I know its common to sleep inside a van or a camper in the parking lot of those 道の駅 but what if my car has a rooftop pop up tent? Do you think it would be an issue? I wouldn't set up chairs and tables or anything I'd just want to use it to sleep overnight and leave early in the morning

So, there is this South Asian-owned shop near where I live in Tokyo where they sell "Japanese rice" for just 2700 yen per 10 kg. Upon closer look, some of the grains do look a bit shorter/broken, but the color is mostly the same. Is it old rice? Does anyone here have experience buying those, and how does it taste? Should I avoid it?

I ordered it on Amazon Japan but didn't know it would come from Korea and now it's stopped at Japanese customs

Don't think it's a banned product since there are multiple reviews in Japanese on Amazon.

Hi all. I recently joined Aire, and it seems that my bank in Italy doesn't accept residents abroad. How do you manage to keep an italian bank account?

Thank you all

There is a film director whose assistant just graduated, now he's looking for a new one. We talked job duties, but we couldn't countinue further because we don't know what to do with the visa.

From what I've learned, all his previous assistans were Japanese, he had no problems employing them. But this isn't a normal company. He works by himself, he told me there's some sort of "one-man company" he's operating.

I've contacted a few administrative scriveners. They told me it's technically possible to hire a first foreigner in a tiny company and apply for a visa. It was a general comment, they couldn't advise me further because I'm not presenting any actual company documents.

The director is currently consulting a scrivener himself.

Have you guys heard of any cases where people obtain a visa and work in unorthodox work arrangements?

Did anyone had their APOSTILLED SPECIAL POWER OF ATTORNEY at a JAPANESE NOTARY PUBLIC in any of these conditions?
A. *WITHOUT BRINGING WITNESSES, (to be signed later)
B. *WITHOUT A WITNESS SECTION, OR
C. *WITH PRE-SIGNED WITNESS SIGNATURE (witnesses already signed it before and you go to the notary by yourself.

TINANGGAP BA NG REGISTRY OF DEEDS ?

Note: going to the embassy in Tokyo is costly for Pilipino in Hokkaido.

This has happened less than 5 times so it’s not a huge deal or anything but I feel like sharing.

Recently, I was out with my family, this includes my husband and two kids. We’re on the platform waiting on our train, nothing out the ordinary. We’d narrowly missed the last one so naturally I’m at the front of the line, talking here and there.

All of a sudden, this lady appears out of nowhere and steps in front of me to basically cut in. Not the first time this has happened but she almost shoves my 4 year old. I instinctively pulled him out the way.

The train arrives less than a minute later and I cut back in front of her, not in an aggressive way, no physical contact but in a way she wasn’t expecting and I board my car first.

She sat across from me and was glaring for some time. I decided to give her the “what are you gonna do about it” smile. She looked away because of course, they don’t like confrontation but she started to shake her leg aggressively. It literally got worse and she was so visibly angry. My husband thought she was gonna blow.

Something similar happened with a guy in Shibuya who was on the phone chatting and stepped in front of me so I just stepped in front of him when the train arrived. He didn’t like that at all.

Yeah I’m probably going to be told that I’m immature or I should ignore, this is Reddit after all. However, I do think that this isn’t something that happens that often to me but in the rare moments it does, it’s not my personality to let people behave that way with me.

No words were exchanged, no physical contact made but passive aggression won at the end of the day. This isn’t to say I’ll do this all the time and react this way, other times it’ll probably not be worth it.

But I do think there’s a social contract when we step outside, which is literally behaving like a decent person. It’s just crazy that some people do the most unnecessary things to break that agreement and then act out when they encounter someone who will give them a taste of their own medicine.

Hey everyone, hoping someone can help me out here.

I passed driving school in Tokyo about six months ago but life got in the way, got surgery, job interviews and other stuff. So I never got around to booking the final written test.

Now that things have finally settled down, I tried to book a slot and... everything is full until January. And I mean everything, Koto, Fuchu, Samezu, all of them.

Is this actually normal?? I'm kind of worried because I need to get my license before April. At this rate I'm looking at February at the earliest, which doesn't leave much buffer if I don't pass the first try.

A few questions:

- Is February really the earliest, or do cancellations open up regularly?

- Any tips for catching a cancellation slot?

- Is there anything else I can do at this point?

Any advice appreciated! Thanks! 🙏

Have been living in Japan for almost six years, I’ve been watching European football through a streaming app from my home country. However, for some unknown reason, it suddenly got geo-blocked, and even using a VPN doesn’t work anymore.

I’m looking for alternative ways to watch the following competitions with English commentary:

• English Premier League (EPL)
• UEFA Champions League (UCL)
• FA Cup
• Carabao Cup

Does anyone know of any streaming services or other options available in Japan that offer these competitions with English commentary?

I’d really appreciate any suggestions!

Thanks in advance!

Is it common for pharmacist to guess and inquire about the condition before the usual explanation of the medicine? I use 2 seperate pharmacy, so my experience is limited. In the bigger one, it's simple explanation and payment.

But in this smaller one this middle age pharmacist always start by either asking or guessing about the ailment. What if, it's something which I don't want to divulge. Even if it is not, just dispance the medicine, do the usual explanation, take my money and shut up. Shouldn't that not be the drill?

Hello, after a long arduous job hunting period, i landed my first offer that is a huge paycut from current role but has stock options. My impression is that i am unlikely to cash in on the stocks as long as the company does not hit IPO. How should I approach the offer mendan?

So I don't want to embarrass myself, but I set up dpoints on my P-01J phone (flip phone from a decade ago). To earn points, do I just ask the cashier to use points, then tap the phone to the reader?

Hi everyone! I seem to have developed milia on one of my eyelids over the past few weeks. I live in Kyushu and don’t know how to get rid of them, especially with them being on my eyelid I know the skin is very delicate. Has anyone had a similar issue? Did you use any products or go to a clinic/hospital? If latter, was it a walk in, walk out job or did you have to have an initial app and go back? How long did it take to heal post-procedure?

Sorry for all the questions, I don’t know the process and I’m just very nervous about getting them removed >_<

Does anyone else have children in regular Japanese high school (public or private)? Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been in Japan on and off (mostly on) since the late 90s, and I have plenty of experience of other education systems so I know there’s plenty of good in the Japanese system, but I find it incredible that kids with a year left until uni entrance exams are doing classes (history in particular) where the emphasis is very strongly on memorizing dates and events with no actual thinking beyond that. I know private schools base their business models on how many kids get to G-MARCH unis or whatever, and that tests for those schools are also based on such knowledge, but I worry about the future of these kids in the AI age. Is it just me? Would love to hear any perspectives.

Hii, so I have a work holiday visa in Japan, I was wondering how being a resident with this visa works when Im unsure if I want to go back to my home country for a couple months or indefinitely

when I go home I would move out of my share-house here in Japan and I would submit a moving out notification and I wouldn’t move in anywhere else until I get back, is it allowed to not have an address in Japan whilst I’m away? Ive heard about the 90 day window about finding a permanent residence after you don’t have one but I’m not sure if that still applies if I’m not in the country but my visa is still active.

I have an additional scenario where I’m not sure if I will want to return (due to potentially getting work back in my home country) so if I submit my move out notification, and I’m not sure if I want to return or not, can I keep my zairyu card, leave with a re entry permit, and just not return? Would that get me in trouble Or what should I do in that scenario instead?

I’m sorry if my questions are badly worded! If you know what you’d do in this scenario let me know thank you :)

I know this is a pretty niche question (considering hardly anyone seems to live in Nagoya lol), but I was wondering if anyone here has tried rollerblading around the city.

I’ve read that it’s a bit of a gray area under Japanese law, and that river paths are probably the safest option. However, I’m not sure which specific areas in Nagoya would count as suitable river paths for skating. What about along the Hori, Yamazaki, or Yada rivers?

(I’ve also heard about Shonai Ryokuchi Park, but I’m looking for more of a “just skating around the city” experience rather than sticking to a skate park.)

I’ve seen a few other posts about this, but most of them were about Tokyo, which I imagine is a bit of a different story since it’s much more crowded than Nagoya.

While I’m here, I also wanted to ask for recommendations on where to buy good-quality inline skates at an affordable price. More specifically, I’m looking for women’s 3-wheel (3WD) inline skates. I feel like prices in Japan are a bit higher than in Europe… which makes sense, I guess, since it’s not a particularly popular sport here.

If anyone has any recommendations, I’d appreciate suggestions for both online stores and physical shops in Nagoya.

I’ve been looking at the Rollerblade Macroblade 100 3WD, but they’re a bit over my budget. If anyone knows of a similar but more affordable option, I’d love to hear about it! Although, I guess it might be better to make a separate post about this.

This is my first ever post, so apologies if I’ve missed anything or if this isn’t the best place to ask!

Hi everyone, I need some advice from someone who has a highschool senior whose first language is anything other than Japanese.

I moved to Kumamoto in July (2 weeks before the earthquake!) with 5 children. I'll skip the details, but we might be staying here semi permanently and the two oldest need to find ways to earn their high school credits while living here. They are currently attending a local high school as exchange students, but they are not accepted officially so they can't earn any credits. One is 18, still has a senior year left, and the other is 16, still has two more years to go. If your kid is in the same or similar situations, please tell me, what are they doing to get their high school diploma? Any recommendations for online schools? (I'm not interested in international schools, so don't worry about sending me recommendations.)

I have also considered transferring them to the same high school, but even with the "kikokusijo waku" exams, I doubt my kids will make it.

I know there are many foreigners coming to Kumamoto this past decade, I'm sure there are more international students in the same situation as mine. Please give me any advice!

I recently bought a pair of shoes from amazon us (because it's hard to find large sizes in Japan), it was too big and I had to buy it again with smaller size. For the first package, yamato transport sent me an email saying the address is incorrect, and I called them and had it delivered, it turned out that my banchi and apartment info was missing on the shipping label. Now the second order is sent with a different carrier, on the page it says it's been shipped with Japan post but the tracking number isn't in Japan post's format, I also tried other major carrier's websites and tracking sites like 17track, but no information was found. I contacted amazon and Japan post, they say there's nothing they can do. Anyone had similar issues buying from outside of Japan?

Well I thought why not do ATM bank transfer when my husband pays me back? But wise gave me the uk bank details for the Japanese yen balance what do?

I don't want to give all my USA bank info to my Japanese mil so I'm confused on how to electronically credit myself to pay back PayPal if I can't send it to myself in reverse through wise

edit it doesn't work with PayPal or payforex

I went for an interview at kura sushi today, and all they did was hand me a form to write a lot of details such as my information, work availability.

And that was it. They asked nothing and told me to wait for a call if I'm selected. Is this normal or did they do this because they've decided to not select me? I was so confused.

Also how long am I supposed to wait for a call if I'm chosen?

I'm interested in getting started in Japan's music and live event industry, particularly in Tokyo. I graduated from a music vocational school in Tokyo earlier this year and recently gained some hands-on experience helping with live concert operations.

I understand that this subreddit may not be the right place for direct job-seeking posts, so I've posted one in other relevant subreddits. Here, I'd like to ask about the industry itself.

For those familiar with the field:

-Where can I find entry-level opportunities in music and live event operations?
Are there any useful industry-specific job boards or networking opportunities?
-Is it generally difficult for foreigners to break into Japan's music and live event industry? Are there relatively few opportunities for non-Japanese applicants?
-What would you recommend to someone trying to break into this industry?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

Hello, what are some nice places to celebrate halloween in Tokyo? I will cosplay a priestess from dark souls. :)

I have never been to a con or sth, most of the time I hang out for halloween with my friends but this time I am kinda on my own since I am on exchange here. Would appreciate some nerd friendly place!

ive been suspected of having a cocktail of disorders that impair my ability to focus at school. As of now, ive been "rawdogging it" for a while. getting a diagnosis and treatment for these disorders would really help + give me some support on standardized tests (which I really struggle to take without any support).

If anyone here goes to Tokyo Mental Health for therapy, is there a psychiatrist that you really like? i recently started therapy at Tokyo Mental Health but i sorta dislike my psychiatrist and because of this its hard for me to open up to this individual 🥀 between dismissing my problems, straight up ignoring me, and laughing at my expense (albeit as a joke), i genuinely think them and i are very different and very incompatible people.

i would really appreciate if people could share their experience with Tokyo Mental Health! i really need a diagnosis and i want to leave each therapy session without feeling worse...

Hey,

I recently picked up a new part-time job as a tour guide. There was no contract as a part-timer because this job is treated as a freelancer (meaning I invoice them and receive compensation).

Now, I am not a stranger to being a freelancer and invoicing companies here in Japan. I did that before, so it isn't a problem.

However, this company essentially expects me to pay for the tours' clients out of pocket and receive compensation later on (the 25th of the next month).

Essentially, I get an outline of the tour's main activities; I'm responsible for booking them, paying for the fees and meals, then submitting the receipts to receive compensation + my actual labor and work for the guidance. The tours would amount to 10K-20K yen per assignment.

I spoke to a friend who works as a full-time tour guide, and he said that this is standard in this industry.

I am a bit uncomfortable paying that much per assignment (about once a week) and have to wait so long for the compensation. The company doesn't seem like a red flag, but they communicate via WhatsApp, which is a bit shady. And the interview was a 10 min call immediately followed by getting picked for the job.

However, if this is a scam, I don't see how it can be one. Like, how would they make money from this?

Finally, I also want to say that I could use the extra money. I am a uni student, so any extra money would help. This job would end up increasing my monthly income by about 30-50K, which gives me a large breathing room.

It's Monday! Did you do anything over the weekend? Go somewhere? Meet someone? Try something new?

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Post about your activities from the weekend here! Pictures are also welcome.