Pic 1 is the bottle I bought from Lawson thinking...oh hey, it looks like Blue Powerade.
Turns out it tastes nothing like Powerade and I think Coca Cola just got lazy with its appearance. (Coke owns both brands)
Pic 2 is the sports drink Powerade sold on the states for comparison.
New press release/announcement from JR Central about even more all-reserved seating periods on Nozomi trains on the Tokaido & Sanyo Shinkansen that will – surprise! – be going into affect this year:
After reducing the number of unreserved cars from 3 to 2 last year, it really does feel like they're just trying to maximize profits, slowly killing off reserved seating and making riders' lives more inconvenient in the process, and sacrificing the flexibility that the Japanese rail network famously allows for.
As Shunzo Miyawaki put it, "指定席は不自由席"...
I’m in an odd situation with my neighbor and I need some advice. Forgive the length of this, there is a lot of information.
TLDR: My neighbor is very likely mentally ill and at least once a week will make large amounts of noise (including opening the window and yelling) at inappropriate times (1am, 4am, 6am, etc).
Some background:
My wife and I bought a house in Setagaya recently. We closed around mid-March and immediately started some minor interior renovations before moving in. Nothing too major, but it took about 4 weeks to finish it all. Before the renovations began, we went around to all of the neighbors and gave a short letter with a heads up about the renovation and potential for noise along with a box of cookies to smooth it over. In the letter I also included my personal phone number, in case they needed to contact me about anything related to the renovation. One of the neighbors texted me the day after distributing the letter to introduce herself. The conversation started off pleasant, however it very quickly got odd. It went from “nice to meet you” to “To be honest, I’m scared. Last night ,I heard a woman’s scream.” back to “when is a convenient time to meet you?” within 10 minutes. I’m seeing red flags, but I didn’t want to judge too quickly. I replied politely that we could meet after we moved in and left it at that.
>A week later, the same neighbor texted me the following as written:
“Hello! I hope I didn't disturb you
the other day.
Anyway I' like to cooperate as much as possible for you to
live comfortably.
I don't mind any Daytime noise
at all except night time.
Best regards.
—name—-- “
And then a few days later:
“
P.S
My point is " except night time."
Your southern bay window of kitchen living room located right in front of the bay window of my bedroom.
Sound proofing construction of walls and windows are seriously needed for you and
everybody's peace,too.
I mean I can be very patient for the sake of the SOUNDPROOFING construction.
Thank you .”
This seemed pretty forward of her to suggest this out of the blue, but I reassured her that we wanted peace and quiet as well and were actually already installing insulation. She replied reiterating her statement in different words, but said “thank you for your consideration” in conclusion. I left it at that and thought nothing more of it.
Fast forward to after we moved into the house. Interior renovations were done, the moving process was smooth. About a week after moving in, I was woken up very dramatically to the woman very angrily yelling at the top of her lungs from her house just outside my bedroom window. I had no idea what she was yelling about and I was just shocked that this was happening at 6 am. I am not fluent in Japanese (I’m maybe N3?), but even then yelling/screaming Japanese takes a different level of fluency to understand. I assumed she was upset at one of the other neighbors and thought it was a one time event. Unfortunately, I was wrong.
In the 4-5 weeks since moving in, we have heard her yelling at least 5-6 times. Times range from 10pm to 7am, all during socially accepted ‘quiet time’. When she yells, she will open her window and then yell. When she is done with her statement, she will close the window. One of the times she was yelling, it lasted about an hour with her opening and closing the window for every sentence. Clearly she was yelling at someone/something outside of her house and wanted to be heard. Sometimes she will just open and close windows and doors hard enough that I can hear them in my house. I’m surprised that none of them are broken from the abuse they see.
I recorded her rants a few times and asked a friend (and google translate) to help translate them. Here’s a selection of what she has said:
(法律は、夜10時以降は夜間騒音、違法行為なんですよ！)(医学的な検証もたくさんされてますよ！)(深夜安眠妨害、迷惑！)(夜9時を過ぎたら静かにするのは当たり前でしょ！)(住宅地の常識守りなさい！)(守れないんだったら帰ってくるな！)(迷惑！)
[Note: at 6am] "By law, after 10:00 PM, night noise is an illegal act! There has been plenty of medical research/validation done on this! Disturbing sleep in the middle of the night is a nuisance! It’s common sense to be quiet after 9:00 PM, isn’t it?! Follow the common sense of a residential area! If you can't follow the rules, don't come back. You're a nuisance!"
(朝6時20分くらいからラジオ体操していますから、大勢の人がやっていますので)(なぜならば、この時間帯が健康に最も良いからです！)(医学的な根拠もあります！)(文部科学省も推奨しています！)(厚生労働省も推奨しています！)(医学的な根拠があるからです！)
[Note: at 6:20am] "Because we do radio calisthenics starting from around 6:20 AM, and lots of people are doing it… Because this specific time slot is the absolute best for your health! There is medical evidence for this! The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) also recommends it! The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) also recommends it! Because there is medical evidence!"
After the 3rd time, I got frustrated with getting woken up at 6am so I called the police. A koban policeman showed up around 20 minutes later. When I went outside, a different neighbor was outside talking with the policeman. I think the police went to their house first by accident. Via google translate, I learned from the neighbor that this has been an ongoing issue for over 5 years. They said she has 精神疾患 (mental illness). They were surprised when they learned that I didn’t know about this. “Didn’t the realtor tell you when you bought the house?” No. They did not. The policeman was useless. Lots of “chotto…”, “Shoganai…”, “She’s mentally ill” or “ She’s heart broken” {??}. He did go and talk with her after speaking with me.
Later that same day, the [potentially mentally ill] neighbor texted me to ask about our construction plans on the outside of our house to fix a bay window. Very polite, no mention of the morning at all. Total opposite of the yelling we heard. I don’t think she knows that I called the police.
After calling the police, it was quiet at the house for about a week and a half. However, this week the noise has started back up again. Twice this week she was making noise throughout the night. Monday it was 10pm to 4am. Last night it was 10pm to 1 am. My wife said she heard bongo music being played from her house at 4am one morning. We have also physically seen her during the afternoon several times. During the day, she is very pleasant and says Konnichiwa to us with a smile. It is totally irrational behavior.
Side note, she is maybe around 60 years old? Hard to say for certain.
All that said, what can we do about this? Should I just keep calling the police every time we are woken up? Do I text her about it? I’m afraid that if I confront her about it she will become worse, even if I am polite about it. I’m fairly sure she lives alone, so there isn’t any family I could talk with about the situation. We are investing in better windows for thermal insulation and they should help with the noise, but I’m not 100% sure it will solve it. I’m open to hearing any good ideas for this.
Hi .
How long does it takes for visa extension for spouse visa holder in Shinagawa Tokyo .
I am planning to go on a business trip and will be back on 6 august and then another trip on 15 September . So in between i have approx 44 days , will it be enough for the process. As shinagawa taking way longer in all kinds of visa and extensions. Any one recently extended Spouse visa and how long it took .
Thank you.
* Is it possible to apply online for extension from abroad?
Edited : Visa expiry date is in October and the earliest I can apply is in July (i will be abroad ).
Questions, complaints, and brags are all welcome!
Hi I have NTT, I’m looking for a good WiFi.
I am highly thinking of getting EO net for type N but I’m not sure. If anyone has any recommendations let me know
With El Niño coming I bought of those big pools from Costco but now im reading a need a sand filter pump. How do you guys clean your water? I’d hate having to drain it every few days.
This is by far the most ridiculous story from shit-that-never-happened-land on Japan Linkedin I have seen
Showed up at my local donki. No more filling my carry on with antiperspirant when coming back from the states.
Technical Intern Trainees make ¥190k/month while Professional/Technical workers pull ¥313k that's a 65% gap within the same "foreign worker" bucket. And Specified Skilled, which was supposed to fix the intern program's problems, is somehow below the average. Japan clearly has a long way to go on this. I guess positive YoY is a good sign
Someone i knew just applied for Gijinkoku renewal online , and the immigration asking for N2. Does anyone have this experience? I thought the language requirements only for new submissions? Thank you.
EDIT new Q:
Now their company aware since this person doesn’t have N2 and wanted to help them out, they wanted to attach a accompanying letter to explain that their job doesn’t require any Japanese since only foreigners will come to their business. Will this kind of letter have power to Immigration?
Two things I am looking forward to each summer is the return of Aquarius Sparkling (check) and those really spicy chips! Unlike other Japanese chips that claim to be spicy, these guys really are. But I have not seen them around yet. Anyone? Bueller?
For context: me and my wife will need to go back to my home country for a brief period. I know it will be for over 6 months, but less than 12 months. I will probably resign from my Japanese company.
My main concern would be if i should just leave japan and circle the "will return within one year" immigration slip at the airport, OR go through immigration beforehand to get the re entry permit.
The problem i face is that i have only gotten 1 year spousal visas (3rd time in a row), so I would pretty much have to come back anyways to apply to renew my residency.
Would any red flags be raised if i left japan for 11 months right after renewing my 1 year visa and then just came back, while i was still within my 1 year visa window?
I would like to hear other people's experience with this. I would've liked to apply for PR next year when i would become eligible after being married for over 3 years, but I'm sure me being out of the country for this period of time would probably hinder that.
Not really asking anything here. More of an observation/rant.
I don't live in Tokyo, but I occasionally have to work with professionals in Tokyo for various complex things (think international taxation or law, as an example).
Compared to professionals that I work with in Kyushu/Kansai/Tohoku, Tokyo people feel far more easily irritable. They just seem to be "on the brink" a lot more often. aka 余裕がない.
For example : One morning I might send a perfectly normal email. Expecting a perfectly normal reply. And it would hit them at the wrong day & wrong time and I'd get a passive aggressive message back with absolutely no provocation at all.
I have pretty good way of dealing with this. I usually just call them and let them know that wasn't cool. And they immediately back off because they seem to be unable to handle actual confrontation. But the whole thing just seem so unnecessary.
Anyone have done hair transplant in Osaka?
I am considering of getting it done, there are almost no reviews or doctor recommendations of hair transplants done in Osaka or Japan. Most people go to South Korea or Thailand or Turkey.
So any recommendations or reviews will be appreciated.
If you work in the creative field here and didn't start with fluent Japanese, how did you break in? Are there studios that operate primarily in English?
I am looking to break into the creative industry (branding, creative direction, marketing) in Japan and want to build a network here. I’ve been researching the scene but I want to get a realistic perspective from people actually working on the ground. I’m not planning to apply for a full time job, just looking for project based work.
Appreciate any insights or studio recommendations you can share, thanks!
In various European mythos, crows are harbringers of fate, avatars of hidden wisdoms and the ears and eyes of the gods. In Japan, crows are rats with wings.
Today the super chill neighbor rang my doorbell early in the AM, and told me that the crows got into the garbage.
Our garbage was in a can with a sliding/locking mechanism to prevent this very kind of thing. But somehow the crows were able to twist the thick, heavy lid off a garbage can (15+ degrees turn!) while standing on it. Luckily they didn't like anything in the can so it wasn't a mess (the lid was in the street, hence the neighbor giving me a heads up), but just baffling that my anti-crow garbage can was crow'd.
I was told that neighbors have taken to setting a brick on top of their locking garbage cans. I'll do that, but imagine that it's just a matter of time before 5 crows figure out if they work together they can push it off. Or maybe we'll see some yard-monster swole crows in the near future that can knock that shit right off the can with their beaks.
I secretly love my flying rat bros, and smile when I hear them cawing at sunset. But one day they will rule us. I hope they remember that I was kind to them.
I happened to see this local news on youtube yesterday.
Immediately recognized OP was posting about this project on this sub few months ago.
here is original post
https://www.reddit.com/r/japanresidents/s/auXPinPP6x
He turns an abandoned kindergarten into a small cinema showing classics and movies for kids.
The location also means a lot to local adults who grew up there.
Beautiful idea. Wish many love and success to op and family.
Wholesome story.