A day in the life of a dad working abroad (Vietnam) | Behind the scenes of digital nomad work

シンチャオ！ベトナムホーチミン在住の日本人夫ユキと、ベトナム人妻ゴックです。 このブログでは、ベトナム移住＆生活情報と全国旅行情報をお届けしています。気になった記事を見つけたら、まずはフォローしてみてください♪   今回は日本人夫ユキの1日に密着。パパは元々フリーの記者をやっていて、現在では所謂デジタルノマドと言われている、場所問わずパソコン一台で仕事をこなすお人です(^^ そんなパパの1日に密着します♪    ベトナム在住のパパの1日。ホーチミンのルーティン

Papa is a night owl, so his day starts a bit late. He usually wakes up around 9 to 10 a.m. and starts work. He finishes work around 2 to 3 a.m., working 6 to 7 days a week. Including the small chores like handling customer inquiries, he lamented that in 2025 he didn't have a single day off (-_-;) When I said, "Why don't you rest a little, then?" he replied, "Because I still have the fear of losing all my work during COVID.I'm grateful to be busy," says Dad, sniffling (｡ﾉД`｡)ｼｸｼｸ… 9:00–10:00: Wake up. Breakfast is a health drink. When I wake up in the morning, the first thing I do is drink my homemade health drink. Recipe: Every morning I drink a mix of 250ml oat milk, 10g gelatin, 1 tablespoon roasted soybean flour (kinako), 1 tablespoon okara flour, and 1 tablespoon ground black sesame, heated in the microwave. They say "a healthy stomach and intestines lead to a longer life"!   10:00–12:00: Writing one article My dad barely works as a journalist these days, but it seems he still gets requests from a company he's had a long-standing relationship with, so he writes articles for them. In the morning, he spends about two hours writing. 12:00–12:30: A swim in the pool

For lunch, I took a swim in the pool inside the condo where we live. You might think, "Wow, having a pool in your condo is amazing!" but in Vietnam, it's actually quite normal for mid-range and above condos to have a pool ♪ 13:00–16:00: Work at a cafe

I was surprised to see a news article recently — I think it was on Yahoo! News Japan — about a dispute over the manners of staying at a cafe for a long time with just one cup of coffee. When you come to Vietnam, you'll notice that there are even more cafes here than there are convenience stores in Japan, and everywhere you go, you can sit with just one cup of coffee from morning until closing time.It's not just people studying or working — lately I often see people filming videos to post on TikTok or Instagram too. In Vietnam, that kind of mindset has long been rooted in the culture, and honestly, isn't that what cafes are for in the first place? (Which is probably why a single cup of coffee costs so much.) 16:00–16:30: Picking up the kids In the morning I (mom) take the kids to school, but picking them up in the afternoon is dad's job.Papa has been living in Vietnam for a long time now, so riding a motorbike is second nature to him. By the way, since I work outside the home for most of the week, papa takes on a bigger share of the childcare and housework. Also, this might be something common among international couples, but basically when we eat at home, we eat separately, each of us eating on our own timing whenever we feel like it. The times we all sit around the table and eat together are pretty much limited to anniversaries or when we go out to a restaurant.     16:30 to 2:00 the next day: Work & Childcare & Housework & Games After picking up the kids and coming home, Dad's activities include: ① making a meal for the kids, ② continuing his work, ③ driving the kids to and from English cram school twice a week, and more. Since I don't get home until 9-10 PM, he takes care of the kids until then.After that, my child and I go to bed around 22:00–23:00, but it seems my husband works until about 2 a.m. On some days of the week his work finishes around midnight, and when that happens, he apparently spends 1–2 hours playing his favorite games as a hobby. My husband can go anywhere in the country or even abroad with just a single laptop.

I guess Dad's real strength is being a digital nomad. He normally works from home or at cafes, and even while traveling, he always brings his laptop and stays up late clicking away on it at the hotel. But from what he says, it really does seem tough to make a living writing articles and doing IT-related work with just a single laptop. He sometimes checks job listings too. When I mentioned this, he said, "Then why don't I just work as a regular employee?I think most people would think that way, but even for Japanese people, working in Vietnam as a locally-hired employee tends to mean a lower salary, so income ends up dropping. Digital nomad life isn't a lie. But is the reality tough? You often see catchphrases online like "living abroad as a digital nomad," don't you?Certainly, it seems that recently there are jobs not only in long-established fields like writing and engineering, but also in video editing and AI-related work. However, if you're living in Southeast Asia, like Vietnam, you'd need around 150,000 to 200,000 yen a month. It seems pretty tough to make a living as a freelancer with just a single laptop.