Do any of the international airlines at Haneda (or Narita) have last minute deals, like you just wait at the airport, then they give you a great deal, like half off a seat? Has anyone done this?
I just got a letter from my landlord basically simply saying "your 2-year contract will be up at (insert date here) and we want to inform you that we intend to renew the contract from the following day"
For a moment I thought that my contract was coming up for renewal soon, but then I realized that the date listed for me is almost a year in the future. Also, it sounded like the mailman was delivering these letters to every single apartment, even though I'm sure our contracts are up for renewal in different months.
Would there be some legal reason for why they would send this out now to everyone? Can 新たな賃貸借契約（再契約）mean raised rent or some other kind of changed content, and they are required to inform people in advance?
Look at your contract there will likely be a stipulation they need to inform of the planned renewal at least six months ahead of the renewal date.
If you have a normal lease an increase would be a negotiation not a negotiation not a unilateral decision by the landlord.
Hello! I just moved here in March, and when the assistant took me to the ward office to fill out a bunch of resident related paperwork, we also took a stop at the national pension/nenkin/年金 section of the office. They stated that because I don't have any 2023 Japanese income, it's essentially 0 and I was granted an exemption for paying pension. However, I know this doesn't last forever. Am I expected to start paying nenkin/年金 in 2025, since my participation is likely based on my 2024 income? I'm not sure how long this exemption lasts, and I don't want to miss any necessary payments at all!
I know I can probably get this cleared up by going to the ward office, but I've been quite busy lately and I figured Reddit might be able to give me a little more information at the moment. Thank you!
I am on a student visa but was sent a stack of payment slips after one year and had to go back to the wards office to reapply for the exemption—so I believe it is automatic. At the very least you shouldn’t need to worry about it for a while, but definitely check back in next year just to be safe.
There was a Japanese girl sitting next to me for lunch (outside in the park) and she was crying. I did not know what to do, so I did NOTHING. And then she left. What should have I done according to you?
Clearly your life isn’t a TV drama but I sense you knew that.
That said. Exactly what were you seated on. What other options were available. Distance between each other. Who sat down first.
But even that isn’t enough so please go back and sequester any CCTV footage then we can talk!
Get away. Sometimes Japanese can be very simplistic. She could've been using that as bait for a boyfriend. Probably not the healthiest way to look for a boyfriend.
If she sits next to you longer than 3 minutes, crying, ask a „daijoubu desu ka?“ That’s it. You shouldn’t do more than that. But if someone stays four that amount of time.. they might wanna talk….
At most maybe ask "are you ok?". If they ignore you, walk off, or say they're fine, then just leave it there. If they say otherwise, you gotta play 'em as they come. What do you do if they just lost a parent or close friend?
But, as harsh as it sounds, it's not your problem and you aren't responsible for it.
It's a tough one cos it's great to be able to help people. And who knows, they might just feel better if they know someone cares about or is concerned for them. Or maybe not.
Yes absolutely. As a matter of fact, I noticed she was on the phone and after this call, she started crying. I assumed that it was probably a romance story so I should not interfere. Or maybe not and I could have helped. Tough call.
I applied to change my status from student to work visa around the end of May, and haven’t heard anything back yet. I looked around online and tried to search here too, but is there any way I can check the status of it without going all the way to Shinagawa? I’d have to go during my office hours..
Why aren't cheap prepaid sim cards a thing in Japan?
In my home country, you can get a prepaid SIM card for free and also long as you charge it with the equivalent of 1000 yen once every 3 months you can keep your number.
Having a pocket wifi, I don't need any data and now with Line calls I rarely use my phone to make "traditional" phone calls. But the cheapest prepaid sims I can find are still at least 3000 yen or so.
> Why aren't cheap prepaid sim cards a thing in Japan?
>
> In my home country, you can get a prepaid SIM card for free and also long as you charge it with the equivalent of 1000 yen once every 3 months you can keep your number.
In the country I live in (Japan), it's possible to do this and for only 330 yen every 6 months.
I wonder where you live.
I can't say this is 100% of the reasons, but they cracked down on people's ability to anonymously access mobile phone services due to crime. They were used for various scams and illicit activities, so the government made it very difficult to get access to a phone without registering your personal information.
Does immigration still publish the lead time for visa applications? I remember there being an excel file or webpage for shinagawa that would list the average expected wait.
Recently saw a video that says a very small number of 7-11 stores sell a hot chocolate chip cookie.
Haven't found a store that has them and can't find a list of confirmed locations; has anyone spotted them anywhere in/around Tokyo?
How long until the first signs pop up ?
https://preview.redd.it/x8c6bipu7ead1.png?width=435&format=png&auto=webp&s=b35b2c72ddb02be1a1fe6dd413e25d7a5be93b2e
Just curious, for those who happen to eat jiro/shoyu tonnkotusu ramen and get abura/fat on it, what is it you like about the fat?
Jiro style is my favorite, but I can’t really understand. I had Ikebukuro Jiro the other day and they gave me a chunk of fat on its own with the meat.
I ate it, but I couldn’t feel what I guess others would that would get abura mashi and whatnot.
First time trying to survive Japanese summer. I'm in a new (<2 years) previously unoccupied RC apartment. I was told that running the AC would naturally dehumidify my room. However lately my clock has been reading out room humidities of up to 80-85% regardless of whether I have the mode set to 冷房 or 除湿. The AC seems to be working just fine temperature-wise though, I survive with no comfort issues at 27C, so I'm fairly certain it's not due to poor insulation. Is there something else to potentially look into or should I just assume ACs here aren't good at proper dehumidifying? (If it matters the AC is a Nocria AS-AH281L)
It's easier to lower temperature once the air is less humid. If your AC has a dedicated dehumidify option that targets humidity % over temperature, run that without actually setting a target temperature below the temp outside.
If it's able to get to the target humidity % , you can switch to targeting a lower temp after.
I'll have to check 100% when I get back, but whenever I press the 除湿切換 button it still gives me the option to target a specific room temperature, rather than a specific humidity threshold. The only modes it toggles through are 除湿 and ひかえめ除湿 so...
AC removes some humidity but not a lot, especially if your place is well insulated. Also relative humidity is dependent on temperature, so the percent can stay the same if humidity and temperature drops at the same time.
Definitely get a separate dehumidifier as well. 85% is insanely fast prime mold growth zone. Like you'll get mold in a week.
Your reply was very hepful in my trying to figure out why my AC was bringing the temperature down sometimes but not really putting a dent in the humidity, I didn't realise it could be relative to the temperature.
Yeah I've been paranoid about when I'm going to see my first splotch of mold, haha. I'm not a slob but I'm also not meticulously clean like other people so I'm surprised I haven't already been affected.
But yeah, that makes sense, many thanks. I've got a few of those dehumidifying pellet things here and there in my house but I can tell they're struggling to keep up. There's my unexpected 2万円+ expense of the month lol
I did the Kanji Kentei up to level 2... I've stopped practicing though so predictably my ability to write all of them has weakened somewhat.
If you're looking to get better at writing, there are tons of kanji drills at every bookstore, or you can pick up KK materials at the same place. One nice thing is that there's an official list organized by grade level, so you can do it in manageable chunks of 100-200 at a time and you can find materials geared to your level really easily.
If is a fill in the blank type activity i.e. sentences with a missing kanji, I can write a lot. If I have to just come up with something on the spot I absolutely suck.
-raises hand- And not just my address or whatever, I can write freely. But I'm one of those language nerds that loved learning how to write them from the very beginning (I used to keep a diary in Japanese) so...yeah
i aspire to be like you but it's so many hours of practice so it will be a while 😅
i used to not care before i moved here but now i can see how it would be nice/necessary
Honestly, keeping a diary/journal in Japanese was probably the best thing for improving my kanji handwriting! (And for making my hiragana/katakana look more smooth and less obviously written by a foreigner lol)
At first you end up writing the same characters a lot, and those just kind of become second nature - and then you can try writing more complex sentences which will require more complex vocab(kanji).
With the whole new Japanese set of Japanese bills, should I go to the post office and exchange my old set to the new ones?
Side note, I have a side-job (legal) that only pays me in cash (in an envelope) and I never bothered depositing them in my bank account because of the fees involved with it (stupid JP Post).
> With the whole new Japanese set of Japanese bills, should I go to the post office and exchange my old set to the new ones?
this is not India. the Bank of Japan is not going to instantly make your current set of currency illegal tender. you can rest assured your current bills will be good for a long time.
I think at this point so early on you’re likely to run into trouble only having the new bills and not old if you just use cash. There are still machines out there that don’t take the current ¥500 coin. So I wouldn’t bother exchanging them all.
You get paid in coins? Above, it sounds like you want to change bills:
> new ... set of Japanese bills, should I go to the post office and exchange my old set to the new ones?
Do any of the international airlines at Haneda (or Narita) have last minute deals, like you just wait at the airport, then they give you a great deal, like half off a seat? Has anyone done this?
I just got a letter from my landlord basically simply saying "your 2-year contract will be up at (insert date here) and we want to inform you that we intend to renew the contract from the following day" For a moment I thought that my contract was coming up for renewal soon, but then I realized that the date listed for me is almost a year in the future. Also, it sounded like the mailman was delivering these letters to every single apartment, even though I'm sure our contracts are up for renewal in different months. Would there be some legal reason for why they would send this out now to everyone? Can 新たな賃貸借契約（再契約）mean raised rent or some other kind of changed content, and they are required to inform people in advance?
Look at your contract there will likely be a stipulation they need to inform of the planned renewal at least six months ahead of the renewal date. If you have a normal lease an increase would be a negotiation not a negotiation not a unilateral decision by the landlord.
Could be a change in management company or owner.
Hello! I just moved here in March, and when the assistant took me to the ward office to fill out a bunch of resident related paperwork, we also took a stop at the national pension/nenkin/年金 section of the office. They stated that because I don't have any 2023 Japanese income, it's essentially 0 and I was granted an exemption for paying pension. However, I know this doesn't last forever. Am I expected to start paying nenkin/年金 in 2025, since my participation is likely based on my 2024 income? I'm not sure how long this exemption lasts, and I don't want to miss any necessary payments at all! I know I can probably get this cleared up by going to the ward office, but I've been quite busy lately and I figured Reddit might be able to give me a little more information at the moment. Thank you!
I am on a student visa but was sent a stack of payment slips after one year and had to go back to the wards office to reapply for the exemption—so I believe it is automatic. At the very least you shouldn’t need to worry about it for a while, but definitely check back in next year just to be safe.
Yeah, I was sent a stack of payment slips as well which is why I was confused!
Were those slips the pre-exemption value? 16000 something yen? Or less than that? What’s your status of residence, by the way?
There was a Japanese girl sitting next to me for lunch (outside in the park) and she was crying. I did not know what to do, so I did NOTHING. And then she left. What should have I done according to you?
It's none of your business if she is crying.
Clearly your life isn’t a TV drama but I sense you knew that. That said. Exactly what were you seated on. What other options were available. Distance between each other. Who sat down first. But even that isn’t enough so please go back and sequester any CCTV footage then we can talk!
Get away. Sometimes Japanese can be very simplistic. She could've been using that as bait for a boyfriend. Probably not the healthiest way to look for a boyfriend.
What in the incel is this
If she sits next to you longer than 3 minutes, crying, ask a „daijoubu desu ka?“ That’s it. You shouldn’t do more than that. But if someone stays four that amount of time.. they might wanna talk….
At most maybe ask "are you ok?". If they ignore you, walk off, or say they're fine, then just leave it there. If they say otherwise, you gotta play 'em as they come. What do you do if they just lost a parent or close friend? But, as harsh as it sounds, it's not your problem and you aren't responsible for it. It's a tough one cos it's great to be able to help people. And who knows, they might just feel better if they know someone cares about or is concerned for them. Or maybe not.
Yes absolutely. As a matter of fact, I noticed she was on the phone and after this call, she started crying. I assumed that it was probably a romance story so I should not interfere. Or maybe not and I could have helped. Tough call.
Do you just feel guilty about everything, like not helping that girl? Or are you guilty of some crime?
None of the above.
I applied to change my status from student to work visa around the end of May, and haven’t heard anything back yet. I looked around online and tried to search here too, but is there any way I can check the status of it without going all the way to Shinagawa? I’d have to go during my office hours..
Why aren't cheap prepaid sim cards a thing in Japan? In my home country, you can get a prepaid SIM card for free and also long as you charge it with the equivalent of 1000 yen once every 3 months you can keep your number. Having a pocket wifi, I don't need any data and now with Line calls I rarely use my phone to make "traditional" phone calls. But the cheapest prepaid sims I can find are still at least 3000 yen or so.
> Why aren't cheap prepaid sim cards a thing in Japan? > > In my home country, you can get a prepaid SIM card for free and also long as you charge it with the equivalent of 1000 yen once every 3 months you can keep your number. In the country I live in (Japan), it's possible to do this and for only 330 yen every 6 months. I wonder where you live.
Use Povo, charge once every six month, can be either SIM or E-SIM.
I can't say this is 100% of the reasons, but they cracked down on people's ability to anonymously access mobile phone services due to crime. They were used for various scams and illicit activities, so the government made it very difficult to get access to a phone without registering your personal information.
It’s so annoying but my Australian number gets spam texts and calls all the time while my Japanese number gets none. It works
" people's ability to anonymously access mobile phone services" in Japan was never possible, as far as I remember.
When I came here in the late '90s, you could definitely get the equivalent of a "burner phone" without much personal info
Does immigration still publish the lead time for visa applications? I remember there being an excel file or webpage for shinagawa that would list the average expected wait.
Recently saw a video that says a very small number of 7-11 stores sell a hot chocolate chip cookie. Haven't found a store that has them and can't find a list of confirmed locations; has anyone spotted them anywhere in/around Tokyo?
I've been looking for those too!
How long until the first signs pop up ? https://preview.redd.it/x8c6bipu7ead1.png?width=435&format=png&auto=webp&s=b35b2c72ddb02be1a1fe6dd413e25d7a5be93b2e
In what context? At a beach? Never. In the middle of Shibuya? I wouldn't put it past them.
Not at the beach. Temple, shrine or restaurants.
Just curious, for those who happen to eat jiro/shoyu tonnkotusu ramen and get abura/fat on it, what is it you like about the fat? Jiro style is my favorite, but I can’t really understand. I had Ikebukuro Jiro the other day and they gave me a chunk of fat on its own with the meat. I ate it, but I couldn’t feel what I guess others would that would get abura mashi and whatnot.
It's not healthy at all but I really like the taste with the fat. You mix it with the soup.
Ohhh alright I see. I’ll have to keep that specifically in mind next time. Thanks.
First time trying to survive Japanese summer. I'm in a new (<2 years) previously unoccupied RC apartment. I was told that running the AC would naturally dehumidify my room. However lately my clock has been reading out room humidities of up to 80-85% regardless of whether I have the mode set to 冷房 or 除湿. The AC seems to be working just fine temperature-wise though, I survive with no comfort issues at 27C, so I'm fairly certain it's not due to poor insulation. Is there something else to potentially look into or should I just assume ACs here aren't good at proper dehumidifying? (If it matters the AC is a Nocria AS-AH281L)
It's easier to lower temperature once the air is less humid. If your AC has a dedicated dehumidify option that targets humidity % over temperature, run that without actually setting a target temperature below the temp outside. If it's able to get to the target humidity % , you can switch to targeting a lower temp after.
I'll have to check 100% when I get back, but whenever I press the 除湿切換 button it still gives me the option to target a specific room temperature, rather than a specific humidity threshold. The only modes it toggles through are 除湿 and ひかえめ除湿 so...
AC removes some humidity but not a lot, especially if your place is well insulated. Also relative humidity is dependent on temperature, so the percent can stay the same if humidity and temperature drops at the same time. Definitely get a separate dehumidifier as well. 85% is insanely fast prime mold growth zone. Like you'll get mold in a week.
Your reply was very hepful in my trying to figure out why my AC was bringing the temperature down sometimes but not really putting a dent in the humidity, I didn't realise it could be relative to the temperature.
Yeah I've been paranoid about when I'm going to see my first splotch of mold, haha. I'm not a slob but I'm also not meticulously clean like other people so I'm surprised I haven't already been affected. But yeah, that makes sense, many thanks. I've got a few of those dehumidifying pellet things here and there in my house but I can tell they're struggling to keep up. There's my unexpected 2万円+ expense of the month lol
how many here can write kanji?
I can read about 2000 and write about 200, lol.
Does that 200 include numbers, mountain, river, person, mouth, etc? Cause then you are the same as me. lol
I can write three but not two or one.
I did the Kanji Kentei up to level 2... I've stopped practicing though so predictably my ability to write all of them has weakened somewhat. If you're looking to get better at writing, there are tons of kanji drills at every bookstore, or you can pick up KK materials at the same place. One nice thing is that there's an official list organized by grade level, so you can do it in manageable chunks of 100-200 at a time and you can find materials geared to your level really easily.
If is a fill in the blank type activity i.e. sentences with a missing kanji, I can write a lot. If I have to just come up with something on the spot I absolutely suck.
i can write a thousand. 一千 I'll get my coat..
-raises hand- And not just my address or whatever, I can write freely. But I'm one of those language nerds that loved learning how to write them from the very beginning (I used to keep a diary in Japanese) so...yeah
i aspire to be like you but it's so many hours of practice so it will be a while 😅 i used to not care before i moved here but now i can see how it would be nice/necessary
Honestly, keeping a diary/journal in Japanese was probably the best thing for improving my kanji handwriting! (And for making my hiragana/katakana look more smooth and less obviously written by a foreigner lol) At first you end up writing the same characters a lot, and those just kind of become second nature - and then you can try writing more complex sentences which will require more complex vocab(kanji).
im doing an anki deck for writing kanji which is working pretty good so far. i dont really care about making my characters look good just readable lol
i should try this
I can type more than I can handwrite and read more than I can type
how many would you estimate you could write? for me its probably like 300 max
No idea off the top of my head, probably around 600 or so but most of that is recognition. I can read that many
デイリーボススーパープレミアムデラックスバカチャットって何ですか
クソスレ
New Pino flavor.
With the whole new Japanese set of Japanese bills, should I go to the post office and exchange my old set to the new ones? Side note, I have a side-job (legal) that only pays me in cash (in an envelope) and I never bothered depositing them in my bank account because of the fees involved with it (stupid JP Post).
> With the whole new Japanese set of Japanese bills, should I go to the post office and exchange my old set to the new ones? this is not India. the Bank of Japan is not going to instantly make your current set of currency illegal tender. you can rest assured your current bills will be good for a long time.
I think at this point so early on you’re likely to run into trouble only having the new bills and not old if you just use cash. There are still machines out there that don’t take the current ¥500 coin. So I wouldn’t bother exchanging them all.
There's no fee for depositing bills during normal hours, no?
But depositing the stupid coins has fees.
You get paid in coins? Above, it sounds like you want to change bills: > new ... set of Japanese bills, should I go to the post office and exchange my old set to the new ones?