RResidents in Japan

Weekly Complaint Thread – 28 August 2025

  • August 27, 2025

It's the weekly complaint thread! Time to get anything off your chest that's been bugging you or pissing you off.

Remain civil and be nice to other commenters (even try to help).

  • No politics
  • No complaints about users of JapanLife

by AutoModerator

44 comments

  2. Really starting to get annoyed by the increase of ads everywhere I go. Youtube changed their ads on mobile where they moved the skip button to the middle of the screen and if you tap the place where the skip button used to be it takes you the the ad page itself. And after the ad ends now there is a little pop up on the bottom left that I have to manually close every time.

    If that wasn’t bad enough, the Mizuho app now has popup ads when you open it. I just want to check my account balance but get inundated with stupid ads for things I don’t care about and it infuriates me.

  3. Fucking scammers. Got called yesterday from 3 different US based(well at least that’s what appeared on my phone, possibly forged) numbers with a bullshit recording about how my phone service was going to be shut off.

  4. I just wish we had PET bottle pick up twice a week instead of glass bottle pick up twice a week. We almost never have glass to put out but by the time PET bottle day comes around we’ve got two heaping big bags worth because of all the tea and sparkling water we drink. 

  5. I can’t for the life of me get motivated or enthused to go out and work on photo projects in Japanese summer anymore. And given that it’s not only getting more severe and longer year by year it leaves me with far too much downtime from my photography than I would like.

  6. Why can’t I find normal, uncut green onions at the grocery store?

    It’s a staple ingredient in multiple countries. Including Japan.

    Yet I go to multiple supermarkets and the only normal green onion I see is pre-cut.

    Am I blind or something?

  8. I have an LG TV. Lately, the internet on it has been flakey. Last night, it decided it didn’t even have wireless on anymore and told me to enable it (with no button or anything else to do so). Had to unmount and open up my TV to check a bunch of ribbon cables. Cleaned some dust, made sure connections were as secure as I could (there’s almost nothing to push on on these ribbon cables), re-assemble, and re-mount the (quite heavy) thing. This is allegedly an issue across many models and years. It will fail eventually, but I don’t think I’ll buy an LG again because of this.

    Gave up and bought an all-in-one gym type of thing. Assembled that two nights ago. On the plus side, QR code to a youtube vid right on the instructions. I had started with the instructions and went to the YouTube to get more clarification. The steps are all in different orders, there are shots to show a state with steps not yet done in the video already completed, the video doesn’t show full parts so orientation is just a guess, the instructions leave out things, etc. Hugely frustrating and took about 4 hours to build the damned thing (including having to dis- and re-asseble 2 pully assemblies because, unlike the video, my cable wouldn’t thread through when assembled).

    Terrible seed germination rates this year from a supplier I’ve always used with seeds bought months apart using the same technique, etc. as previous years with their seeds.

  9. UPS charged me an arm and a leg to receive a parcel from home this week. Never again.

  10. Whoever chose circles for standard train hold shape should be put on trial. My hand is not shaped like that

  11. Sapporo days are hot and nights are cold. The likelihood of catching a flu is sky high 😡

  12. Why is the schools opening ceremony for next semester tomorrow, on a Friday???? Ughh so stupid. I wouldn’t care but the gym has no air conditioning and I hate being in there for any period of time right now.

  13. Windows 10 support is ending soon and, even though we’ve got a hugely powerful machine with 64 GB of ram, *ca.* 7 TB of disks, and no problems whatsoever, the machine’s too old, apparently, for Windows 11. I put in and set up Linux for dual booting yesterday, but now I’ve got to teach everyone else in the family the tiny differences between Ubuntu desktop and Windows desktop because some of the people are afraid of computers.

  14. The dilemma of Summer in my area: 

    It’s too hot at night so I want to keep the windows open to get some breeze coming in at least. 

    The cicadas and crickets are so incredibly noisy right outside my place that I can’t sleep, so I want to keep the windows closed. 

    Even with expensive earplugs I hear them enough to be annoying, though it does help a bit. 

  15. Middle finger to the decrepit old fart who tried to take my head off at work yesterday. Yes I made a mistake, but the amount of あんた and getting cut off by him despite apologizing and admitting fault was ridiculous.

    He even tried to turn away from me and involve the nearby Japanese person (who was taking my class), which I had to stop and insist he deal with me. Boy the way he flared up when I asked him to stop talking to me that way…

  16. The last two days have been…not so good to say the least.

    Tuesday on my lunch break I got a call from the internet company that has already been taking a million years to get anything done, and essentially found out they refuse to give me service unless they install a whole new hikari cable. Maybe this makes sense but I also refuse to add a whole new cable when I have one that works already. However I also quickly found out that my rural area doesn’t even get service from most carriers, so I don’t even really have options. I am now internetless except my 2-3 bars of 4G.

    Wednesday I took my car in to pay the lease, informing the mechanics the door fell off. They said my car isn’t going to pass its upcomming shaken so can’t get my beloved car back. So, they gave me a replacement car, but the only one they could find REEKS of cigarettes. They put in an air freshener and said they would be realy grateful if I can gaman, but got a headache just from driving home. Would much rather drive around my rusty shitbox than a car that gives me a headache in 5min. It is essentially undriveable.

    And finally after my two week trip my laptop has started crashing randomly and frequently. Did some troubleshooting with my computer engineer father, he told me to start looking for a new computer. Can’t even back up the computer due to previously mentioned lack of internet, so looks like I’ll be taking the train (due to undrivable cigarette mobile) to the city to buy an external SSD this weekend…

  17. Even the trains are trying to gaslight me now. Got on Keihin-Tohoku line in central Tokyo last night and started doing my DuoLingo, did enough to complete my quests and get my endorphin hit, then started watching Youtube videos. After one video that didn’t feel that long I look up to check where I am and the monitor above the doors says “Next station Akabane.” What? I for sure have not been on the train that long so I start questioning reality, did I really spend that much time on Duolingo? Was that video longer than I thought? Did I black out? Nope, not going insane, the monitor above the door was crapping out and saying every station was Akabane.

  18. Working in Japanese company so the only language I use is Japanese and I feel like I am forgetting English. Especially, pronouncing kana words in English is so confusing. I wonder if I will start having Japanese accent when speaking English.

  19. In Wakayama, we are expecting at least a daily 33 degrees until the end of the next week. I cannot.

  20. Why didn’t garbage disposals take off in Japan, while dish washers and dryers are becoming more popular? Is it a plumbing constraint?

  21. merch shop at the shunga exhibition in kabukicho was pretty weak. No art books. A lot of gimmicky stuff like a shirt that says “shunga lover” in english. I bought a pack of 10 cards for 1000 yen (the whole card set was like 7500 yen!), to have some kind of art memento, cards are pretty crappy quality tbh lol. Fucking humid as hell night, too. Felt like a dipshit, showing up as a sweaty white guy to look at some ancient japanese porn.

    kabukicho is a dump, too. A bunch of rats running outside the lead up to the exhibition entrance. I don’t know why so many foreigners (lots of women groups and couples speaking queen’s english) go there, I guess for the thrill of being in Japan’s “dark” side while knowing nothing bad will happen? Or is the bar scene there particularly good?

  22. Bro, I’m still learning japanese. You can give me shit for either speaking too fast, before I put the sentence in my head together properly.. or you can give shit for taking too long to put the sentence together and stalling the conversation. If you shit on me for both at the same time, you’re being an asshole.

  23. So Oji-san is going 40 in a 70 zone where everyone is doing 80+. No passing, but here comes up the two lane split so Oji-san can shift into the slow lane and let 23 cars pass. What does Oji-san do?

    a) Shift left and maintain speed to let people pass

    b) Shift right lane and force everyone to illegally pass

    c) SHIFT LEFT AND FUCKING FLOOR IT PRESSING UP TO 110Kph BECAUSE EVERYONE NOW WANTS TO GO FAST, AND MERGE BACK INTO SINGLE LANE AND BRAKE BACK DOWN TO 40.

  24. The braindead and hateful right-wing content and rhetoric keeps going strong.

    I’m trying very hard to not just give in and actually become the horrible villain these limp-dick manchildren claim we are. If you’re going to accuse me of something I didn’t do, I might as well enjoy doing it.

  25. They’ve been jackhammering outside our window every morning from 7:30 for the past two weeks. I get I’m privileged to be able to sleep in longer than that but God I wish they’d wait until 9 or something. I’m just constantly taking so much psychic damage being woken by it. TOO LOUD…….

  27. Everyone complains about Ohtani being everywhere but I can’t escape seeing this actress(?) being everywhere. I’m tired of seeing her face everywhere and I don’t even know her name. There’s a giant cardboard cutout of her at my local mister donuts.

    I was watching TV and she was on consecutive ads one after each other for different companies.

  28. Pretty sure I have depression thanks to the bullying at work (despite being on vacation and removed from said bullying) plus observing the abject stupidity and inhumanity gripping the entire fucking world right now.

  29. Took two weeks off. Had 450 emails on Monday, and that was with me checking my emails throughout my vacation for urgent matters. Chipped it down to 250 today. The urge is growing to mark all as read. If something is important, they’ll email me again, right?

  30. The conbini at the bottom of my building has become a magnet for foreigners. Every time I go there, I hear English, Chinese, French, Hindi… and I catch the mixed smells of cheap perfume, sweat, patchouli oil. Damn, it sucks. But wait.. I’m a foreigner too? So why does it bother me this much?

    That’s me, caught in the infamous Resident Paradox. A semi-denial of who you really are, a tug between acknowledging your peers, ignoring them, or shamelessly identifying with them. That awkward smile I give the Japanese clerk, the over-politeness I feel compelled to perform, like an apology for the American family in front of me who couldn’t keep their monstrous children under control.

    I tried to read the clerk’s eyes, searching for a hint of redemption,.. as if this tiny cashier’s booth had turned into a confessional. But all I find is Tatemae politeness. I know the bastard will vote Sanseitō next time. Nothing I can do about that.

    And here I am, outside this filthy 7-11 with my bag of potato chips, after briefly confronting the image the Japanese have of me (and of those who resemble me) while I scroll through Threads or X, watching videos of ill-behaved gaijin doing stupid shit on the Yamanote Line.

    I should stop doing that to myself.

  31. My husband has multiple alarms from 5AM to 8AM (every 30 mins). The only person to wake up from these stupid alarms is me and I’m losing sleep because of it. I’m going to turn it all off tonight.

  32. I failed N1 so horrendously badly I don’t even understand how such a score is even possible.
    The questions were so goddamn unfair this year 😭 I’ll be trying again in December….
    Also, Shinkansen are SO expensive, why are the toilets on them so disgusting

  34. Seeing some sick coworkers reminded me of this. The restrictions on visits that most clinics still use due to covid are just so dumb.

    Slight fever but no other symptoms that could increase spread of germs? You can’t visit, find treatment somewhere else! (basically nowhere)

    Coughing your lungs out but no fever? Please step right in and wait with all the other patients!

  35. I’ve been living here for 12 years now and I thought I didn’t care anymore, but somehow this week I’m feeling angry with the world and really bothered by the constant stares that scream “gaijin!” that I get on the street, especially from children.

  36. Lack of trees in urban areas although Japan is 80% forests. It’s scorching hot yet, there’s conrete everywhere, no shade to be found.

  37. – local 運転免許センターbeing 10km away from the train station and 5km away from the closest conbini…..

    – why tf is actual brown bread with significant amounts of fibre so hard to find???

  38. The Japanese female coworker who is keeping the door open during this fucking heat continues. I tried to open the small side door, but no, that isn’t enough for this lizard bitch. She is still opening the larger door. Nothing can stop her as management doesn’t give a fuck.

  40. Joining a gym over the summer gave me a false sense of hope about how crowded it would be. Now that school vacations are over and Obon week has passed, it’s about twice as crowded as it was.

  41. Been using Biglobe internet and mobile for maybe 5-6 years? Service has been crap the whole time but I’ve never been bothered enough to change it. I’m mid contract so there is a couple 万 fee to cancel, but it’s gotten so bad recently that it can’t be helped. But I have no idea who I want to switch to.

  42. My city spent a year and a half and fuck tons of tax money renovating the plaza in front of the station. It looks beautiful, super wide and spacious, but in return, they got rid of at least 200 bike parking spaces AND they’ve made it pedestrian only, so can’t even ride through with a bike.

    Lots of seating, benches, etc…. but for some reason, it’s become the hangout for every south-east Asian living in the city. (and I mean it… like it’s an ASEAN convention). Nothing wrong with that, but I am just surprised as I didn’t know there were so many living here. Every bench has a different country, just chilling, talking, drinking.

    I just hope that some right wing nut doesn’t use this to fear monger. They’re doing nothing wrong, not loud, not being rude.

  43. Japanese man that keeps sitting next to me on my morning commute absolutely stinks. He has a Louis Vuitton bag though.

  44. Sad to see the bottles of alcohol spray disappearing at entrances of shops. If not for corona it wouldve been nice to keep them for general germs and upcoming flu season.

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