Weekly Complaint Thread – 26 February 2026

38 comments

1. I’m tired. I need to take a day off to get some sleep but the guy I gotta talk to always seems to leave before I get a chance to talk to him.

   50cc scooters need to be banned.

   I’m making decent money but goddam I work too much. 6 days a week is killing me but I’m FINALLY able to not worry about money for past several years I’ve been at my current job.

2. Management is so out of touchhhh holy fuck. Waiting for my biannual bonus to be dispensed before resigning. Should have done so in December.

   In other news, I am developing a hopeless crush. Goddamnit not again.

3. My complaint is me. My motivation the past few months is just down the shitter. Can’t find the energy or will to do anything these days.

4. So. Many. Newcomers.

5. Costco stopped carrying cheddar cheese 😭

6. Seat opened up this morning on the train. As soon as train opened the doors this older guy runs, pushed me out of the way and sites there.

   Everyone looked at him and I just laugh and got a spot near the doors to lean on.

7. 1 – gave my daughter a shoulder ride while I cooked breakfast.  Got a decent headache now because it messed up my neck.

   2 – using self-sereve registers.  Firstly, they exist.  Secondly, all the damned screens you need to get through before you can scan.  Filling up the car is soooo much worse.  I just want to get my shit and pay.

   3 – new house means new rooms for wife to keep lit while nobody’s in them.

8. I hate with the burning passion of a million suns the self-registers which have a built-in scale.

   Even when they work flawlessly (assuming that is ever the case), they are so much slower since you can’t be scanning the next item until the previous one is stable at rest.

   And, Ameterasu forbid that you need to move your curry pan out of the way so it doesn’t get scrunched by the incoming cartons of milk.

   My recent kink is buying a whole carton of whatever bottled drink, just so I can bitch to the poor cashier watchman about the whole system when they have to come over and put the magic piece of tape on the box while also keying in 17 different passwords that will allow the PoS (I didn’t choose the abbreviation) to continue.

9. Working for a company that has given me my notice but also expects me to turn up everyday with a smile and give 110%. ☠️

10. Someone in my neighborhood is just letting their dog shit everywhere.

11. Had an annoying conversation in the elevator yesterday.

    A woman from my company saw me leaving at 5:30 p.m. (which is the normal time to leave here) and said, “Hayai desu ne!” I told her it’s not early at all, I arrive at 8:00 in the morning. And she goes, “Hayai desu ne!” again, this time about my morning arrival time, as if that’s the only thing she knows how to say.

    Then she asked if I have flex time. I don’t, I just follow the hours written in my contract. She just giggled and looked like she didn’t get it.

    It’s fucking annoying. It feels like, to them, arriving early doesn’t count as dedication. Only staying late and doing overtime proves what a good corpo-slave you are. Sorry lady, I’ve got a life outside of this office.

12. working with the most useless university admin to secure a partnership agreement – he has done so little to help, despite the fact that getting a corporate partnership means a lot of money and student jobs coming in to their school.

    refused to do the MCing at first and insisted that I do it because he just *can’t*, until my boss said to his face that that was an absurd excuse and he needs to be MC. cannot be assed to make a single document, I have created and keep updating everything. he literally sends in revisions either written directly into an email or *handwritten and fucking photographed*.

    insists that we write the press release, and the university will just use whatever we make, but also wants it like, *now*. but they wouldn’t pick a location for the signing ceremony until very recently, which is absolutely necessary for a press release. if you want it now, fucking write it yourself (and pick a location while you’re at it).

    they are a third-rate school that nobody in our own prefecture has heard of. idk why we have to do this tie-up with them specifically when there are at least a dozen other far better schools in terms of academic and administrative quality nearby that would be elated to work with us.

13. I’m about to lose my friend to cancer. They were one of the first people I met after moving here, and stayed the whole time we watched others heading back home.

14. Back for more…

    Forecast top of 19 and a low of 9, sunny.  A bit of cloud cover so the morning os quite pleasant.  Dare I say? – it’s perfect weather.

    So how about we put on all of the heaters and set the one in the office to 23, the warehouse ones to 20?  What?  Wear warmer clothes?  You fucken…?  It’s easier to waste resources and company money.

15. Are stickers the new labubus and Pokémon cards?

    I went to my local Daiso a few times recently to buy stickers for my daughter to make letters for the graduating kids and everytime I went to Daiso the sticker section seemed to be very sparse. I can’t find any Sanrio stickers at all and I remember Daiso was always full of them.

    I’ve seen stickers in claw machines in game centers. This is ridiculous and I can’t wait for this dumb trend to be over.

16. I wish a local obaasan would stop inviting me to Moonie “church” stuff. I went the first time because I didn’t know the “calligraphy meeting” was Moonie “church” shit. Unfortunately she knows my address due to a previous roommate having a parking arrangement on her property so when I don’t answer LINE, she rings the doorbell, and vice versa. I was just trying to be nice and help a nice old lady be less lonely man. I’ve been finding excuses so far but if the thing tomorrow isn’t just “lunch, tea, and listening to her husband play the biwa” as advertised I’m gonna have to tell her that sorry I don’t think that dead Korean man was the second Messiah and I have no interest in her cult.

17. The stairs I carved into the snow to get in and out of my house are constantly losing their stairiness in the unseasonably warm weather and I’m sick of redoing them.

18. Japan’s process- and appearance-focused culture is clashing with my “just get it fucking done” mentality and I fucking hate it. So much useless redundancy and legwork for simple fucking things.

19. I signed up for my first credit card yesterday! I was super conscious about getting my name right but it thankfully had a help page for middle name/name too long cases

    I had to state my “kanji”, my furigana and my romaji. The help page said in the romaji field to just put your middle initial if your middle name is too long, and then send an email stating your full name and all possible readings. Sent the email, yay done

    Now I currently have a missed call and voicemail from the card company asking me to call them back 😩.

    I can speak enough Japanese but I would MUCHHH rather sort the name issue via a clearly typed email… I can see myself getting muddled on the phone!! Hopefully this is just a routine ID check call and I won’t need to touch the name issue 😭

    Update: I called and spoke to an ABSOLUTE ANGEL of a woman🙏 apparently the name on my family credit card from my husband’s account doesn’t have the middle name, so she wanted to add the middle name over there to clear things up. She was absolutely lovely and spoke very kindly and clearly 🥲🤍

    So yay, all sorted, back in business. All this to probably get rejected in a few weeks LOLL😆

20. I just had a baby and that sealed the fact that I now officially 100% hate the omiyage/okaeshi/oiwai culture in this country.

    Anything is an excuse to buy unneeded and overpriced crap that is mostly going to sit there until it’s not good anymore, or get passed to other people because I can’t possibly eat that much stuff.

    And all this aura of “we got this, so we HAVE to give this back”. Like, the only ones this makes sense for are the shops who sell what you’re buying. Someone buys you something, and then you have to buy something back for them. But in most cases both parties don’t really need what is given to them.

    In my country you do things out of love and care, here it all feels transactional. You HAVE to give something. And then they HAVE to give back.

    The amount of wasted money and resources is pissing me off.

21. Dealing with a colleague who can’t function without ChatGPT.

    For every question or issue they ‘need a minute’ and then I can see them type away and how their eyes track across their screens to see a generated response, or if they’re not there I get a poorly edited slop message.

    I can’t even look at them like a human being if every single interaction basically doesn’t exist.

22. Just as I go to sit down on Yamanote Line the guy sitting next to me intentionally rams his shoulder and elbow into mine, looks over irritated and tells me that his shoulder hurts and I need to move mine. It’s not my first rodeo so I look over and see the 4 inches of space on his other side and let him know if he’s short on space maybe he should scooch over a little.

    「日本のマナーだから！」

    Bud, you’re elbowing people on the train and then demanding they move and give you space? How about starting off with some politer language?

    Or perhaps he was just talking about this new age Japanese ぶつかりおばあさん“culture” of elbowing children and foreigners.

23. Uh⋯⋯30-40mins useless daily Teams standup meeting makes me feeling sick. Not interested in listening other people’s speaking (Like this moment I’m still in the meeting, but I’m replying to this thread). And my boss is micromanaging everything, Telling my boss I am writing spec sheet during my turn, am asked to show him the detail. Start nitpicking everything I am doing(GUI, function..etc). Com’on this is not a standup meeting…..it’s a progress review meeting and shouldn’t be done everyday 😇

24. gotta book a flight soon or the prices will break my bank. thing is, it’s too early to put in a PTO request. probably won’t be an issue, but there’s always the chance… that month is looking to get busy at work.

25. I met a foreigner in the bar who has been here for 10 years boasting about how he still can barely read or speak Japanese (he could barely speak English either). Had to walk away before I got irrationally angry. 

26. I have to come into work on Sunday for the graduation ceremony. Why does it HAVE to be 1st of March every year EVEN IF it lands on a weekend? I did get a substitute day off for it but why was that like two weeks ago? Give us the day after off instead UGHH

27. Bought a nice pair of boots like 4 years ago for around 20k, and they are starting to wear. I’m alright with it cause they have been getting me through the 4 years of northern winter, and it’s not like they’re completely broken, just too worn off to go another year.

    So I decided to buy another pair. I absolutely obsessed over what to buy. Decided to go with the same company, as the last boots served me greatly, but they don’t have the same model anymore, and a similar model was only in brown. I don’t want brown. So I looked for another pair of similar function (good grip and waterproof). Found one pair in the same size (29 or 30) but it was a bit tight on the side, as my feet are somewhat wide. Tried another pair of boots, much larger but also 29. They fit nicely, I had good freedom for the sides, walked around in the store, all good. Got super indecisive for a moment, but then decided to go ahead and buy them, also for 20k. They’re great boots! But when I got home and used them for the first real walk to work I noticed something I didn’t notice at the store, because I was so focused on the sides: The heel slips WAY too much. So much so that the socks visible wore down just after 2 or 3 days of use and me getting blisters on the heels.

    That’s me. That’s my rant. I obsess over what to buy and spend hours going back and forth and when I finally decide, I mess it up. Now I got a great pair of 20k winter boots that doesn’t quite fit me and that doesn’t sell on Mercari (because the same ones don’t even sell for less than 10k there now… ). Also wtf my feet, how can one pair of 29 be too small and another be too big? No idea….

28. Every time I foresee a potential issue and proactively work to prevent it, I’m told the prevention is unnecessary only for it to turn out I was right. Every. Fucking. Time.

    People are incapable of listening.

29. Almost got hit by a car.

    Again.

    Fucker didn’t even stop. Others at the lights seemed equally as shocked. It was a straight road, red light for them, green man for me. No crossing or anything. Fucker was in a world of his own and plowed through. Completely fucking oblivious.

    I’m leaving next month. I’m done with this shit.

30. i have a misaligned bite that causes very bad TMJ/thoracic outlet/etc issues that give me migraines and nausea. I got better at managing it in the last few years but guess who will now be working a job that will requires them to look down at 90 degrees for like 7 hours of the day at a fucking conveyer belt of mushrooms?

    >!What made me break down the way back from the internship wasn’t even the pain, the migraine or the nausea, it was how nobody took it seriously and how any attempts i made to make the job easier on my neck- standing on the floor instead of the stool that was made for the other workers that are much shorter than me, stretching etc- got me reprimanded. I was told to just gaman and that this is what everyone goes through which i guess, is standard japan. sigh.!<

    do NOT get an agriculture degree yall. the knowledge is great but there are no fucking jobs here. pay is abysmal. mynavi job descriptions lie. etc. be the average guy that gets a CS degree or international studies or smtg. you’ll suffer studying for hard ass exams and end up working dogshit jobs like this

31. My bosses keep messing up the zoom meeting entries for meetings that are MANDATORY for us to attend!!!

32. I’m tired of clinics with great reviews on Google, but when you arrive there they just do the bare minimum and barely look at you.

    I wish deleting negative reviews in Google was not allowed so I would stop wasting my time and money.

33. The teacher I hate (and sit next to) has been so up in my business recently. Like she wants to talk to me constantly, looking at my screen, asking what I’m looking at (during lunch break), and also interrupting me constantly if she sees me doing something she doesn’t like (eg, sending a text on my phone, or I guess reading wikipedia?).

    It seems like she either wants to be friends or is being all buddy buddy because she wants information out of me because she heard rumors I’m quitting because the BOE can’t keep their damn mouths shut. Today she got all close and whispery asking when my contract ends, probably hoping I’ll crack and tell her. Joke’s on her, I have strict parents and am pretty good at lying right to someone’s face lol.

    I don’t want to be friends, no matter how nice she is now. I had weekly nightmares due to her for two years and about a year ago she grabbed me and got angry because an activity went sideways. Forgive but never forget.

    (Yes I know I shouldn’t be texting at work but I’m an English clown at a small school and I’m quitting soon so I just don’t care. I do all my work first btw, there’s just very little to do and my sister had questions about Japanese today.)

34. My teacher has been withholding the class schedule even though she already has the complete schedule 🙃

    It’s been really frustrating having to ask for it each month, she doesn’t give it until the last second and this past week I asked her if she could send me the schedule for march

    She replies with もちろん then fast forward to one week and not a single update with the schedule

    It’s really frustrating even though there is nothing I can do about it.. I have plans to move so I wanted to be aware of my exam dates so that I can deal with everything I need to do in advance.

    I have no idea why it is that hard to send the schedule.. plus finals should be this month and graduation, it’s just so stressful 😫

35. Man I wish I’d been a bit more financially savvy when I was younger. Money is nothing but headaches these days. 

36. A recruiter contacted me to interview at an international school. The job pays 7.5 million a year. I’ve already decided to leave Japan soonish. YOU’RE TOO LATE!! Should have contacted me years ago.

37. waiting for my SoR update to clear so I can quit my current job. I was hoping for a nice April 1st work change, but I think it’ll have to be an April 7th-15th job change. I’m quite excited for the new company, but they took 6 weeks to APPLY for the SoR change (HSP to HSP…). I’m also so fucking done with my current LLM wrapper company. I hate so many things about it, and it’s only getting worse (products are LLM slop with 0 competitive edge, mgt is getting worse and worse, 1=>3 day RTO from April, and many more).

38. My baby has entered the four month old sleep regression phase. RIP restful night’s sleep. 

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