like now, you can see it here
Tips for friends who are coming to EDC:
As Wes describes it, Factorio is an Amazon Fulfillment Center simulator. ↩
Because cellular signal is not a guarantee, and even then, you are in a sea of people. You could be 10 ft away and still not find your friends. A Totem is used for visual precision finding, is usually something high up in the air that is distinct. ↩
Special shout out to Viet and Pauls group. I didn’t really know you guys too well getting into this, and I didn’t know a lot of the other people in your group. Thank you for welcoming me in like one of yours. ↩
⚠️ While this guide references a specific HSA provider (Optum), the general principles apply to other providers as well.
Optum only lets you invest funds once you have (and maintain) $1,0001 in cash.
Optum charges an $18 annual fee1 to use their investment service.
Investment options are limited to a small set of mutual funds.
Fidelity offers an HSA with no account minimums or recurring fees. Other HSA providers include BofA, HSA Bank and lively.
A HSA account is triple tax advantaged. No taxes on contribution, no taxes on growth and no taxes on withdrawal.
You can file claims for qualified medical expenses at any point in the future. This means you can let your HSA funds grow tax-free for decades while holding onto your receipts. When you need funds, you can redeem these receipts for a tax-free withdrawal, even years later.
Read more here
Optum Financial - Hsa (Or whatever your HSA provider is) as the institution name.HSA An Existing Account if you already have an account.All of my account⚠️. Leave some in so you don’t get charged a fee.You can track the transfer here and you can call Fidelity if you have any questions or they will call you if there are delays.
Some HSAs will charge you per transfer. This depends on your the agreement your employer has with your HSA provider.
At a $25 fee per transfer and assuming a 7% annual return in stocks, moving funds every 4–6 months typically minimizes both the total fees and the opportunity cost of not being fully invested.
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