Japan Life

Many people in Japan depend on the NERV service for earthquake alerts. Unfortunately, they'll no longer be able to receive them on X.

Amazon announced monthly prices will increase by ¥100, and yearly prices by ¥1,000.

What do you think? Personally, if it helps drivers get a better wage I am all for it.

I’m used to using conbini-pay with Amazon. You buy the item off the site, it emails you a barcode you take to 7-11 and they scan it and you pay.

I just tried the same with rakuten, except… for the life of me I can’t figure out where to find the stupid barcode! I got an email… but it just shows the item I want and how much it is, no barcode, no other instructions. I’ve logged into rakuten, checked the order, it says to wait for “payment confirmed” but that seems backwards, since I can’t pay until I get the barcode!

Any ideas?

I ran a rather terrifying experiment this month. I, along with my wife, live in a fairly new (~eight-year-old) building. My LDK and office are on my second floor (first is ground floor to me) with some sliding doors to separate them (which are open unless I'm in a meeting). My LDK and office both have an aircon unit. I rarely use the one in my office. My LDK aircon has been on "dry" with the occasional stint on ~22 degrees when it's really hot for a bit. I use the one in my office only when I'm super hot and only for as little as possible.

We also have an aircon on our first (ground) floor in the bedroom. I start it at ~21 most nights and switch to "dry" after an hour. I was dreading our electric bill, but it just came today. From 6/18 to 7/17, we (2 people in 40-amp type A service) used 504 kWh and had a bill of just over 1万4千円.

I was honestly dreading the bill because some aircon units are really bad on a dry setting, but ours were good. I hope you all are staying cool enough in this weather. I thought I'd share in case the data point helps people.

EDIT: 2LDK + Loft, ~54m^2 plus whatever the loft is

It’s summer festival time. Just ate yakisoba at my local festival. It’s ¥400 but the noodles always seems thicker than what the supermarket sells. What gives?

Anyway, what are your go to festival foods?

I was thinking about going for the trail or at least a part of it by bike at some point, but I wondered if anyone here has done something similar before? I'm not religious and would rather do it for the experience and to get to know Shikoku better. I'm not sure whether this would be considered offensive to practicing buddhists in any way and I don't want to disturb people in their religious activities. But it seems like some people have done this by bike before, so maybe it's ok (looking at the paywall of a Japan Times article)?

I'm a moderately fit cyclist, I've done multi-day tours before years ago but not in Japan. So I'm also a bit unsure about steepness and weather conditions. Roads are probably in a decent condition (?) My options are an urban foldable bike (I kind of like that idea) or renting a decent one (probably better in reality).

This was one of the most fun threads in the old place. Any grievances you'd like to air?

Inflation sucks!

In the last year, shredded “natural cheese” had almost doubled in price. The cheap alternatives branded as “97% cholesterol cut shred” are complete ass, and cannot even be legally called cheese.

I was used to paying ¥1,000/kg then ¥1,000/700g for shredded gouda (max value store brand), but now it is ¥1,000/600g cheddar/mozzarella mix.

I have a variety of supermarkets nearby. Also kaldi, Gyomu super, a-price etc. I just don’t want to have to keep buying 1kg bags when it is hit or miss. If you have any solid recommendations please post them here.

Im in Kyushu, but location isn’t important. Any leads are appreciated.

Let’s kick up the participation in this community with some general discussion.

So, what interesting tidbit did you come across this week?

Kind of random, but I learned that bull bars on vehicles we banned in the late 90’s for safety reasons.

Before coming to Japan I heard from other foreigners that it's best to choose one spelling for your name in Katakana and stick to it. I made sure to follow this advice.

But I just noticed that my name is spelled differently in an official document (年金手帳). I guess someone in some public office just had to come up with their own spelling. It also looks like a reasonable transcription, but it's different.

Do you think this causes problems down the road? If so, how could I change this? Any experiences also with other official documents welcome.

Normally at this time of the year, the convenience stores are overflowing with mint chocolate flavored products, for better or worse (looking at you, FamilyMart mint chocolate pancakes).

However, this year, I’m yet to find anything except for some scant chocolate offerings.

What’s up in your neck of the woods?

TL;DR: Just want to hear your mundane life so I can justify my mundane life.

Since there aren't many casual topics so I guess I'll start one.

This is the second time I come to Japan for work and living is kinda stale now, for lack of a better word. Last time I stayed for about a year, and this time also.

There are not many people in my country have a chance to get here (weak passport as an example), so I tried a lot to get chances to come here. To make it clear that I don't fantasize about my life will change that much when I come here, but still I wanted to make It count.

Try to go out of my comfort zone meet people, join meetup group (which I never do in my country), but I still don't experience many meaningful things, and don't have much connections either. When I travel somewhere, I often find myself going alone, and It really make me lose motivation so fast. (I wish I can talk to local people, but It's not helpful that I'm socially awkward so my only interaction in those trips mostly come from the restaurants).

So this time I want to travel again but only thinking about my past experiences make me hesitate. Maybe It's just that I'm not suitable to live abroad and travelling stuffs or maybe It's just better to chill around in my apartment and jogging around when I'm off from work like I'm currently do.

So just curious what does your daily life look like? What do you do to make It less mundane?

So I'm trying to find time to meet up with a friend of mine, and the only mutually workable time seems to be during the Obon holiday, which they described as "a nightmare" for travel.

I've been to Japan a number of times and speak relatively well, however I've never happened to be there during Obon before.

Is travel a total non-starter, or does it just require extra planning and booking everything well in advance? My route would be from Tokyo to Niigata, then back again on the Shinkansen.

Anyone know of any really shallow pool areas with slides in Eastern side of Tokyo that I can take my toddler?

Been thinking about Arakawa Amusement Park, but haven't really found much else.

For the past two years I have been actively avoiding places which refuse to accept electronic pavement methods. It is just so much easier to manage finances (for me at least).

I’ve even been in the situation where the only cashless payment which was accepted was SUICA, so I charged my SUICA at the register on my iPhone via credit card!

Unfortunately, there are a few holdouts (looking at you local clinics etc).

What do you do when you encounter an establishment which only accepts cash?

Hiho,

I'm looking for recommendations for custom mugs and t-shirts. I know I can have them made online, but I'd love to find a shop where I can actually see and touch the mug/shirt in person before buying.

I'm in the Tokyo region (Chiba). Any idea?

I just realised I didn’t restock my emergency bag with food so was wondering what you guys would put in?

Previously, I put soy joy (wouldn’t recommend, as they were awful), granola bars, a jar of peanut butter (easy to eat, high in calories), and a bag of Kit Kats (gotta have something nice).

Even if you don’t have an emergency bag, I would love to hear what ideas you have.

Well the rainy season is here, so what tips or tricks do you have to endure it?

Workman sells rubber “hiking” boots which are great as rain boots, but not so comfortable for those with big feet.

Let’s try to be active and build this community, too!

This may be of interest to some in this community. I’m not a member nor an ALT but if you are you should check it out!

I recently tried this deodorant and was very happy with the results. Unfortunately, with daily use, one stick only lasted a month.

I’ve searched my local drug stores and haven’t been able to find the same brand. Has anyone seen this at a better price?

Do you have a deodorant which you would recommend that can be easily bought here? (I know iHerb exists but I don’t want to order ¥6,000 just to get free shipping lol).

I wanted to mention some good Japanese banks for those looking:

SBI Net Bank: If you can read Japanese, this is one of the best UIs and mobile apps around. You also get a ton of free furikomi transfers per month (I think I have about 10)

Shinsei Bank: A physical bank but also offers online options with an English UI for those that need it. This seems to be the go-to recommended bank for expats.

Sony Bank: I have this bank specifically because all incoming international money transfers are free, meaning they don't charge you any fees to receive it. SBI used to charge be about 2500 yen every time I received international payments, even in yen. Shinsei has a system where they reimburse you each month if you have a certain amount in your account, so international money transfers will eventually be almost free.

How about you? What banks have you been happy with?