r/japanlife

I walked into FamilyMart at 11pm during a typhoon warning and there it was - a perfectly stocked row of warm canned coffee, disposable umbrellas by the register, and those little towel packets. Everything placed exactly where a cold wet person would want it. My husband says its just logistics but idk, it feels different than back home where youd find empty shelves and maybe a sad energy bar. Its like the whole system is built on anticipating strangers. Every time I grab an onigiri that's wrapped so the nori stays crispy until the exact moment I eat it, I think about whoever designed that and how theyll never know how much their thoughtfulness matters to some random latina struggling through her japanese study session on a tuesday night.

Hi all, I would like to know your opinion about cars. I was just browsing the Toyota website the other day, and I am aware that the new Prius design is awesome. If I wasn't mistaken, it cost around 3.5 million JPY. On the other hand, I am also aware that the Tesla Model 3 also has a somewhat sleek design. The Tesla costs around 5-7 million JPY, depending on the features. Now, I am wondering if the difference in prices between Tesla and Prius is worth the money that one could save on gas if one buys a Tesla. Also, is a Tesla supercharger expensive in Japan? Would it be more expensive than gas? Would it be worth it to buy a Tesla over a Prius if you don't have home charging? That would be all from me. Thanks, all. Have a nice day!

Hey everyone,

With Golden Week coming up, I’m finally hoping to explore a bit more.

I moved to Tokyo about 3 months ago for work, and most of my time so far has gone into settling in (job + house setup). I did the main touristy things a couple of years ago, so now I’m looking for something a bit more local or offbeat.

I’m mainly looking for:

• Things to do within Tokyo itself (neighbourhoods to explore, hidden spots, etc.)
• Day trips from Tokyo
• Shrines, parks, nature, and quieter areas
• Unique or slightly offbeat experiences

Also specifically looking for:

• Amazing cafés (not just aesthetic, but actually good coffee/food)
• Great local food spots worth going out of the way for
• Cat cafés or places with resident cats (dogs are welcomed too ) (not the typical commercial ones—more like places where the cats just belong there and hang around freely)

One challenge I keep facing is that when I visit a new place, I never really know where to eat—so if you have go-to food recommendations for specific areas, that would be super helpful.

Also… I love good pizza 😄 so if there are any must-try pizza spots (Tokyo or day trips), I’m all ears.

A couple of places already on my list:

• Gotokuji Temple
• Starbucks Reserve Roastery Tokyo

Would love any recommendations—especially spots that feel a bit less crowded or more “everyday Japan.”

Thanks!

For context, me along with 6 other guys from my country came to work for this company last year on a Gijinkoku visa. I passed N5 back home and completed studying N4 before coming here.

So, after arriving, they used mostly English with us for our convenience, so me along with others took Japanese for granted. I can make short conversations somehow but still it's difficult for me to understand completely when said everything in Japanese and situation for other guys is worse.

Also, our job often requires long business trips abroad (around 2 months at once), so when we started being paired with Japanese colleagues for these trips, since it's new kind of work, misunderstanding and lack of communication plummeted the productivity and work flow.

Because of this reason, our company gave us the deadline to pass JLPT N3 by December, and most of our abroad trips are suspended and will be based in Japan itself

I think it's really hard to do this while working full time physically taxing job with voluntarily overtime cause the pay is just ridiculous (¥1400 yen per hour for an engineering job, the additional allowances for abroad business trips are better than the salary itself around $80 per day which makes it bearable, but it's not regular). In Japan, I am always tired by the end of the day, even though I have no commute and given the fact that I live 5 mins away from the company on foot.

I know I come out really stupid for ditching Japanese in Japan, but if you could share how you guys studied Japanese after coming here and working fulltime, about the resources and text books, I would be really grateful.

Thank you

I will try to keep this brief.

I’ve bought several used cars in Japan (currently residing in Okinawa), and have never had any complaints or problems.

Last July, I dropped ¥920k on a 2015 Mazda CX5 diesel. I bought it from a small used car place in southern Okinawa, and the guy seemed very honest and passionate about cars. Told me I would love it so much, that my next car would be a diesel, too. Even let me test drive, which is rare here. It drove great, and when I asked about the price (most CX5’s that are a couple years younger are usually much more expensive) and if something was wrong with it, he said it had just been on the lot for a while and was great.

Obviously, I lacked some of the research skills on this particular model, which is on me, but this guy said his last car was a CX5, and the current manager’s car is also a CX5. Got the standard cautions that go with a diesel car and followed them to the T. Car comes with a 1-year warranty where parts are free, just paying for labor.

The day after I brought it home, the starter died. Apparently, it was the “only thing they didn’t check.” Replaced it for free, but when I called, they told me it was my fault “for buying a used car.” Instant WTF.

One month later, oil problems start. I am gaslit by this guy every time I call, telling me 「中古車なんで壊れてもしょうがない」and changing the oil.

Every month, sometimes two months, there’s another catastrophic oil problem. Oil pump got replaced for ¥42,000 two months ago, finally everything seemed great.

Yesterday, the oil lamp is back on. I’m honestly done. This guy never has a 代車 available, never apologizes, and somehow the fault is always with me for being stupid enough to purchase a used car, apparently.

I just finished shaken and contacted my friend who handled the car first, and he said there’s an issue with CX5’s in general, including some recalls, but there’s nothing I could do about that anyway, because it’s already had someone besides the dealership tinker with it. Reviews on this particular car are very split down the middle.

I know Japan doesn’t have lemon laws, but I’m going to call #188 and see what I can do.

Ideally, since I’m still within the warranty period, I’d like them to buy the car back, and I don’t even know what to expect back if they do. Hoping for ¥350-400k of the original ¥920k, but is that a total pipe dream?

I don’t want to take them to court, because the legal fees will probably exceed anything I could get back, even if I can get anything out of it.

I just want a flipping car that drives for more than a month without having problems.

Has anyone else had a similar experience, and if so, how did you handle it? Am I cooked? Is there hope?

If there are any other numbers or organizations I can call, that would also be great.

Thank you in advance.

need a lawyer asap!

Let's say over tourism ended tomorrow, what are fun things that you put off because of over tourism that you would try to do? Tokyo or anywhere really.

I have very recently got my license and I decided to go on a little road trip. It was only the second time I have driven after graduating driving school.

I decided to go to with a Japanese friend, who can also drive, and we took turns. However something began to really bug me.

Whenever it was my turn to drive, I'd quite stubbornly go the speed limit at fastest, because that was what my driving instructors had drilled into me, and I wanted to be safe. I also didn't want to just start throwing rules out the window as soon as I could drive on my own. Not to mention that if there was accident and I was speeding, I'd have even more liability.

However my friend kept bugging me about going too slow, saying I should accelerate because the speed limit is a '目安だから'. Even when I was doing 50 in a 40 zone he kept bugging me about the speed saying 'its ok to speed up on a straight road because its not that dangerous'. He also kept going on about how 'you wont get pulled you over if everyone else is speeding, so you should go with the flow'. I did notice that others were generally speeding, but I didn't think it was a good reason to do so myself. So I would tell him I wanted to stick to the speed limit and quietly decelerated when he wasn't paying as much attention. He didn't seem to understand that I didn't want to speed no matter what and continued to pressure me with ちょっと遅いな etc over the course of a couple of days which was driving me insane by the end of it.

So I wanted to ask, am I lacking in common sense? Or is my friend just a speed freak? Or do most drivers in Japan just ignore the speed limit?

As a husband and father being the sole breadwinner, I often imagine what I could do to help my family should I meet an untimely denise. It would be the least I could do.

Are there any folks here who have a solid life insurance plan? Any preferred services?

In my first year of highschool here in Japan, I didnt get to talk a lot with my classmates because my Japanese was bad and I'm introverted.

Now I'm in my second year and I really want to try my best speaking it and communicating with my new classmates but I think I hit a wall.

it's just been the third week and I found everyone already forming groups and talking a lot with the others. My teacher also told me that greeting is important, and I believe that so much it's stuck in my mind that I worry in the morning who should I greet, but I do greet some friends.

I'm so quiet during class and I really want to talk to them and want them to talk to me too.

what should I do?

There's a Tokyo thread so I wanted to make a Kansai counterpart.

Similarly, let's look for:

• Things to do within Tokyo itself (neighbourhoods to explore, hidden spots, etc.)
• Day trips from Tokyo
• Shrines, parks, nature, and quieter areas
• Unique or slightly offbeat experiences

Also specifically looking for:

• Amazing cafés (not just aesthetic, but actually good coffee/food)
• Great local food spots worth going out of the way for

My recommendation (which I think I once got from someone else on this subreddit):

Murou Art Forest (in Nara). There won't bea lot of people there, even during Golden Week.

I've been in Japan for almost 5 years and haven't been able to return to the US during that time due to financial reasons. This morning I was informed that a close family member will be passing away within the next few days. I'd very much like to see them and attend the funeral, but right now I'm struggling to find out information about all of the legal procedures and I want to make sure everything is OK so I can travel in and out quickly and without trouble. For context, I'm a US Citizen, Japanese Resident (Work Visa/Not Permanent), and neither my passport nor visa are close to expiring. I plan to return before the month's end. I'd like to leave for the US as soon as possible.

Is there any special legal forms for immigration or such that I should fill out beforehand, and any paperwork that might delay my trip? I'm reading about Re-Entry Permission and I'm not sure if that's intended for people leaving Japan for substantial periods of time or for any period of time.

I also want to confirm that this won't hamper my 10 year wait for my PR. I'm almost certain it doesn't but I'd feel more comfortable with a second opinion.

I'm sorry if this post is messy, it's difficult for me to be focused right now and I don't want to make any mistakes, and I haven't really done much travel aside from going to Japan in the first place.

I’m 23, married, and a father to a 10-month-old baby. I live in Japan and work in a factory, making around ¥5 million a year. I’m grateful for stability, but I feel like I have no real direction or profession.

My Japanese is around N3 level, so I’m stuck in this middle point where I can function, but not grow.

I’ve been trying to study Japanese and programming to build a better future, but I keep failing at consistency. I’ll study seriously for two weeks, then completely stop for another two weeks. This cycle just keeps repeating.

Every time I stop, I feel this heavy frustration, like I’m wasting my potential. But at the same time, I feel tired of trying and failing over and over again.

I go to the gym 5 times a week, and it’s one of the few things I genuinely enjoy. I even thought about trying to become a fitness influencer because I think I have a good natural physique, but my wife doesn’t support that idea. Now I feel torn between what I enjoy and what seems “realistic.”

Lately, I’ve been thinking about quitting the gym just to focus on studying, but I’m afraid I’ll burn out even more. At the same time, part of me just wants to give up on self-improvement entirely and just live life as it is.

I feel lost, undisciplined, and honestly exhausted from this cycle.

Has anyone here gone through something similar? How did you fix your consistency?

I’m a first-time mom and my baby will be starting daycare (保育園) in about 3 months. He will be 10 months old.

I didn’t expect to feel this anxious and emotional about it. I keep spiraling with all these “what ifs.”

Logically, I know daycare staff are trained and that babies adjust. But my brain just won’t settle so I’d really appreciate hearing real experiences, good or bad.

-How did your baby adjust to daycare in Japan?

-How did you prepare yourself and your child?

-Did your fears match reality at all?

Also, if anyone has tried working from home while caring for a baby full-time, how did that go?

Recently moved to Tokyo and I’m wondering if there are any places that allow setting up a hammock? I know most parks have signs noting not to damage or touch trees/be in certain areas. I’m just wondering if anyone knows of places or can give advice on where/what to look for.

I brought my hammock from the States and miss swaying it in it while reading. Bummer if there aren't any options, but understandable! Thanks!

I had an interesting morning killing time at Haneda airport. Somehow I was lucky to pass security before they cut off passengers from entering. It was pretty empty and chill in the departures area but the concourse outside looked crazy. Anyone else caught up in the mayhem?

Hello! Yesterday I posted about looking for help for a single mother. Tons of people shared a lot of really useful information. I just saw this in my inbox:

r/japanlifeMOD11:12 PM

Your post from japanlife was removed because of: 'Prohibited Content'

Hi /u/lostinlymbo, Prohibited Content - Prohibited content includes:

• Necroposting
• News articles
• Job seeking/recruitment
• Proxy posts
• Off-topic content
• Spam
• Self-promotion
• Soliciting funds
• Links to blogs/videos/social media
• NSFW content
• Illegal transactions
• Any content related to prostitution Original post: /r/japanlife/comments/1sr95g4/help_finding_aid_for_single_mother/

How do I contest this? Is there any way to undelete what people shared? This seems like an automated mistake...

There was a lot of really good info and ideas shared...

Thank you for your time and have a great day.

I'm a Brazilian national working as a 正社員 (permanent employee) at a small company in Yokohama. I've been here about 10 months and although I never really liked the job much, things have taken a difficult turn recently.

On March 31 my employer and I both signed a salary revision contract increasing my pay. The previous day I had been late due to a verified train delay, so I submitted the official lateness certificate (遅延証明書) per company procedure and the lateness was reversed. The following morning I was again late due to another train delay and followed the same procedure. However that morning the company president (社長) publicly confronted me in the morning meeting with my team, privately threatened me with dismissal, and then demanded the return of the signed salary revision contract. Due to the power imbalance and the dismissal threat I felt unable to refuse, but I took a photo of it for assurance.

One week later I was presented with a new contract reducing my salary - and not just the allowance part of it, but also the base salary. The reasons given verbally, other than the one instance of delay on the previous week, were smartphone use - which I used at the start of my tenure in the company to do things such as taking notes during meetings - and long toilet breaks - due to occasional but recurring constipation issues that I have. Both of these issues had only existed months before the raise was given, and were addressed after feedback from my team, with the last warning on those having happened over five months ago. The company was fully aware of them when they gave me the raise. Nothing changed between the raise and the cut except the train delay incident. The pay cut contract itself contains no written reasons - everything was communicated verbally only. I have not signed it and do not intend to do so.

My company's own handbook explicitly exempts lateness due to unavoidable reasons from discipline and there is an official process for justifying lateness. A colleague has been repeatedly late due to train delays across multiple months with zero consequence - I have the emails to prove it. The company president verbally admitted different standards apply to me versus this colleague due to contract type, me being permanent while him being some other type of contract, but he still has to report when he is late, which is fishy. Not only that, but the company has a rule stating that three instances of delay below 30 minutes or one instance of delay over 30 minutes means either a whole day of vacation is discounted OR the pay of a whole day is docked, which seems to be clearly illegal as the laws limit punishments of this sort to half a day of salary and does not permit reducing PTO without employee consent.

I visited the labor office (外国人労働者相談コーナー) who confirmed the company's rules above regarding lateness above violate Japanese law, and assessed the company as having an authoritarian (ワンマン) president likely to refuse mediation through them, though they also said they would not know for sure until they tried. I also consulted a lawyer, who outlined a demand letter approach, but noted that direct awards may be too low to justify a case without dismissal, which is complicated for me when he has a 230000 yen retainer. My payslip date is April 25 and I expect the company may implement the deduction without my consent. Yesterday I sent a formal email to HR (総務) explaining my reasons for refusing to sign and asserting the March 31 contract terms continue to apply, but who knows what is gonna happen out of all of this.

I have documentary evidence of all of this including official attendance data in XLSX format, EML email files and screenshots showing the colleague's repeated unpenalized lateness, Mattermost search results confirming no warnings about the stated reasons for the reduction after the November informal message, a photograph of the signed salary revision contract, and the unsigned pay cut contract as well.

I would be very grateful if anyone would have any advice as to what measures to take regarding this situation.

Hello! Thank you for stopping by and I hope you can help me find some resources for a single mother.

Japanese citizen with 3 children (JPN and NZ citizen chidlren). Makes too much money for typical aid (cut off is Y220,000 or something crazy low like that).

Oldest chidl is non-verbal autistic and lives in a care facility. That costs Y80,000 a month even though partially subsidized.

Plus clothes, haircuts, anything the facility says is needed. Then a 7 and 4 year old at home. So, kindergarten and school needs, plus daily life. Plus rent.... there is just nothing left after paying the bills.

She's been to a food bank before and it was like a cruel joke. Paperwork and verifications and all for a single, one time only box of random food.

The children's father was incredibly abusive. Was removed by police multiple times before finally ending up back in NZ. By some cruel twist of fate, he has a better lifestyle on the benefits available there. Already looked into child support. Since he doesn't work NZ would only supply like Y2,200 for the kids. No joke.

The situation is getting desperate. Maxed out credit cards. No sense of security. One emergency away from catastrophee it feels like.

I've googled and tried reaching out to a couple of NPO but never got word back.

Any advice would be deeply appreciated.

Thank you in advance and have a great day.

I've been with her for 3 years in Tokyo and grown close to her family in Tottori but to what will now be my forever shame I haven't made learning Japanese nearly as large a focus as I should have.

I probably couldn't even pass an N5 exam right now.

Point being, her father took a very unexpected and very drastic turn in health status yesterday and doctors are confident he will not live for another week, two weeks at the very best.

She's headed home from Tokyo and I'll be following as soon as I can. He's very physically weak but for the moment is mentally lucid to know what's happening and his condition.

Me and him have I think as close a relationship as we can between my weak Japanese and his very enthusiastic but very limited English.

I'd like to write him something telling him how much I've appreciated my time with him, my great respect and admiration for him, and a promise that I will always do everything I can for his daughter and his family.

I don't know what his condition will be by the time I can get to him but this is the best I can think to do, to give him whatever measure of peace I can, and to have my last chance to make sure he knows my own feelings for him.

The ultimate ask here is how best to translate it? My Fiancè is the only member of her family with the level of English aptitude to do it but I would never ask her to do it while she is already helping her family pull together while beginning her own mourning.

Does anyone know of a service with a fast turn around that has a good reputation for accuracy or any ideas otherwise? Any help or advice is appreciated.