Hey Neil,
That’s right you can just dive into any topic and reply to the conversation 
. If you have a topic of interest you’d like to discuss but can’t find an existing one using search, feel free to create it.
The forum does allow direct messages, so if you want to speak to people privately you can also do that. Just click on their name and choose message.
This topic may be a good place to start If you’re off to japan: 🇯🇵 Monzo in Japan [Discussion]
Let us know how the trip goes! 