Weekly Complaint Thread – 04 December 2025

26 comments

1. No politics? 😂

2. It’s too damn cold.

   I like Japan but the lack of real seasons is BS, it’s either really hot or really cold, you’ll be lucky to get two weeks in-between of decent temperature, if it’s not raining for those 2 weeks.

3. I feel like sometimes my kindness towards people here is a waste. I’m drained. Maybe it’s not kindness then . Maybe it’s self seeking behaviour

4. I’ve realized something about my approach. If I want to better learn Japanese, I am going to have to start humbling myself and start opening up to other people and use their manners/ways of speaking, and start actually caring about them. I’ve realized I am a very self centered and negative person and probably because I am American.

   But for others to be interested in you in Japan you have to go out of your way to show some interest in them. I hate it! But isn’t it like that for people all around the world? People primarily care about themselves. If you cater to other people and show interest in them then that feeds into their ego.

   It’s really weird and a game I don’t really like because I’ve grown up mostly independent. If people don’t show an interest in me then why should I bother talking to them? But if I ever want to get out of the ALT grind I got to swallow my pride and learn and make a habit out of these basic life skills. I have to learn how to make conversations run smoothly.

5. Minimum wage workers seem to be idiots.

   Some yanki kids parked their stupid moped up in front of a loading spot at a ramen shop on my route. I’m on a schedule. I don’t have time to hunt down the owner so I moved the damned thing a meter off to the right so I could park the truck. It’s not even a parking spot.

   I guess they were outside watching me the whole time and while I was unloading the truck I could hear them talking shit about me likeクソ！クソ！ and other shit I tuned out.

   Don’t park your dumb moped in areas that aren’t parking spots. Or at least see me trying to park the truck and come over and move your bike yourself.

   One of my coworkers is a kind of a dick and made a mountain out of a mole hill. I made a small mistake that made him wait for around 20 min. I apologized and though I didn’t do it properly, (apologized as I quickly fixed the mistake instead of bowing to him directly and apologizing. My bad)

   He told the leader of my shift that I didn’t apologize and that I made him wait for almost an hour (I didn’t) it’s been long enough that if I were to apologize now, it would just be awkward. I almost never see the guy anyway so I’m gonna let time take care of it.

6. Not really Japan related but I’ve been working as a preschool teacher for the past 3 years and it’s slowly been grinding my will to live into a fine dust. At first I enjoyed it, it was chaotic and fun and I thought eventually everything would fit into a rhythm. But every year we got more and more students applying, some of them with a lot of behavioural issues and I’m just stretched thin. To this day we are still having trial students randomly come in when we are at max capacity.

   I have an “escape plan” to leave Japan and go back home next April after the school year ends. I’m looking towards April like I’ve been in the desert the past few years and finally found some water. My friends always ask me “are you gonna continue being a teacher when you move back?” And my reply is always FUCK NO! I respect the hell out of teachers now I know what it’s like.

7. What will soon start is this:

   >**Student:** ‘Will I be able to get credit for this course?’

   >**Me:** ‘Look at the class Web site. Your current grade is listed there.’

   >**Student:** ‘It says 22%.’

   >**Me:** ‘A passing grade is 60%.’

   >**Student:** ‘What if I get a high score on the final exam?’

   >**Me:** ‘The final exam is worth 10% of the grade, so if you get 100%, your score will rise to 32%.’

   About 1/3 of the students like this will later register a complaint with the registrar, claiming they should get a C because they only missed a quarter of the classes.

8. I feel a lot of instability about my future here from outside forces. Too soon to know what will happen, if anything, but the wait ain’t great either.

   Kawasaki is tightening up their maintenance plan dates. I might have to take my bike in in January in Tohoku or forfeit that maintenance. Previously, they let me put it off to February when it was less bad. I won’t be renewing any maintenance contract with them if I can confirm that, especially now that I at least have space to work on a bike (though I have tools to buy).

9. My wife’s boss is harassing her for taking off 10 days of PTO for the Christmas holidays even though she hasn’t taken a single day off in 6 months. What an absolute witch. 

10. The amount of people applying loose setting powder while sitting next to me on the train is way too high. Use a pressed powder or apply it in the restroom, I’m begging you.

11. I hate how you have to actively try and not look like a pervert when you’re behind someone in a skirt on the escalator. Like I get it but the hand thing feels accusatory

12. 40th anniversay of Angel’s Egg is screening, went and saw it. The complaint is the merch is pretty boring. I bought a keychain, unwrap it form it’s packaging, and it’s pretty much a plastic square with a sticker slapped on it lol. Even worse is it’s one-sided, but I coudn’t tell because of the wrapping. So I slapped a sticker on the other side.

13. One my staff told me she is going to look for a new job because of our new mandatory hybrid RTO policy (3 days in office). She is the best paralegal I’ve ever worked with, 100% of her work is on a computer and 100% of her communication is by email, aside from calls with me. Her salary is very good but she says she will take a pay cut to stay 100% remote lol.

    Stupid fucking executives man.

14. nearly forgot it was my bestie back home’s birthday in a few days, so I went to get my usual of flowers for her (which she definitely appreciates). I always use the same small florist local to her area, and I think it’s gotten to the point that they recognize my orders and throw in small freebies here and there, which is super nice of them, but with the dollar/yen exchange rate and just the sheer cost of flowers, it is getting… exorbitant.

    I would get her snacks, but girl is allergic to *everything* (but somehow not flowers???). I guess I could try cobbling together some gluten/nut/soy/etc-free cookies and whatnot, but I’d still be wrecked by the price of items + shipping + taxes.

    sigh… the things we do for friends.

15. So I am commuting to work this morning and I stand in front of the priority seats, one lady leaves, I don’t sit so a Japanese guy in his 40s politely takes the sit.

    So he is holding his phone at an angle that makes it very easy to see his screen, and that guy is scrolling naked dudes with their dongs out like he is shopping on amazon, wtf. I saw hentai manga stuff, kinky mobile games, people scrolling tinder or bumble, but this is next level “I don’t give a fuck”.

16. Last night I dropped my ice cream while walking home from the station!

    Worst day ever🤦🏽‍♂️

17. time lag with home: when I see my emails on the morning in Japan, it is night in France, so even if I answer quickly, next reply will take long.

    Also, having to make my calls when it is evening in Japan, morning in France, while I’d rather deal with them in the morning and be done with it.

18. it’s winter and people needs to learn how to drive again 😩

    it’s snowing, -6°C , roads are frozen AF. and this lady in a alphard almost crashed into me because she was driving too fast and went on full brakes on 止まれ.

    her vehicle went bit sideways and managed stopped like 1-2 feet away from my vehicle.

    daaamn lady SLOW TF DOWN.😫

19. I feel like I’m tired of living in the city.

    It’s busy everywhere, all the time.

    It’s noisy.

    People are cold.

    2nd tier Japanese cities are insanely ugly, unmaintained, and falling apart as the population declines.

    Part of me thinks moving to the inaka might be nice but perhaps it might exacerbate my feelings about unmaintained, rusting away towns. And while property sizes are certainly larger in the countryside, it still seems incredibly dense compared to I’m from.

    I view countryside living as a tradeoff between convenience and privacy/open space, but it seems like Japanese countryside provides neither? Despite being very car oriented the streets are still barely wide enough to fit two modern cars through.

    I used to complain about how car oriented North America was but at least they make it easy to operate a vehicle.

    People who live in small towns or away from large centers, how do you feel about where you live? Very curious to hear other’s opinions.

20. My Internet Provider: Please ask your landlord permission to install a cable to update your internet connection.

    Me to my landlord: Can I have permission for Internet Provider to install a cable to update my internet connection?

    My landlord to me: What are you on about?

    Me to my landlord: Here’s a picture of the change. They say they can run a cable in way A, B or C. Which is okay?

    My landord’s supposed maintenance support person: The change is fine if there is no damage to the building.

    Me to my landlord’s supposed maintenance support person: Ok. So they say they need to run a cable in way A, B or C. Which is okay?

    My landlord’s supposed maintenance support person: What are you on about?

    Me: *Ready to tear my hair out*

    Me to my landlord’s supposed maintenance support person: *Does best to write a more detailed explanation with bullet points whilst also suggesting they should call the Internet Provider because their answer will be more comprehensive.*

    —

    I know my Japanese is far from perfect, but surely this is a simple, regular thing rental companies deal with? Like, they should be able to apply some basic problem solving skills to understand what I’m trying to get across? And surely this should be a simple ‘Yes, please use method A’ / ‘No, but we can recommend X provider’ type thing.

21. Im so fucking depressed. 

    Life is good. I have things to look forward to, a couple of interviews lined up, it’s been nothing but good news and good times with my loved ones and friends recently but I’m so fucking sad and dejected all the time. I’ve been working on my self image and have slowly been coming to terms with how I look and it’s been really great. 

    My hobbies feel like a slog, and just thinking about being creative makes me anxious and upset. 

    I feel like a fraud in all my social circles. I keep feeling like I don’t fit in anywhere and always find myself feeling like everyone doesn’t like me. I hate it. I never used to be like this. 

    Recently I’ve upped my anti depressant to 100mg but it seems to be having the adverse effect. 

    Any advice or words of encouragement? Love you all. 

22. The absolute indignation on display by self-entitled salarymen on the morning commute when their perceived entitlement to a seat and a half is gaijin-smashed out of reality.

23. Parents are here until mid-Dec, staying in my place the whole time. Tending to people is so draining…

    But I get free food and other expenses, so I’m not really complaining. Just need to gaman for ten more days…

24. I was a proposed a promotion. It would involve more people management, more cross-team meetings, finishing my day around 7:30pm regularly instead of 6 or 6:30pm right now, more responsibilities, etc…

    I knew the previous person in this position was leaving (I was one of his reference), and we already handover, that’s how I saw how much work was involved.

    So I asked for a 15% raise, still quite under market rate for that position. It was refused, because they don’t do raise outside of April or October review periods. They also don’t do bonuses when you were underpaid for 3 months. They also have a cap on raises (about 10%) for each review period. So it would take until next October to get a salary that matches the new position.

    So I refused the promotion, and they gave it to a contractor, who doesn’t have access to many internal tools (but they expect me to help with that lol). At least I trust the contractor, but it’s just a bit ridiculous, because now the project manager and the tech lead on my project are going to be contractors.

    Anyway, the CEO, who celebrated last month record profit and stock prices during the all company meeting, explained to my director that “he couldn’t break the rules for 1 employee or it would be “the collapse of the whole company rules”.

    The only silver lining is my director understood my position and didn’t even insist asking me to take the promotion. The guy is nice to talk with, but he can’t really do anything about all the management issues in the company. He also told me I did a great job last semester and gave me the minimum possible raise, so there’s that too.

25. My first son was born during COVID so my parents couldn’t enter the country. My second was born last month but my parents already used up all their vacation days for the year earlier. I just miss my mom and dad. Last night I had a dream where they came to visit and I ran to my mom with tears in my eyes. Woke up crying. I’m hoping to go back to visit after my son’s first round of vaccinations. 

26. Everyone in my company is kind of an asshole lately. Unbelievable but it’s actually getting worse. Really the only complaint I have is the culture (and to an extent the salary I have to beg to get a raise for), otherwise it would be a perfect place to work at.

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