u/Yonda_00

Renewed my car insurance today and because my old company didn’t give me a good discount I decided to shop around. Went with Sompo direct now and decided to get a few more options, so I got theft insurance for car and contents, which is, drumroll, 900 yen per year. Since insurance companies are quite good at calculating risks, on a 160 man car this gives you somewhat of an impression how likely it is that your car will be stolen in Japan. Meanwhile, my friend back in Ireland had his Motorbike stolen twice this year already

Asking on behalf of a friend

My friend is here on a working holiday visa, but was recently accepted into a graduate degree at a university here. He is from a country where change of status from Working Holiday visa is possible, but with the degree starting in late September, he is wondering when the right time to apply for the change is. His working Holiday visa goes until December.

Today I was in a situation that left me genuinely confused on if the person we were dealing with was just extremely rude/racist or if they think their english is better than it is.

A friend of mine just moved to Japan for grad school. He’s in the enrollment and fee payment stage now, and struggled with paying the fees. Since he doesn’t speak Japanese yet and didn’t know if they had english speakers for the administrative process, I joined him.

They did have an english speaker, a japanese guy in his 40s. Instead of helping my friend, he answered every question with either „That’s not our problem“ (sic!) or „Read the enrollment document again, all information is there“.

It kept going in circles so finally he asked if it is ok if his friend (me) who had a Japanese account can pay on his behalf. Dude goes “We don’t recommend that“ Pressed on whether it is generally possible „I don’t know. We will see“
At this point I stepped in and asked him すみません、支払いの件に詳しい方はいらっしゃいますか？

To which he replied in english „I’m responsible for this“

We ended up leaving without answers on anything, any kind of help or any clarity on what’s next. What puzzles me is how he feels comfortable talking in such a way to anyone really. I can never in a million years imagine he’d chose this kind of vocabulary to a Japanese student. Is there this false idea of „There is no Keigo in English so I don’t have to be polite?“

I‘ve encountered similar situations before where I felt that Japanese people who are confident in their English are just confusingly rude and dismissive for things they suck their teeth and apologize 10 times for in Japanese.

What’s your experience?

Based in Japan. I moved back to Tokyo from the country side for studies, and the place I’m renting now comes with a car parking space. I want a car, it’s just quality of life for me, but my current Subaru Impreza wrx sti is too long for my parking space (in Japan that can be quite strict) so I need to think otherwise. I want something fun, sporty, with at least 4 usable seats, that is under 4,35m and readily avaliable in Japan. It doesn’t have to be new or newer, anything 1990 upwards is fine. Any Ideas? Thanks in Advance!