Weekly Complaint Thread – 06 November 2025

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1. What in the world is with all of these loudspeakers announcements? I learned the hard way yesterday that it was tsunami awareness day, now I hear religious chants and what seems to be loud pop music playing?

   Is sleeping in until 10AM a thing in Japan?

2. I have to wait for every delivery* to fail once first before I can tell them to deliver it to a locker or conbini. _No_ none of the delivery time options at checkout work _because all of them are while I’m at work_. Stop wasting both my time _and the poor delivery driver_ who has to come out to my place where I will never answer the door _because I am at work_.

   ISTG this place still thinks everyone lives with their parents until marriage at which point you’re supposed to have a houseminder spouse.

   *some sites offer conbini from the get-go but a lot of places insist on delivering to an address. The delivery company clearly supports it because after a failed delivery I can specify conbini/locker, but I can’t set it initially.

3. Really hurt my back this morning, cant stand, sit, or bend down without pain.

   How did I hurt it? Taking a big poop…

4. Went to Shinagawa Immigration for the first time to submit my PR application. I had an appointment so I was hoping things would go fairly smoothly, or at least there wouldn’t any ??? moments.

   * Arrive 20 min before my appointment at 9 AM, go to the reserved B counter to check. Sign explicitly says PR applicants should go to the PR window first. OK, I guess?
   * Go to the PR window. No indication of any sort of reservations system. Take a number just in case and wander around looking for more information
   * Ask the front desk how I’m supposed to use my appointment. “You can’t make a PR application with an appointment.” ??? The website explicitly lists it as something that’s valid
   * After the PR window opens, I sheepishly try to break through to an agent asking them what I’m supposed to do with it. “Oh you just show it when we call your number”. ?????? Then what’s the point of it?
   * I wait until my number, show them my reservation (it’s already like 10 AM at this point). They confirm the reservation, take my docs, give them a precheck, and send me off to the B window with my docs and a paper stating that I had a reservation
   * With that paper I was able to use the reserved B window (like 10 people in line) and cut the non-reserved B line (which had a huge line)

   The actual submission process itself was buttery smooth, but that “appointment” nonsense really threw me off guard. Bureaucracy is one thing but having a procedure that makes literally no sense is another.

   Oh well, at least it’s done and the weather was nice that day for a walk back to the station.

5. i wish people would pull up to the gas pump and wait in line instead of backing traffic up into the road! you win some and you lose some with the pump lottery!!!

6. What’s the Japanese equivalent of “going postal?” Going Akihabara? Going Odakyu? Going Keio? Whatever it is these goddamn smartphone zombies and geriatrics constantly clogging up pathways are pushing me to the edge. People have shit to be and places to do, so move!

   Oh and tourists with their giant ass backpacks on crowded trains, with dirty fucking sneakers attached to the outside of the bag, rubbing on everyone’s clothes. Jesus Horatio Christ.

   Speaking of geriatrics, 70-year-old professors who can’t help but delay the end of faculty meetings because they want to rant about nonsense for 30 fucking minutes. Isn’t it past your bedtime grandpa? Go the fuck home and let us do our jobs.

   11 years into a career and I just want to fucking retire. Give me UBI for rent, utilities, and food. I’ll teach 4 classes a week for fun money. Careers are for self-flagellating workaholics.

7. I just want cheese that’s affordable, fruits that are cheap and to find tortillas for a cheap price 😂 that’s it that’s my grievance 

8. I celebrated my kid’s birthday this week with a near-death experience. I guess the piece of meat I swallowed was bigger than I thought and got stuck way down in my throat, which I discovered while trying to drink ginger ale. Trying to wash it down failed as it did a great Gandalf impression and wouldn’t let anything pass. I could breathe, barely, and finally got it down by walking to the bathroom. Great way to start a birthday celebration, spitting up ginger ale and beef juice everywhere and scaring the heebie jeebies out of everybody (including the staff). At least I didn’t ring in my kid’s new year by, y’know, dying, but still.

9. Spent the last few days boarding up all the glass on the first and second floors of my house in preparation for the snowpocalypse.

   I don’t mind the job as such, but did November really have to throw out unseasonally warm and sunny weather? Feels like nature is just rubbing it in at this point.

10. 1 year old has a cold and is extra tired. Can’t sleep properly because the apartment building next to us has started maintenance work with constant loud banging and clanging of metal pipes.

    It’s going to be a long day.

11. Tired of places shutting down at 5 pm, it makes a day out feel rushed and by the time you reach a destination everyone is already packing up.

12. I just found out the engagement ring prices I’ve been looking at and research DON’T include the diamond, so the price I was expecting to pay just at least doubled, if not 2.5x. I started trying to find a place that will get me a lab grown diamond, so I can save some money, but I am having issues finding anything. It seems like the sites I’ve checked so far only have natural diamonds in stock, so I’m at a loss. If anyone has any suggestions or good reviews for a trustworthy shop/online retailer where I can get an engagement ring for between 10万円ー15万円, please I am all ears!

13. perks of my partner’s birthday falling on a long holiday: more time to spend together!
    huge downside of my partner’s birthday falling on a long holiday: weekend getaways are difficult because prices go through the roof (peak momiji season doesn’t help) 😭

14. What the hell is everyone getting sick with? It’s not the flu, not COVID, but it sure walks and talks like they do.

    Had a foreign lady walk right into me at full speed a few days ago. She literally bounced of my skull and then kept walking like nothing happened. Her partner apologized though, which helped mitigate a bit of the shock.

    Also had a young, scruffy dude enter my 7/11 and butsukaried my colleague (Japanese guy) badly before going for me as well. Checked him back and we ended up shouting at each other until my colleague pulled me away.

    EDIT: Most important one was losing almost 40,000 from charges that no one can identify. I’m convinced they charged me when they wanted to refund me, and cannot reach a human being with a brain to help.

15. The nearest supermarket is a freaking sensory overload machine.

    1. Ceiling speakers playing the supermarket jingle/announcing whatever promos they have
    2. A tiny tablet in every aisle advertising some seasoning/cooking oil/random product
    3. [These stupid speakers](https://www.gunmadenki.co.jp/products/products-original/pop/yobikomikun/) needlessly playing the jingle with “irasshaimase, irasshaimase” nonstop

    I swear having noise-cancelling headphones/earphones is a necessity when doing grocery shopping.

    EDIT: word

16. Caught a horrid cold (haven’t had one in over 5 years!) and my temp is 37.0 degrees Celsius. I hate that it’s not considered a fever until 37.5 even though I have the chills, aches, pains and delirium already. My standard body temps is in the high 35s! Already done 4 hours of (remote teaching) and got an important meeting later. Sigh.

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18. I answered the hospital’s postpartum depression screening test honestly and scored a little high. Now I have to go to the hospital as a mental patient and talk about my feelings in Japanese. They won’t let me cancel 🥲

19. Ordered a book off Amazon on October 27th, it had estimated delivery for Nov 5th-6th…that has now changed to November 24th…what are they doing? Writing it?

20. I hate making a simple mistake only to be “taught” what to do for days after. I was driving a truck I’m not used to and hit the brakes a bit hard. He then spent the next few days “teaching” me how to brake.

    Like, I know what to do, I am just not used to this truck and the brakes are touchy.

    Or I was being a big loud moving some carts off the truck only for another senpai to keep telling me”why” we need to be quieter. Like, again, I KNOW. I just wasn’t really paying attention to the noise. Also the truck is louder than I was anyway

21. Felt bad chest pain last night, decided to go to the hospital if it felt bad in the morning

    Felt better this morning, but holy shit does it hurt now. Closest hospital to me only takes new patients until 11:00…

    EDIT: thanks for the help everyone. Got seen by a clinic and they said I tore a muscle somewhere. Thankfully not an emergency

22. I got asked by someone who’s been living here for 23 years why I bothered with learning Japanese..so I dont end up like you buddy, so I dont end up like you..

23. Prime one-day delivery is a fucking scam at this point. Absolutely nothing gets delivered next day anymore. I have one item that’s marked as “one-day delivery” yet is taking an entire fucking week to get here. Between this and the ads on streaming what the fuck do I pay Prime for?

24. It was 22 degrees today and sunny. The house actually got like HOT inside and I opened all the windows to try to let the breeze in. I wore a t shirt, and when I went to pick up my kid from daycare all the parents and senseis were all shocked and gasping and in awe of the fact I was wearing a t shirt and asking if I was cold, telling me I’m strong against the cold, telling me to be careful not to catch a cold. Like… 22 and sunny is not COLD… actual insanity.

25. Daily bear sightings along my commute route, and almost no street lights for most of the way. Now bears, including cubs, have been sighted on the school grounds of one of my schools. 

    Getting very tired of it…

26. Trying to buy something online. I live in a new apartment, with a weird address (according to Japanese friends). No website accepts it, no delivery company can find us. Japanese efficiency my arse.

27. A few Japanese colleagues got into a frenzy hyping up the 麻辣燙 cup noodles and that it’s really spicy. Next day at lunch I walk in on one colleague just sweating and barely handling the soup so as a lover of all things spicy I was excited to go out and try it.

    Taste wise it’s nice, but with my tolerance it registers slightly above ketchup in terms of hotness.

28. Went to 2nd street and try to purchase a desk and dining set. Requested them to arrange for delivery. The next day they called to confirm that the sofa can fit in my elevator. I did not in fact buy a sofa. I have to admit that my lack of ability to speak Japanese fluently might have caused this confusion therefore decided to cancel the whole purchase.

29. I get the whole, when in ~~Rome~~ Tokyo thing, but sometimes…

    So, father-in-law invites me to a nomihodai with some of his friends. Cool, I’ll take a beer. Oh, what’s that, it comes in a bottle? No problem…

    Except it is, because of course, someone took it out of my hands to pour me a tiny 150ml glass. And then of course, they pour everyone else a glass (who, btw, all already have full sized chuihis and highballs in front of them). No worries, I’ll get another bottle just for me, and… the cycle repeats itself. This isn’t a formal party, I just want a beer, all to myself, more than 150ml at a time, to down my gyoza and chicken with. Is that too much to ask?

    Ended up fairly quickly ordering a highball because I realized that’s the only way I’m getting a whole drink to myself in front of me.

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