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
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).
by AutoModerator
41 comments
weight has gone up by one kg as soon ss cold season started….why is it to hard to maintain my weight…
I’ve done something to my knee and it hurts to move it too much. It’s been about 10 days and, while it does feel a little better, it’s not great (stairs still hurt). Off to the hospital for me next week if there’s no improvement. This means I haven’t been able to walk much as I’m trying not to aggravate it and I feel like I’m basically sedentary. Though trying to jog for a couple of minutes on the treadmill may have been the trigger (though table tennis is also a suspect) to begin with.
My town is doing fireworks this weekend. It will probably be like 3-5 degrees and humid as it’s next to the ocean. We’re not sure if we’re going to go (or maybe go but mostly stay in the car). I wish they’d pick a less frigid time.
Trying to do some HAM radio stuff to connect my radio to the PC to act as a node. Turns out, after a bunch of faff, I actually need to go buy some other cable. I also had to sign up on the maker’s website (let’s call them sooyay). They sent me my password (6-12 chars only) via email in plaintext. Thankfully, just a randomly-generated one. I need to see if there are other protocols similar to the one they have.
My kid has an entrance exam this weekend, for a public (but highly sought-after) elementary school. They call it an “aptitude test,” so I assumed that it would be pretty rudimentary. We printed out a practice exam and… Shit was hard! WTF?
Thankfully, there was one question that neither me nor my husband could figure out, but our son confidently answered it correctly, so maybe some of it is stuff that little kids are better at? Still feels kinda fucked up to have such a difficult test for a public school. My kid’s not dumb and attends kindergarten, but it feels like they’re trying to get kids whose parents can afford really fancy schools. Which kinda pisses me off, since my taxes are paying for those rich kids.
Ah well, we’ll see how it goes. Maybe their passing scores are low and they just want to see how kids handle not knowing the answers. Either way, it’s elementary school. Nothing to get too stressed about.
A lot more people are ‘wearing’ masks on the train these days, but if you’re going to wear it under your chin or—lord help us—pull it down so you can cough, it doesn’t help, does it?
I’m trying to find some meetups or group activities but it seems like everything on Meetup.com is just language exchange/international parties. My Japanese is fine, I’m married, and I’m not looking to be someone’s English teacher.
I thought about trying to find some beer league baseball but looking around online it seems like everything is fairly serious. Probably all ex-high school baseball players? I have zero experience but enjoyed the World Series and thought it might be fun.
I went to buy some Pocky for Pocky day and it was 250 yen a box, at the supermarket.
What the actual fuck?
Has an L-Size soda at McDonald’s become smaller at some point in the last two months?
I really feel like it’s smaller but on the official website have been unable to find the stated ml.
Last month my period started like 4 days late and then this month it started 2 days early, today. And started so suddenly I was fine in the morning and then after a couple hours of being up suddenly super strong cramps and I go to the bathroom and oh… that’s why.
Usually it’s like exactly on time within one day of variation and a bit more of a gradual start. So this is annoying not knowing when it’s coming.
I am so tired all the time I don’t know what’s wrong with me
[rant and career advice] stuck at this job; 46 years old with N4. debating whether to devote time to study and try to pass N3 or do PMP work. N3 will hopefully make our japanese life more enjoyable by understanding more things etc…but i feel it is sooo japan specific, PMP is more “universal” e.g. use anywhere. thoughts on this?
Really niche I guess but the school I work for is having a gigantic flu epidemic and my entire grade is cancelled for a week and it’s just put my entire term curriculum down the toilet since I can’t teach the required materials in time for their test which counts for their grade for my class T.T Bloody flu!!
In all the mansions around, I can see nice Christmas trees all dressed up in the lobbies’ entrances. Mine that has a huge space: nothing. Yes I know, it feels like a lame complaint but I take Christmas pretty seriously.
Culture is pissing me off. The performative bullshit. The tatemae. The double standards to save face. The constant vocalization of every action, often with verbalized self-commentary. The 0 or 100 attitude and stubborn conformism where everyone is so one-dimensional.
Then there’s relationships…my entire dating experience can be summarized by:
* Option A: Supportive and caring, but dull and lacking companionship; they make the relationship their entire personality and I’m exhausted from having to manage their insecurities
* Option B: Enriching companionship but ultimately they’re looking for the status of being a homemaker, and I’m exhausted from having to be a stoic provider, planner, and leader
Ultimately not a complaint but an update:
I made the thread a couple of days ago about the WOWOW subscription and the salesman that snuck in the 初月 etc
Update is the salesman came to my house this morning, apologized, admitted his explanation was incorrect, and said the charge would be removed. So I guess all’s well that ends well?
One kid after another going down with the flu. Youngest is out of school and stuck at home for 5 days, but after day 1 he’s been back to 100% energy and absolutely bouncing off the walls. Wife and I have been safe so far, but I have a fairly important work trip next week and I’m *sure* I’m gonna come down with it over the weekend and have to cancel.
I’m pretty sure I got the flu almost two weeks ago since last week my kid tested positive for the flu about 4 days after I started feeling like shit.
I never got tested but my body STILL aches. I feel super fatigued and like a cold pain from my neck, all the way down my spine and to my arms. This sucks so hard. Google says these systems can last well over a week after getting better from the flu and I’m almost at a week since I started “feeling” better.
Sardine-en-toshi line.
If you took it, you know.
Trying to quit coffee/tea/caffeine for a month to see if sleep improves and I had no idea my will to live was largely predicated on that morning cuppa joe
I’m a hijōkin working for several universities because I’m POOR. That’s not my complaint. My problem is that one department that I work for at one of these universities thinks that we are still in the pandemic and wants to do everything through TEAMS. I hate TEAMS btw.
So they sent this very important announcement that required an answer through teams, and teams only. Apparently, I missed the deadline…why didn’t they send that via email too? Of course, I should have checked teams, while I’m juggling my other jobs, but still, emails are a thing. If they noticed that I didn’t reply, why nobody called me…or I don’t know, why nobody looked for me at the university?
Oh, well, they actually went to my classroom last week…at 12:15 or 12:20…how do I know this? Because two of my students that have lunch in the classroom told me so TODAY. That’s lunch time, my class ends at 12 and I must be at a different university by 1:45. So, they went to my classroom at lunch time without previous notice.
I don’t deny that I failed to check teams and that that’s on me. But I do think that they should have sent the important announcement through teams AND email in the first place.
So, NOW they sent this email saying that they are concerned about my classes and the contents…like we have a syllabus, that they wrote, and I never miss work, my class is up to date. They really want me to do the 報告 of every class. Like, “today’s syllabus says: unit 2, page 9, so we did unit 2, page 9”. I just hate this micro management.
And I am paranoid or they want to get rid of me? I’m afraid that they might tell me that they don’t want me to continue, and I have been here for 5 years already…
Applied tax refund online, months go by, nothing. Stuck in the ‘under investigation’ period
Spend money to fly back to bumfuck city for tax. Got the usual sorrymasen your number is correct we will process the refund now.
Gave them bank info. The application is now “in process”
Two days later a single phone call at 4.58 pm. I miss.
Now it went back to ‘under investigation’
What’s the point of all this?
I’m really sick of my job as an ALT recently. Not because the job sucks, I actually rather like it. It’s the kids who have become unbearable in recent years.
Starting with kids who will constantly talk while their teacher or I am explaining something. You tell them to shut up, and they’ll just do the same thing moments later. Can’t kick them out, they got “a right to their education” (ignoring that they are depriving others of the same right).
Then you have those who will just not follow any instructions, no matter what language they come on. Open a certain page, say it in Japanese several times, the page is on display on the TV, kids have to fill something out. Walk around, several kids haven’t even opened their books, or are on another page, or are doing something else entirely.
Then you have the ones who will get upset when you tell them to stop doing whatever stupid thing they are doing, and then tell you they weren’t doing the thing you just saw them doing. No, you can’t balance your desk on your legs at an angle, it’s dangerous, please stop. No, you can’t throw your pencil at other people. Would you please sit and look forward, could you stop talking with the person behind you.
And this is not like the lower grades, where I could understand it. It’s like 5-6 grade EL and then in Junior High as well.
You get people sleeping, and when you wake them up they get annoyed and stare at the wall the entire class, actively avoiding to learn anything. You ask to write something, they don’t know because they never study, and they don’t want to try, so they just don’t to anything. You ask to share something, and no one raises their hands.
Now, of course, it may be possible that just ALL the JTEs I work with are bad, and thus the classes are all bad and thus when I am there the students can’t or won’t do anything, but I highly doubt it. Or it could just be luck, that I had not encountered it in this magnitude until recently. I just want to help teach English. I don’t want to have to beg the students every single day to please study and please participate and please don’t disturb and please don’t ignore the teacher. I’m getting real pissed off and just seeing some of their faces makes me feel disgusted.
Edit: Thank you all for your attempts at advice. I’m thankful for everyone who took the time to provide their thoughts. But for anyone else who reads this: This is a rant thread. I want to rant about some kids who are a pain to deal with. I don’t really care how many years of experience you have or how many difficult kids you managed to turn around, it’s not gonna happen for some of the kids I teach as they actively refuse and actively sabotage classes. It’s nice of you that you are trying to help, and I appreciate you very much, but without having seen the classroom and the kids most of your advice is probably not going to be very helpful. I read some of it and agreed that it would be helpful if the only problem was that the kid was struggling. But that is unfortunately not the case.
Whelp the last full service gas station in my area is closed and under renovations. I will miss the great service they used to provide.
Continuing a previous tirade on machines that talk too much, I pulled up to the entrance gate of a parking lot yesterday and three separate machines started talking all at the same time. I could barely pick out what any of them were trying to say over each other, but it was very obvious that you just grab the ticket that the machine spat out and drive on through.
Why the hell do you need three machines to start yapping in that old Japanese lady voice for such obvious and mundane things?
I want a Steam Machine but am not ready for the price in ¥…
They started stocking my favorite はちみつ紅茶 in the vending machine by my local train station… but it’s only offered cold. Give me more non-coffee warm drink options, it’s November!
Sick since Tuesday. Wasn’t Flu or Covid according to the test I took but fever’s been high and it’s been rough… I got meds but still just day 3.
—
Wife and I went to Toriki with MIL and we were sat in the back corner. A family with a two year old child came in and sat down in the table next to ours. Kid was hacking up a storm without covering his mouth and parent’s weren’t doing anything to try to cover his mouth at all. ***For the entire two hours we were there.***
Like, I get it. You want to go out during the weekend and you have to bring your child because no one will watch them. You decide to go to a place with alcoholic beverages to take a load off, and Toriki does have kids stuff, so you go there. I’m not upset at parents taking their kids out. I’m upset that parents just sit idly by without attempting to correct rude or inappropriate behaviors.
I used to *~~babysit~~* teach two year olds. I get they don’t have the capacity to follow directions and I get they’re a handful to just sit still, but as parents, its still your responsibility to judge whether or not you should be going out with your incessantly coughing two year old child in the first place. And if you still decide to do so, at LEAST have the decency to try to help them cover their mouth when they cough. Don’t just sit idly by and laugh as if nothing’s happening. Kid probably goes to 幼稚園 in the morning, might have picked something up since school is a breeding ground for bacteria and illness, and now you’re just sharing that all around you without a care in the world.
Covid showed us all that humans still suck even in pandemics but for fucks sake does it still irritate me when I see people who don’t care.
We’re having dinner with friends near Kappabashi tonight. Was planning to spend time looking around Kappabashi while waiting for our reservation only to find out they close at 17:00?! This was supposed to be my first time going there but oh well.
Three people came into work over the last few days with the flu and now I have it, and have to take the next few days off completely unpaid. Such bullshit
Japanese YouTube content makers and overly loud background music, low effort overly used cookie cutter sound effects, and variety tv style intros.
Stuck at a god damn black company with no good exit strategy….
A second one. Just saw some new graphics cards that were much more affordable than 500k or 300k. OK, I might bite. Look at my motherboard and realize I’m not going to be able to use it to the fullest. OK, I’ll change my motherboard. Oh, Windows with an OEM license means that’s probably not going to work. (I run linux on other machines but I have stuff that only really works properly and reliably in Windows, unfortunately).
And thus I’m not buying any upgrades and will probably end up building another PC at some point instead and turning this one into a media machine for the living room or something. I’m not in any super hurry, but a slightly depressing realization.
Sorry I need to make another rant.
For 6 years my water company has only sent invoices every 2 months instead of monthly. This has been annoying as I’m somewhat good at paying bills monthly but not so good in putting money aside monthly. Now my internet provider is doing the same. And I’d like to say, what the hell?! Most people get their salaries monthly, most bills are calculated monthly. Why do they suddenly do this shit and mess up my monthly money flow!? Ah of course, because it’s cheaper / easier for them. Seriously, not only have prices for utilities etc gone up immensely, service has gotten worse and worse here in so many instances as well. I don’t care wtf your preferences are, I’m on a monthly contract send me a monthly bill damnit!
Oh look, the government is now changing zairyu card renewal fees to 40,000; PR fees to 100,000.
Japan is going full “fuck foreigners” mode.
The kusuri generic whey protein powder I buy has gone up 500yen. I saw it last week and rage quit whey protein powder. I bought some flavourless soy powder instead. I’ve gone from two shakes a day to a forced one. Might be a blessing in disguise.
Coworker made a joke about a simple task he was doing saying cant believe we get paid X to do this. Turns out his is 2.5 mil more than my X 😐
Exhausted tired of this country and the way they treat foreigners. I want to move soon… this country is killing itself slowly.
Saw the news that the fees to renew your residency or get PR are probably going to increase a lot. I can’t imagine that the processing fee for any other government service would increase by 10x and not cause a shitstorm.
The worst part of being multilingual is you get to read the depressing news around the world through a variety of depressing windows.
Started a job working with small children and managed to catch the flu from my literal first shift, told to take 2 weeks off by the doctor, lost voice completely for a week, having to stay indoors during my (short-lived) favourite weather to be outside.
Takaichi
So now next year I’ll have to pay
Shaken
Residence tax lunp sum from my old municipality
Residence card renewal tax
That’s okay, surely my salary will go up and the price of goods will go down.
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