Yes, do that! And note that on a number of email service providers you can add both domains to the same mailbox.

Just don’t use a domain name containing your surname - register a different one.

how to deal with whois lookup privacy?

Any decent domain registrar provides WHOIS privacy for free (just note that that might not be available for .eu domain names). Additionally you can always use fake data on your account, but in this case you might lose your domain if they decide to check it.

other issues I may run into if I chose my own domain

When registering a domain, always look at the renewal price: often the first year costs relatively low, but after that there’s a steep price increase.

As for an email hosting service, in addition to the ones you specified in your post, I suggest you to look at migadu.com.

Yes! Another big deal in Japan is (yes, still is) translation devices. While some people there move over to Google Translate, many old-fashioned ones still rock those gadgets that look like voice recorders but with a screen, and translate your dialogue. Japan, as a country in general, is known for not so good English skills among the population: as I understand many people don’t really see a need to learn that language. Especially given that those devices to deal with foreigners are available.

There are many gadgets (including specialized ones) in Japan that have been produced for the domestic market only.

That’s literally my experience every time I drive in the Netherlands: so many lanes!

Fight Club, The Matrix, The Terminator and Star Wars

Yes, and you can find perfect exact copies of all versions of these movies if you look in the right places

They do give you an option to customize OS components. But this feature isn’t targeted to home users but to enterprises and OEM manufacturera

This isn’t a Windows issue - this is an Office issue