RResidents in Japan

General Discussion Thread – 03 March 2026

  • March 2, 2026

Mid-week discussion thread time! Feel free to talk about what's on your mind, new experiences, recommendations, anything really.

by AutoModerator

11 comments

  1. Is it normal for your salary to be calculated divided by total number of days in a month and not by days worked? My company is trying to say that my March salary will be divided by 31, despite us only having 22 work days in the month. They are dividing the salary to include our days off and holidays as paid working days. This is not defined anywhere in the contract.

    The obvious answer is get legal consult but I won’t be able to do that until next week at the earliest, and am just doomsday prepping in advance to save time.

  2. Is there anywhere that sells the previous model iPhone for cheap after a new model is released? Thinking about getting a 16e since my kids iPhone 7 finally bit the dust.

  3. Our local bus line is scaling back their schedule due to lack of drivers – it’s just one bus less an hour, but it really is a shame, as it is so convenient.

  4. One of my favorite flavored bean (豆) stores really downsized. I haven’t been there in about 6 months or so. But the store is smaller. They have less on display and a fun staple of the shop was being able to sample the products was no longer available. 

  5. We have a de-mister for the bathroom mirror and it does it’s jov well.  It would be perfect for me if I shaved my chest as the clear spot is from my neck down.

    I’m only 175cm so not a giant by any means.  And there’s plenty of mirror to be able to extend the de-misting to include those who are not vertically challenged.

    Just one of those stupid observations that stay with my dull thoughts.  It is easily overcome by simply bending lower a bit.  But I still have to ask – why?!

  6. I’m moving into my first apartment post-JET and the amount of Japanese required is definitely on another level compared to anything I’ve had to manage before. Lots of writing addresses and such, but setting up my utilities yesterday was probably the hardest thus far. The building uses a service that manages it all for you (very convenient) but I stumbled a bit on the phone and the guy asked me “can you speak Japanese?” (while we were speaking Japanese, tho lol). Also asked if I can read and write Japanese, which I can thankfully. He was polite but it became really clear really fast that unless I could prove to this man I understand him I wasn’t getting this apartment. Definitely had to go 110% listening mode but he seemed fine with me by the end.

    The reality of life in Japan hitting me pretty hard now. Thankfully it seems that I managed just enough Japanese to scramble my way up.

  7. Changed work and finally in a good place. Problem is the commute is almost 2h now so will have to look to move. Usually up to now picked a location I liked and went to the local real estate agent but this time due various restraints I can’t just pick an area and hope for something to pop up.
    I narrowed down to 2 train lines Namboku line and Hibiya line. I am not too picky about big space. Thinking around 30m2 where dog is allowed and second person as my partner would move to Japan in bit less than 2 years. Does anyone have a good recommendation/pointers for any agency or any comments on certain stations to avoid if possible? (For budget aiming for around 12万 but willing to up a bit if the place is right)

  9. The stricter knowledge test for the driving license exchange resulted in a decreased pass rate from 93% down to 43%. That’s not surprising.

    But, the driving test pass rate also heavily declined, from 30% down to just 13%! Given that the knowledge test is already knocking out half the people previously eligible to proceed to the driving test, I’m wondering exactly how strict the newer driving test has become?

  10. Wife and I are going to look at demolishing a 3000 and 1000 square foot house but have no experience, anyone want to have a guess and ballpark costs? 

  11. I want to thank whoever recommended the show about weird goings-on in Narita airport last week. I travel a lot and I’ve mostly avoided anything *too* out of the ordinary, but i was definitely entertaining to see just what kind of stuff can happen. And I really want to know the logic that led somebody to think “my phone got stolen※, so I’m just gonna spend my whole vacation in the airport.” Like, you didn’t think to report it to the police, or call your accommodation, or the embassy, or…?

    ※ Back when I was in Boy Scouts, I had a scoutmaster who was fond of saying that 9 times out of 10, ‘somebody took it’ translates to ‘I lost it,’ and I suspect this fell into the 9…

    And as much as people complain about TV here (*insert link to the famous rant)*, I think it kind of turns into perfect background noise for doing other things. I let TVer just do its thing after that one ended while I was focusing on something else, and it became background noise that was mildly interesting enough to look at every so often but not so interesting that it kept me from doing what I was doing.

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