Weekly Complaint Thread – 30 April 2026

33 comments

1. Two complaints:

   1. There’s someone in my neighborhood who walks their dog early in the morning and has absolutely no qualms about not cleaning up after them. It’s not directly in front of my place but about 100 meters down the road towards the station. The sidewalk is rather narrow and a lot of families, and school children use it each day. Last week alone the individual left 5 different piles of dog shit right in the middle of the sidewalk. Other people have put up signs asking to clean up after their dog, or that there are security cameras (there aren’t) to absolutely no effect. I’m going to give the city a call to see if they’ll actually do anything but I doubt it.

   2. I gave the Amazon Echo Dot Max a shot and man what a piece of shit that thing is. Tried to link Apple Music and you have to jump through hoops to get poor implementation. Then tried playing ambient noise and it’s not even built in like all the other smart speakers, instead it plays you an advertisement to a paid subscription tier. Within 2 hours I had already requested a return.

2. Gotta pay 固定資産税 by today. Ugh, that’s a big expense for what feels like getting nothing in return. Having a roof over my head is nice but I feel like I already bought the place so this tax shouldn’t be a thing.

3. flavoured toothpaste that is sweet but not labeled as such… why?

   also why are there sweet toothpastes outside of ones made for kids?

   it’s disgusting. how was I supposed to know クールソーダ is bubblegum flavoured?? almost puked when brushing my teeth last night.

   boyfriend bought lime mint toothpaste before and i almost broke up with him on the spot. nasty.

4. Still checking daily and still no dice getting an appointment at the German embassy. What a joke of an institution.

5. Can’t keep a straight face at work. Want to gtfo and can’t pretend how little I care anymore. Mother has likely has early-onset dementia, and job hunting is a bit fruitless right now.

   I know this all won’t last forever, but just feeling like shit these days.

6. After 20 years here, still some stuff I cannot stand in this country.

   I went yesterday to a guitar shop in Jimbocho to check an amp and the salesman did not understand anything when I was speaking Nihongo.

   OK, I am not the best at this language, but what I was saying was really basic and the guy was staring at me like I was speaking gibberish. Like “Huh?” “eh?” “eh?” “EH?”

   That was so fucking annoying. It brought me back when I arrived here and when my JP actually sucked.

   So I did not buy the amp, which, btw, had a sticker written “SALE” on it, like it was an interesting price, and after checking on amazon, I saw it was exactly the same price, new. So I signaled it to the guy, showing him the price on amazon, and he just shrugged his shoulders. Asshole.

7. This week is being quite cold. But perhaps it’s best not to complain because I know that in a month or two the situation will be different, and I’ll be complaining for the opposite reason…

8. Diet Coke! I want Diet Coke! Always the 1st coming into mind.

9. Meetings, meetings, and more fucking meetings. I don’t know why I’m required to go considering no one ever listens to my professional opinions anyway.

10. I can’t decide whether I want to stay in Japan for the near future or not, and it’s driving me insane. There’s a lot that I love here: being able to have my own place for cheap, so many places to explore & visit, the ease of getting around on public transport, safe environment and a much better cost of living compared to back home in the UK.

    But at the same time I feel intensely homesick. Not just because I miss my home country, but I miss being in a ‘homely’ environment where i’m not a stranger. Back in Britain, I could talk to anyone in my own language, I could do any activity, and I’d never feel as isolated as I do here. I feel like there’s an entire realm of life that’s off-limits to me because my Japanese ability isn’t nearly good enough to access it. I thought my previous relationship with a woman here would be an opportunity to ‘unlock’ that and provide a platform of stability for the next ‘phase’ of my life (soon to turn 30) but unfortunately that ended recently.

    I don’t know what to do. Do I stay here and live a life that will forever be limited, or go back home & have a fuller existence but give up all that’s great about Japan which doesn’t exist elsewhere?

11. People need to stop abandoning their cats! Our town had a huge problem with cats and my wife decided to get involved and started capturing them to spay/neuter, vaccinate, etc. After a while we had dealt with all the ones within a 5km radius, then more started to appear – some from elderly people that moved and left them behind and others from out-of-town that were just abandoned. Really sweet cats that didn’t know how to survive outdoors, we were able to rehome some of them, but the NPO we were working with couldn’t keep them all to find them homes so most of them had to return after their vet visits and ended up getting hit by cars or dying from who knows what else. We are leaving Japan in a few months and just found one that was recently abandoned, my wife ended up getting attaching to him and wanted to take him with us but our finances are not in a place to take a cat outside of Japan so yeah… We even had someone that works in the town hall make a proposal for the town to help fund the project, and they rejected it because “There’s already an organization doing it for free.”

12. I don’t know whether to stay in Japan. I just left my Finance job because i am I my mid thirties, unmarried (married to work) and need a break. I actually really enjoy living in Japan but as a woman I don’t really want to marry a Japanese, I’m looking for a partnership type marriage not a job type marriage.

    Also with the yen continuing to go down, it might be time. But I feel bad as I have got a lot from Japan and felt bad to bail now times are getting tougher. But is it my job to stay and fight to fix a country that doesn’t want my help ?

13. Health scare put me in a spiral. In the end it seems that stress from my new job was the main thing and it’s settling now that I left. Pain is still there though so many fun tests in my future.

14. I am tired of low quality conbini workers. This is not the Japan I first came to 25 years ago.

    I find it funny that tourists come to Japan to interact with Japanese culture only to ride the god awful Mario carts and be led around the city by a non-Japanese. It’s like the complete antithesis to everything Japan should be. It’s third worldesque

15. Cyoou line is the most disgusting line. it was like all the freaks in Tokyo use this line to commute. this week stood by a stingy old guy smells like shxt, and when he got off the train, he was super rude and elbowing all around, just as i assumed when i tried to cover my nose from his smell. old guys suck.

16. I work in global shipping and my wife also works in the maritime industry. Things have been quite slow since the start of the war in Iran. Lots of delays to shipping.

    The number of impatient people who email both my wife and I *daily* asking for updates on their shipments is driving me crazy. Do I look like I know when the strait will open? Why would you think I would know when normal shipping will resume?

    Nothing but complaints. Things like “You estimated shipping would take this long, now it’s taking much longer than anticipated!”. Yeah man, I estimated that before a war started near a very important shipping lane, gimme a break.

17. Expanded complaints.

    Seb-derm just won’t settle down. I can more-or-less get it under control on my face but on my scalp nothing works, and I have a never ending dusting of dandruff on my back collar.

    I feel I am unsuited for relationships. I need space to myself almost daily to decompress from all the bullshit of the real world and that just doesn’t work with cohabitation in urban living spaces. My hobbies, which I rely on for stress release and any sense of life enjoyment, are niche and male dominated. The small sliver of unisex hobbies and activities that Japanese culture hasn’t cleaved into male-dominated or female-dominated simply don’t click with me. So not only do I have very few possible activities over which me and my partner or potential partner can bond over, my dating pool in general ends up being limited to the types who turn relationships into their whole identity which then smothers me since I need my space. On the opposite side of that are the workaholics and people who can only meet once a month, which is too much space; and they’re only after relationship sponsors for that idealized family life anyway, not any kind of genuine connection. I have no interest in having kids or the whole crap about using marriage/family life as a status symbol. Relationships to me are an addition to life, not life itself, and apparently I’m the only (hyperbole) person with that philosophy?

18. As someone who has a long commute to work everyday, going through both Yokohama and Shinjuku station, I have a few. (1) spacial awareness. People who watch netflix or whatever on their phone and never look where they are going… (2) people getting pushy to get a seat on the train. We all want to sit, stop pushing other people in the back. (3) people who sit in the toilet for 30 minutes. I think stations should install ‘friendly reminders’ that tell people when they’ve been sitting in the toilet over 5 minutes, 10 minutes etc. Eventually they should just be ejected from the toilet.

19. I bought a light from Nitori a month or so ago and the mechanism broke so I couldn’t turn it off. only to fix it was to take it down and use a needle to stab inside of the mechanism and push the loose screw back into place. It’s made of Washi paper and I ripped it a tiny bit taking it down and putting it back up. Not noticeable to anyone but me, but still a pain in the ass.

20. 1 – 7:30am in a quite town.  A little van is driving around the empty streets blasting traffic saftey crap to drivers.  Because I’m gonna hear that and think “well, I’m gonna drive safely today.  I didn’t plan to, but now I will.”

    2 – the bathroom sink was leaking into the cupboard under it.  For some reason the pipe wasn’t attached.  And of course I find it on the day I overslept and had to rush to get out of the house.

    3 – screwdrivers with tiny heads for tiny screws don’t need to also have a tiny handle.  I have small hands and can’t grip these fuckers to save myself.

21. Old neighbour repeatedly decides that 5am is the optimum time for crushing all his cans for the fortnightly collection.

22. My partner at 44 decides she wants to try for another baby. Who knew that it gets extremely difficult at that age? 

    Good family planning seems to be the key to avoiding too much chaos in marriages. At least I’ve learned that, even if took a while. 

23. Got woken up by two crows stomping on the roof

24. Amazon started their golden week sale, but I just saw that it seems that they reduced their %points back, in addition to raising the minimum purchase threshold from 10,000 yen to 30,000 yen.

    Before, it was a nice time to stock up on household goods such as detergent, toilet paper, skincare etc, as those alone would get me close to 10,000 yen, but not anymore.

25. Maybe it’s my algorithm, maybe I’m just looking at the wrong place wrong time, but all I see are extremely negative policy changes around foreigners and visas, and Japanese people on the internet praising it saying it should be harsher.

    Im getting angry? I like to know about politics but I’ve never been super into them but recently I’ve been finding myself doing deep dives into the subject. Im worried I’m training my brain to be negative and developing an “us vs. them” mentality and I don’t like it.

    I don’t want to be a bitter person that finds a way to always talk about politicians and foreigner struggles but i feel like its shoved in my face so much lately that it’s naturally on my mind a lot.
    I might not qualify for my visa renewal in December with all these new proposed changes and fees. Maybe that’s why I’m so worked up.

    I have a few American friends like this that find a way to bring up Trump during every conversation topic. It’s an actual skill I STG. And those friends are exhausting to spend time with. I realized I’m going down the same path with Takaichi.

    I did see one thing where the diet wants to cover all birthing costs through NHI going forward so, I guess a little sliver of light and hope in my otherwise depressive internet viewings lately.

26. My husband has problems buying anything. Without fail it goes like this 1. he wants something but gets decision paralysis 2. asks my opinion 3. disagrees with me about my opinion to which I shrug and say ”get what you want then“ 4. he gets his other choice then something “better” comes up because he can’t stop looking at all the different options 5. complains to me and when I point out I didn’t choose it he says “you told me to get it” inciting the second argument that comes with every purchase.

    I have no idea if this is a Japanese thing but it drives me coconutty.

27. Walking makes me think of fresh complaints.

    I feel so limited by public transit. It’s great for work and typical urbanite activities, but for accessing nature and hauling hobby equipment for hiking, camping, sports, etc. it is absolute ass. I’m limited to places with shuttle buses from the nearest station, which aren’t even nature they’re just suburban parking lots dressed up to mimic nature. Or I have to wait for my hobby friends’ schedules to align so I can bum a ride with them, which then makes me feel guilty.

    I don’t need a car, I just need a DL so I can’t rent for weekend trips. But Japan’s dumbass DL education and testing system gatekeeps me from getting one because it’s not designed to educate drivers, it’s designed to squeeze yennies out of people by washing out as many students as they possibly can over anal-retentive procedures that have no relevance to real-world driving. Not to mention the time loss. If I lived in the US I could get a glider pilot license for less fucking hassle. It’s insane.

28. Having my moments of in/out panicking at the recent visa renewal changes as my chances of escaping my Instructor Visa and moving onto a Humanities/Specialist one and finding a *better* paying job feels even more urgent than ever now. I’ve enjoyed my time as an ALT immensely, but I’m 30+ now and cannot see myself staying in this country any longer or being able to support a family like this.

29. Japanese ( City) grocery stores. How can they be so big, yet small at the same time? And the hovering over one object 20 minutes at a time, while the other person on the opposite side is doing the same and all I want is to pass.

30. I snapped on my way home from work, wishing people around where I live could be more aware of train etiquette.

    I was standing at the door on a very packed train at rush hour. The train stopped at a big station where there are a lot of people leaving/entering, so I would step outside and to the side so passengers could leave easily. The lads outside – as if not noticing how packed the train is – immediately sticked close to the door, leaving me in a situation where I have no place to step aside. I either had to body block the passengers leaving or having to move way back to the end of the line. I remembered clicking my tongue clearly and mumbling “もう歩いて帰る” as I stomped out of the car in frustration.

    It was silver lining that I find a less crowd car on the same train as I was going to the exit.

    Pretty embarassed now that I calm down. I let the anger took the better of my action. But I am not taking that frustration back!

31. FUCK MY BANK.

    Went in today because my residence card was updated and had to tell them, you know, like the law says I should.

    Waited for 30 minutes (maybe they’re busy!) and the lady comes out behind the counter and says “hey there’s something else we need to check so it’ll be another 30 minutes”

    “What do you need to check?”

    Cue a back and forth that lasted AN HOUR AND A HALF where they wouldn’t tell me what they needed to check AND would not update my residence card without me sitting there waiting! I knew of course it had to have been related to KYC which FINE JUST TELL ME THAT.

    After an hour and a half, they had me complete a form for FACTA for the U.S. so they can report my account to the IRS. Fine, pretty sure I’ve done that before but I guess it’s an every now and then thing.

    Then they said they needed my hanko. But not MY hanko that’s registered, the one that was used to set up my account 8 years ago, which was my boss at the time. I told them this, and have told them this MANY times over the years, and they said “well if that person is not here to confirm his stamp we cannot update your account”

    WTF. I told them “I don’t even know if that guy is alive anymore and nobody I know knows how to contact them. I’ve told you guys this many times before and you’ve OK’d it”

    Then I started getting questioned about “why did you come here and not a branch in your ward?”

    “Because there IS NO BRANCH IN MY WARD AND I HAVE BEEN COMING HERE FOR YEARS HOW IS THIS DIFFICULT”

    After TWO TOTAL HOURS I got to leave (it was 2 hours and 14 minutes) and started immediately searching other banks to use because why go through this.

    Buy a coffee. Get home. Sit down on my couch. Relax.

    RING RING RING GUESS WHO IT’S YOUR BANK THERE’S ANOTHER FORM WE NEED YOU TO FILL OUT

    “What form?”

    “One like the one you filled out in English today”

    “I didn’t write anything in English today”

    “No but the form we gave you was in English and it has to be the Japanese form” WTFFFFF

    They then offered to DRIVE TO MY HOUSE to get me to sign it in person. Either that or “we will send it in the mail and you will need to send it back before the end of golden week”

    I said “well I don’t even really know what form you’re talking about so send it to me I’ll take a look at it and and go from there”

    “Okay but can you send it back before the end of golden week?”

    “I can try but I can’t say for sure”

    “Okay well if you have any questions be sure to ask them before tomorrow because we will be closed during golden week”

    “So there’s no real hurry for me to send it back then is there…”

    Holy shit I cannot believe I was put through over 2 hours of 確認します! And they STILL FUCKED IT UP. Holy fuck make it make sense. 30 minutes out there, 2 hour wait, 30 minutes back home. Glad I am on holiday today because my quick trip to the bank would have fucked my work schedule.

32. I have 795 yen left in my bank account and I still have 20 days to go before payday

33. I feel like I’ve complained about this before but it warrants repeating.

    DeliCafe sucks. It didn’t suck before, or at least not as much. That opinion will vary by person. But they offered more. In the morning, they used to offer a free hard boiled egg or a free yogurt if you bought bread and a drink. That deal is gone. The drinks are not served in these glasses that seem like they hold less liquid than the servingware they used before. I believe the toast dish with eggs and salad they used to offer in the morning is gone now, too.

    Stay away if you can. It really gone downhill.

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