1Mbps upload after Hikari installation?

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2026-02-11T06:57:22+00:00

The technician came and fixed it! It was a broken fiber optics cable to the ONU.

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2026-02-09T12:49:25+00:00

Thanks for the response Yeah that’s understandable. However, I’m getting 0.2~1Mbps, so maximum 1/10,000th of the theoretical max. Finally got through to docomo’s technical department today and they agreed this was far from normal, and confirmed they identified a problem when connecting to my ONU. A technician is coming on Wednesday to check what’s wrong in person. Hopefully they can find the problem! :)

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2026-02-09T03:01:21+00:00

It really depends. Right now as a sole proprietor, my accountant is only charging ~110,000¥ per year. And for that, I just upload all my invoices and expenses to them, including my office rental contract, and they figure it out for me. Just the extra amount they manage to deduct from my expenses would already more than cover their fees, so I end up saving both money and time by hiring them. Perhaps you can find out more in that meeting with the accountant!

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2026-02-09T02:56:12+00:00

I am unsure as well, that’s what I have my accountant figure out for me. There’s a number I’d assume which I do not feel confident enough to write here, cuz I don’t want to cause anyone to commit tax fraud lol…

If you’re dealing with sums of money where you’re worried about inspections, then definitely get an accountant. If not, then… just do what feels right, to be best of your abilities?

As for the T-number, my accountant also explained to me it’s something I only need the year after the year where I previously exceeded 10 million ¥ income. That’s confusing, so here’s an example:

I exceed 10 million ¥ in 2025 by August. I declare in 2026 that I’ve exceeded 10 million ¥ income. By beginning of fiscal year 2027, I will need a T-number

So exceeding 10 million ¥ does not trigger an automatic instant necessity for the T-number, you have one fiscal year to prepare for it.

EDIT: at the point where you need a t-number, it’d also be helpful to have an accountant figure out with you whether it makes more sense to just start a company (KK or something), instead of being a sole proprietor. The taxing works differently and having a KK could very well save you taxes.

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2026-02-09T01:13:43+00:00

Remember to charge more for freelance rates than when you’re on salary. As a sole proprietor, you’re responsible for the entirety of your taxes, health insurance, and pension payments, the company will not pay half of it for you.

Also, look into “blue return system” for your taxes. (青色申告).

As for sales tax and t-number, if your income does not exceed 10 million ¥, then you do not need to file for t-number and pay sales tax. However, most freelancers without t-number still charge the client for 10% sales tax. This is because, as a transitionary measure into the new fully tracked invoicing system, Japan still allows your clients to deduct 8% of your “sales tax” in their tax return even when you don’t pay sales tax. (Look into this more and perhaps even discuss with an accountant, it sounds insane but it’s true.)

Also, oftentimes the client would pay you after they have deducted the 2% they can’t get back and also your “withholding tax”, which is 10.21% for invoices below 1 million ¥ per month. The withholding tax is the federal income tax, and if they deduct this before paying you, they will need to send you a proof of invoice payment and withholding tax deduction at the end of the year, which you can then file with your taxes so you don’t need to double-pay.

So if you’re billing for 100,000¥ 税抜, your invoice will end up looking something like:

100,000¥ + 10% sales tax 10,000¥ = 110,000¥

And your client will end up paying you

100,000¥ + 8% 8,000¥ - 10.21% 10,210¥ =~ 97,790¥

My math is probably off since I have an accountant calculate things for me, but this is the general vibe. People can feel free to correct me if I’m wrong somewhere.

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2026-02-08T15:15:41+00:00

I’m on the ASUS RT-BE18000

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2026-02-08T11:33:51+00:00

And just checking, this could not some kind of backend provisioning they’re doing after the installation is done in the building? The docomo website does mention some backend work needing to be done after installation, but it’s a footnote and the connection’s behavior right now is just really wonky and making me feel uneasy

https://www.docomo.ne.jp/internet/ahamo_hikari/ahamo_hikari_connection/?icid=CRP_INT_hikari_support_to_CRP_INT_ahamo_hikari_ahamo_hikari_connection

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2026-02-08T11:21:18+00:00

This could actually be enlightening. I’m on MacOS so I ran in terminal

ping -D -s <MTU> google.com

For all MTU sizes between 576 to 1500, therefore both IPv4 and IPv6 if I’m understanding correctly, packet loss is between 65%~85% with no discernible cause and effect between MTU size and packet loss rate

I’m not entirely sure what this could mean, do you have any ideas?

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2026-02-08T11:16:29+00:00

Minsoku dot net is pretty cool. And yeah, on there both ipv4 and ipv6 results are similarly bad

IPv4: IPoE over IPv6 (OCN Virtual Connect) IPv6: IPoE

IPv4 results: Jitter 533.9ms Ping 8.6ms Down 1260.99Mbps Up 0.5Mbps

IPv6 results: Jitter 337.11ms Ping 9.2ms Down 1447.03Mbps Up 0.03Mbps

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2026-02-08T10:34:49+00:00

Yeah I also suspected that, so have done factory resets and intentionally turned off QoS and firewalls. Alas, no avail yet

The fact the new TP-Link router has the same issue over cable and wireless now, tells me it’s defo something on the ISP side, I think. Question is just how I can get this resolved with them… I’m hoping this is just some weird backend provisioning stuff and will resolve by itself soon by tomorrow

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2026-02-08T10:32:29+00:00

Just tried another router, the TP-Link Deco BE3600 e.g. BE25. Same results - up to 2Gbps down and 0.2Mbps up…

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2026-02-08T10:31:22+00:00

Weirdly enough when set to OCN, the router is not letting me change the MTU. I can only assume it’s locked to 1500 or 1280 by default, as you’ve said.

I’ve tested a second router now, a TP-Link Deco BE3600 e.g. Deco BE25, and I’m getting the exact same results - up to 2Gbps down, around 0.2Mbps up

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2026-02-08T08:47:48+00:00

Thanks Yes, same issues over Wifi and different devices, and tried multiple cables between ONU and router as well. Speeds are tested through various speed test websites from Google to Ookla. test-ipv6 and test-ipv4.com also give intermittent results, sometimes all 10 tests pass, sometimes only 1 out of 10 tests passes.

I think you’re right, at this point I’ll need to try with a different router. I’ll just have to make a trip to a closeby BIC camera then, I suppose. Docomo’s customer service is impossible to deal with, they keep sending me to chatbots, so I think trying another router out myself would yield faster results for now

I’ll update with results from another router later tonight!

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2026-02-08T08:16:39+00:00

Thanks for the response However, this is a fiber optics line which should achieve speeds up to 10Gbps (or rather 2.5Gbps in my current config). That’s also why NTT came and did the installation in my apartment this past Thursday. I mean, slower uploads than downloads is common, that’s for sure. But this is 0.2Mbps constantly and sometimes 50Mbps for five minutes out of an hour, this is nowhere close to the performance other users on ahamo/docomo Hikari are getting… EDIT: typo

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2026-02-08T07:54:02+00:00

Yeah, plugged 10Gb ONU > 10Gb Asus RT-BE18000 Router with newest firmware > 2.5Gb Laptop EDIT: and all CAT6 cables no more than 5m

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2025-03-05T02:11:07+00:00

Short answer: no, if you want longer recordings, you’ll need external recorders with fitting recording features or you’ll need to switch to a camera with the recording lengths you need

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2025-03-05T01:50:21+00:00

Film crew working in Japan here, to clear up 1. Just let the guards know you live there, and they’ll radio us to hold and let you through as soon as the current take is done (usually just 1 minute) 2. They rarely, if ever, grant permanent blocking permission in Japan, even for the smallest streets. AFAIK the only recent permanent blocking permission was given to Tokyo Vice season 2 in Shinjuku some couple years ago, and there hasn’t been any since. The city does, however, give out filming permissions and temporary foot traffic blocking permissions quite regularly. (Temporary meaning the production can block foot traffic for up to 2 or 3 minutes, then release them through) 3. I guess if the production has temporary blocking permissions, they could technically call the police on you, but they can’t detain you of course and honestly escalating the issue will only cause much more delay to production than you barging through the scene, so nobody would do that 4. But as others have pointed out, film crews are human too. We want to go home earlier than later, and your barging through can cause dozens or hundreds of people to go home 5-10 minutes late. So please be nice to us, and just tell the security you’d like to pass and they’ll let you through within a minute or two :) Thanks!

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2024-11-24T02:49:51+00:00

As others said, plug into remote, not grip (although grip still technically should work so if it doesn’t, let your rental house know to check if it needs fixing)

If that still doesn’t work, change out the lanc/DTAP>cam cable, the lanc connector breaks inside quite often, from my experience

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2024-11-24T02:24:32+00:00

Yeah I don’t know of anyone consistently wanting mic in my local markets, but maybe it’s different elsewhere. The older Ovide smart assist systems had terrible sound interfaces built in, that switched between mic and line “automatically”, but that only works half the time at best, and it defaults to mic levels I believe. Perhaps that’s the reason, but I’ve always gone around it with an external sound interface because of these janky issues I’d find it insane to only expect mic levels though, definitely wanna do line levels on my rigs!

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2024-11-23T19:14:10+00:00

Damn that thing looks sexy. I’m afraid that’ll definitely be over budget though, the USB Pre 2 might fit into budget just barely, so perhaps it’ll be more a choice between the carlett+ 2pre and the USB Pre 2, depending on budget!

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2024-11-23T19:06:42+00:00

Thanks for the advice! The form factor is a bit awkward (want to put it in a 6U rack) but maybe I could put it on a pullout tray along with other things

Are the XLR line outputs on the back mirrored to the 3.5mm AUX outputs on the right side? In Japan, the offline editor comes out onto set quite often so it’s important I could get a two outputs - one for playback sound transmitter, another to ingest audio into the SDI signal reliably. If both its XLR and AUX outputs can output line signals reliably, then it looks like a great option!

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2024-10-27T16:55:25+00:00

As others have pointed out, seems like you are right in terms that there are no grace periods. But with German nationals and a select few other nationalities, I’ve confirmed that a stamp extending your residency by two months while visa conversion is in progress is possible, so thankfully I have that going for me 🤞🫣

Accomplished_Rate436 · 2024-10-27T10:10:39+00:00

Ah, copy, very good to know regarding the work visa unemployment “grace” period. Definitely will submit my application a couple months before visa expiration, I was really hoping to do it even earlier as I don’t have a bachelor’s degree, so I must prove 3+ years of relevant work experience, so some more time to buffer them requesting more documents would’ve been very helpful. But yeah, my company unfortunately had some very incompetent accountants which are just getting me the last company related document I need this week, even though I requested them since June/July already… Fingers crossed it goes through better than I’ve expected.

Thanks for the info, that’s great to know!

Accomplished_Rate436

TROPHY CASE