RResidents in Japan

Weekly Complaint Thread – 30 October 2025

  • October 29, 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

41 comments

  1. My wife’s boss overreacted when she was calm and polite pointing out a mistake he made on some documents. She said the guy ended up crying over it. And it made her feel like a bad person for saying that. There was another time she told me she pointed out a mistake someone made and the person who made it then got angry at her for it.

    I mean, come on! If anything, they should be thanking her.

  4. With most convenience stores losing the sitting areas the past few years, it seems more and more are also dropping toilet access. Convenience stores are certainly becoming less and less convenient.

  5. The rain has been super uncooperative for what I need to get done in the fields.

    I need to figure out how to find and hire a trustworthy electrician to troubleshoot and probably replace a dead outlet (I don’t know if it’s got any wiring to it anymore at all; definitely no current gets there with all breakers on) and maybe replace a few others. Probably not hard, just way down on the priority list.

    I want to get a new kotatsu but the space is weirdly shaped so the options are custom (~150k yen) or DIY. I actually would love to do DIY (and buy one of the heaters to attach to the bottom), but all I have is a hand saw and a chainsaw so tools also become a part of the cost. I also want a table for my office for electronics/radio stuff.

    I’m always learning something not required for life. Earlier this year, I had a run at Korean (*shakes fist at bacchim*). I’m now on week two of Norwegian. I get that English orthography is terrible, but what’re y’all doing over there? competing with us? I’m not complaining about the regular stuff (gj -> y, kj -> sh, etc.) which is simple enough, but rather all of the exceptions which seem to be about 1/4 to 1/3 of the vocabulary I’m learning. It makes spoken Norwegian difficult, especially since there is no one Norwegian (two official writing standards, but no spoken standards and dialects are considered totally valid and proper in all contexts from home to addressing the nation as a politician). Listening comprehension is going to be super slow with this one.

    Last-minute one from the wife: we’re the ゴミ当番 (in charge of making sure the trash collection point is clean and has the correct things — including the Japanese here since it’s more concise) this week and someone threw away something that (a) she didn’t catch first and (b) is for the wrong day. It’s like exterior house parts with foamboard stuck to it or something. We’ve never had to deal with this (only our second time and technically we were gone for the first one since it was the end-of-year holidays so our neighbor covered).

  6. Is apologizing for hitting someone with your bag in the train a thing of the past now? I’ve had multiple encounters in the past week alone where someone would swing their big ass bags while sitting down and literally bludgeoning me in the process, and they would just avoid eye contact and pretend that nothing was wrong. Also, nobody seems to understand the rationale for carrying their backpacks in front of them. 99% of people who do this think that just because they have it in front they don’t have to care about where it goes or who it hits. WTB some critical thinking.

  9. at my evals, I was told that my score would be (ever so slightly) better if I was more of an active leader. could I be a leader? yeah, sure, I guess. idgaf when my paycheck is this stupid cheap, though. when I went up in rank to what is basically a sub-manager, my monthly 手当 for that is a measly 3,000 yen. how is that supposed to give anyone enough motivation to be a leader in fucking *corporate planning*? I’d maybe put in more work if it were 30,000 yen, but 3,000 is just demotivating.

    one of my coworkers is CONSTANTLY coughing and also sucking back up their runny nose snot. they claim it’s just residual cold symptoms and that they’re not contagious. idgaf about that either, the constant coughing (they are full-chest, wet coughs, not just throat clearing) and snot snorking is just fucking annoying and GROSS, please go home and do WFH.

  10. Been meaning to say this for a month or so but keep forgetting…But I really dislike that Yokosuka City promotional poster that they have at the Keikyu stations.

  11. Didn’t think people still smoked while walking. Even then, it’s usually those vape things. Walking my usually route to work, and a foreigner was puffing away. I hate second hand smoke.

  12. I’m moving and finding a place where being a foreigner and having a cat is OK is so damn difficult. Not to mention that my current commute of 5 minutes is going to become 1 hour 15 minutes. I get tired even thinking about it.

  13. Got kancho’d by the toilet bidet. Not in the usual bare assed way. Pooped. Flushed. Stood up and put on my pants. Then I hear the bidet doing its usual post-spray cleaning. Bam! Right in the ass of my pants and down my leg with a stream of water. Move out of the way and watch it spray the wall a bit before it stopped. Something is busted. My pride yes, but also something very wrong with that seat.

  14. Got hit by a mamachari last night. I was walking on the edge of an empty sidewalk. No apologies. Fortunately there were no injuries. The rider looked like she could barely control the bike to stay in a straight line.

  16. America team: yeah I can get that done

    UK team: sure no problem

    Australia team: thanks for bringing that up, I’ll get right on it

    Japan team: hmm… are you SURE that’s something we have to do? Also, that wouldn’t be me, that would be [subordinate], who if you just email him, he will tell you he has no power to do this and to contact me. Why yes, I did wait 2 weeks to respond to this, problem??

  17. Passenger car drivers are idiots.

    So many will turn onto a road without looking first. At least 3-5 times a day some idiot will turn blindly onto the road I’m on while I’m driving a big truck only to stare at me as if they just can’t believe another vehicle is there and have to stop because they turned too sharp.

    Also, if you’re making a turn onto/on a narrow road and there is a truck there going the opposite way, YOU need to back up. Trucks can’t backup easily.

    I almost scratched up some little car because the idiot kept trying to move forward. On my left side was a small ditch and a concrete wall. I’m NOT fucking up the ¥1500万 truck just so the dumb little passenger car can get through. After me gesturing at them to back the fuck up, they FINALLY did only to mean mug me like I was the idiot.

  18. The guy sitting at the desk directly across from me is slurping and gulping his tea so loudly that it’s actually making me nauseous. Just a few minutes ago, he was chewing crunchy snacks with his mouth open. He also has some kind of skin condition exacerbated by poor hygiene that causes him to leave a film of greasy dead skin flakes on everything he touches. Anyone who has to use the same workspace after him (our office has a desk-sharing system) has to spend like ten minutes wiping off the keyboard, mouse, etc.

  20. Grumpy about paying massive Shiminzei when I can’t really see where any of it goes.

    Sidewalks are overgrown with weeds (if there are any sidewalks at all), police don’t do shit about bosozoku, red light runners, etc., roads are full of potholes.

  21. why is the research building now blasting the heater at 30 degrees? Can’t even control our own room wtf.

  22. Boys, some of you I can smell from 10 meters away.

    Tune your deodorant use to appropriate levels, too little or too much is just as bad as not wearing it at all.

  23. The floormat mentality in a lot of people from my country who live in Japan is sad and pathetic, honestly.

  24. My visa expires tomorrow and I still haven’t gotten any reply for my renewal request, put in on August 1st. Managed to get through to Shinagawa and they said “sorry mate we’re swamped, but don’t worry you can stay two months after it expires without overstaying”.

    It’s a simple renewal that never took longer than 3 weeks before. And sure, I knew about the grace period, but it’s hard not to worry in the current climate.

  25. I feel so lonely I wish someone from a cult approached me.

    The real issue is I just want to stay home and read. I hate drinking, I hate sports, I hate concerts and working on the weekend excludes me from niche meetup events.

    I want to be talk to people but at the same time I just want to be on my own. Strange situation.

  26. I want to talk about my house appliances:

    – my dishwasher is front loader (expensive Bosch stuff), but let’s you open it even while it’s already working. It happens once a month someone doesn’t notice it’s already on and opens it. Thankfully it doesn’t leak too much water when it happens

    – still the dishwasher: buttons are digital stuff. So when cooking we regularly turn it on with our hips. Now, just as annoyingly, when I do want to turn it on, the button needs a nice press, and takes 3s to actually turn the machine on. But sometimes I didn’t press it well enough, so after 5s or more I have to try again. So it’s both too sensible when cooking but not sensible enough when actually using it.

    – my dryer plays the tune, and says “I’m finished drying, now I will cool down the clothes”, then goes for an extra 10min of work. At first I opened it before the cooling started, and the machine would start beeping to close it so it could finish its thing. Best part is there is no tune when the cooling is finished. So the machine just plays a tune to tell you “I’ll be finished in 10min” and that’s it. I’m using a phone timer for it…

    – the cooking plates make a bip when you put down the fry pan on the fire. It’s like playing music when cooking chahan (shake shake, bip, shake shake, bip…)

    – My old 2nd hand featureless top loader laundry machine: locks the door when working, calls me when it’s finished, has button that are easy to press. It’s the real MVP in this house.

  27. My daily commute from Yokohama to Tokyo is awful.

    First, going to the station by bicycle is a dangerous challenge: the sidewalks are so narrow and uneven, so many utility posts with ugly dangling cables and wild bushes to skip. Trucks parking on the sidewalk while unloading stuff, as it was their personal parking place.

    Riding on the street is a death wish, I can’t afford the risk.

    Then the train is so crowded, there’s never a place to sit, back to pre-covid levels. Looks like Japanese companies are not allowing work from home anymore?

    Yuck.

  28. My job was damn near perfect until my boss hired some asshole last year. I rarely have to work with him but damn it man. He goes out of his way to be a complete dick towards me & only me but is semi decent to everyone else.
    He scowls at students and snears at anything a woman has to say, studies during my lessons & only mine. If he was grumpy asshole to everyone I wouldn’t mind but it seems he’s only like that to woman 😒Pos

    On another rant. It’s crazy how men will know other guys are pieces of shit but keep hanging out with them because that’s “how guys are”. Also never underestimate how much Asians will ignore when it comes to a white, blue eyed man because it’s a white blue eyed man. What even is that??

  30. Despite working in “higher” ed I feel surrounded by idiots. We’re constantly shuffled around various committees every couple of years, dealing with things that are admin’s job, not the job of teaching faculty. What’s more, my colleagues are absolutely shocked that I, a foreigner who teaches foreign languages, don’t know things that only a Japanese person would reasonably have understanding of or experience with. “What do you mean you’ve never had a student ask you for advice?” Bro, use your brain that you used to get that PhD. Why in the fuck would a student ask a foreigner language teacher for advice about anything other than studying that language or studying abroad in that teacher’s home country?

    And now we’re starting one of those bullshit performative PDCA cycles where we have to propose improvements to things. All of which are admin issues that as teaching faculty I have zero knowledge of. “How can we improve our special needs student care?” I don’t fucking know. I’ve never had special needs students. I don’t know what kind of special needs services we offer or what we have trouble with. Special Needs Education is its own PhD-level speciality; where the fuck is the specialist who’s supposed to be handling this? Ask them and admin, not the fucking English teacher. “Oh well we don’t have a Special Needs Education specialist.” Okay well maybe, and I’m totally spitballing here, you can improve it by HIRING SOMEONE TO DO THAT JOB? Christ almighty.

    Not a lick of common sense.

    On a related note, is there a Japanese term for the absolutely moronic HRM method of cycling people through roles that are irrelevant to their qualifications and skills? I know 分業 is used for properly delegating work to those who have the relevant skills, but I can’t seem to find other HRM terminology.

  31. Fucking pedestrians who don’t look

    Almost hit someone yesterday with my bike.
    At a crossing, a couple of girls want to cross, I slow down to let them cross (They are not looking at the street and haven’t seen me). One crosses running, the other is walking, no big deal. As I approach the crossing I am about 2m from the white lines, the second girl is halfway gone when she suddenly realize I’m coming, and start running back like crazy, RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME.

    Had I not slow down or been a car, she would have be done for…

  32. I just had one of the worst times going to Kyoto, and frankly, I just think everyone in the city is just done with the tourists.

    Going anywhere on buses or trains is like fighting rush hour, buses worse so because they’re not fit for this many people (thanks Kyoto City government). At least the trains are more interesting-looking in Kyoto than in Tokyo.

    Service people just don’t care, they are just pushing you through as fast as possible even if you’re the only one in the store. Even speaking Japanese (which is my hack to still get somewhat good service in Shibuya) didn’t help. Some places were even scornful to even want to deal with people. These are places I’ve been to in the past and were lovely. The nicest person I met was at the One Piece Card Game store! My hotel was the worst.

    The tourists are braindead. I’m talking about everyone, Japanese, Chinese, white. Not a brain cell between them. Getting off the Shinkansen in Kyoto, a family stopped the lines for a good 10 minutes because they wouldn’t touch their IC cards, then it happened again coming back to Tokyo because a family was trying to use their receipt to get out, not their tickets.

    Everything is so expensive. My business hotel was over 50,000 yen. Basic ramen was 1,600 yen. Anything else remotely interesting to eat was at least 2,000 yen.

    I wasn’t even there doing the stereotypical tourist things, I was there on business. I couldn’t imagine how much worse it is for those going to Fujimi Inari, the bamboo forest or Kiyomizudera.

    At least Uji is as nice as always.

  33. My “mini-me” in the US who I’ve been working with for the last 8 years and we’ve swapped tons of gifts and had dinner together with our respective spouses when we’re in the same country sent me a cryptic message Friday her time. She’s also my business management contact who handles all the corporate stuff between sales and operations/engineering to book orders and slot deliveries and such.

    “I’m leaving (company name), I’ll e-mail you tomorrow”

    I took that to be I’m going home I’ll update you on issue we’re having with trying to get an order that’s stuck in customs through.

    Since I don’t bring my computer home or check my phone I didn’t get it until Monday. Tuesday morning I had a bunch of questions from people. And boom she’s no longer in the system (locked out). Had a couple of text messages on my phone basically saying she was gone from the company and such and has no access to email. And she’s not responding on her personal cell phone. I know why they “rushed” her out the door – we announced a 4% global headcount reduction and Friday was the end of our fiscal year so if she took an early retirement package getting her off the books for next fiscal year would be important for her groups P&L but…

  34. Feeling homesick this Halloween so decided to try to get into the spirit by making a pumpkin cake to share with my coworkers. Brought it to work, made a sign, and put it in the fridge (cream cheese frosting) and not a single person so much as looked at it all day. Made the sign bigger, separated the slices, still no dice. Ended up just taking home the cake since I would love to eat it and nobody else seems interested. This is in addition to the English teacher saying I can have ten minutes for Halloween activities, preparing said activities, then running out of time despite class being 5min longer than anticipated and instead of letting me do an activity like planned, teacher had the students study more vocab. Ended up cutting up the unused activities I made to use as scratch paper…for the second year in a row. Feelsbadman.

  35. People walking incredibly slow and people standing on the edge of a train when they have tons of space to move in drive me CRAZY

  36. Been mentally flat for a few weeks and my concentration is all over the place. Also, I think I’ve developed some kind of anxiety issue. Last year I had some tough classes/situations at work and so that was stressful and I pretty much burnt the fuck out. This year, everything is going comparatively very smoothly but I’m finding I’m still having nearly exactly the same stressed out feelings/episodes. Maybe time to go to the doctor.

  38. My daughter was feeling hungry while we were out shopping and the closest place was Soup Stock Tokyo. I’ve never really tried it so I thought I may as well. I may be in the minority here given how busy it generally seems to be but it was incredibly underwhelming and comparatively expensive for what you actually get.

  39. 1 – Re-finishing a table and the old finish was layed on thiiiick.  It looked like glass, and putting stripper on it did almost nothing.  It took me 5hrs to get that crap off.  Now I hurt.

    2 – my daughter didn’t have a Terrible Twos.  Instead she’s have a Frickin’ Fours.  It’s been challenging of late.

    3 – phones.  Sick of them (as I use a phone to type this).  Sick of what they do to people.

  41. On my way home, I was sleeping on the train, then I had a sudden muscle spasm and punched the air in front of me. I almost neutered the guy standing in front of me. So embarrassing

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