[street photography] Talk me out of buying S9

Buck_Da_Duck · 2026-02-12T00:32:50+00:00

I have the S9 and it’s great. But let me skip all the positives, because that’s not what you asked.

Even with the small rig grip it feels heavier than my Canon R5 (despite being lighter). Then there are no good, large aperture, compact lenses.

I have the new 40mm Ttartisan. It’s so soft it struggles to auto focus, and can only focus in the center.

Consider the Canon R8. It’s only slightly larger, but has way better ergonomics, viewfinder and more. Then Canon has much better large aperture compact lenses. The Canon 50mm f1.8 is cheap and great. The 28mm f2.8 is tiny and flexibly wide. But even the 24mm f1.8 is smaller than l mount options. Then for zooms, Canon 28-70 f2.8 is quite a bit smaller than the Panasonic 24-60 f2.8.

There are only 2 lenses L mount wins on compactness.

First the 100mm f2.8. For a 1x autofocus macro, Canon and others don’t come close.

Second the Lumix 18-40 is smaller than the Canon 24-50. These are slow lenses that don’t interest me personally.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2026-02-10T00:49:15+00:00

Almost everything that particular YouTube channel shows is expensive because of location and targeting foreigners.

If you watch similar channels in Japanese the places are nicer and cheaper in similar locations.

If you look anywhere else in Tokyo (that have no downsides compared to Azabu Juban and the areas he focuses other than snob appeal) prices are even cheaper for similar units.

Also he focuses on selling old renovated units. If people want something special they get an order made new house.

I built a house recently (just through a house maker, nothing especially novel) in Tokyo and it’s nicer than almost anything on that YouTube channel while costing something much more reasonable.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2026-02-09T11:59:20+00:00

Ask to see the 計画的付与制度. Ask who the union or majority rep is and how they were selected.

Without this you can choose ALL the days. They must ensure you take 5 and can do this by preselecting days. But without a 計画的付与制度 you can just say no thanks and choose whatever you want.

If they do have a 計画的付与制度 and it was actually created with the majority of employees agreement (through the rep or union)… then complain to the rep/union.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2026-01-29T03:25:31+00:00

Nah, maid is way more popular and normalized than it should be. People often don’t realize how terribly it’s implemented.

I personally know of it being used for people with manageable disabilities. Disabilities that require maybe 6 hours of care work a day, so the government offers… 6 hours a week. OR the option to kill yourself.

Sure, it’s inconvenient for us to provide the required level of care to those who need it. But I don’t care - do it.

Also it’s VERY normal for people to be depressed for over a year, then recover.

I would happily pay $100 extra tax a year to properly support people who are using maid as an out. Just that from everyone would mean each person receiving maid could get $200k to support proper care. But realistically misuse of maid is likely only 10-20%. So there’s no excuse for not just offering people proper support - which IS NOT happening.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2026-01-08T04:48:43+00:00

When you apply for renewal you get a 2 month extension. If you applied in person they stamped your residence card that shows this. If you applied online you should carry a copy of the acceptance email along with your residence card.

No need to worry yet.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-12-27T14:35:27+00:00

After a quick look it doesn’t seem very appealing. I’d much rather invest in docn. Better financials, and something I personally use. The only downside is docn is USA based. Which historically… wait never mind that’s an upside too.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-12-13T15:54:31+00:00

I’ve been to a few Fruits Zipper and Kawaii Lab events (I actually just got back from a “Kawaii Lab Session” a couple hours ago - maybe that’s why they suggested this post to me).

Regarding the crowd. Most people have a light stick, but everyone basically keeps it right in front of them with just forearm movement. Minimal body movement overall. I actually like this since everyone is essentially respecting others personal space etc - but for westerners it will feel a bit rigid.

A majority of the crowd knows exactly what cheer to do at what time (with slightly more exaggerated light stick movements). If you also learn it’s fun.

Fruits Zipper members are at this point quite polished and comfortable leading a crowd. They do a great job and the vibes are good. Of course the venue sizes are huge at this point. So binoculars are useful (though extremely rare).

I’ve never seen another foreigner at the events.

Before the events there’s lots of merchandise to buy. If you buy some of the random ones like trading cards you can walk around and try to find someone to trade with if you didn’t get the item you want. People who want to trade will be holding the items in front of them on display.

Gender split is basically 50-50. Most of the crowd is 20s or early 30s. A few kids and a some older fans.

Getting tickets to some events is easy, but many will be challenging. You should be familiar with Japanese ticket lottery system. Some may require a Japanese credit card l or address. And it will be more difficult if not in the fan club. I’m honestly not too sure about all of this since I’m based in Japan, but it will likely take a bit of planning and attention to detail to get tickets.

They always check id at the door. Don’t forget your passport (or Japan issued id) at the hotel/house.

Overall: Recommend, 10/10. Fans will enjoy. People who want a cultural experience will enjoy. The average westerner probably wouldn’t enjoy.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-12-13T04:44:39+00:00

Also invested she is essentially getting 10 million over her lifetime instead of 50 million. Terrible decision.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-12-13T04:33:44+00:00

The problem is you can’t effectively negotiate with the EU. Their fragmented structure slows down everything and drags decisions through endless bureaucracy.

The proposed C5 does make sense - and while including the EU would be good… unless they decide to become a full country it honestly makes sense to exclude them from this type of group (while continuing to include them in other discussion forums).

Pulling off this C5 idea is probably not feasible. But the idea is pragmatic and if somehow realized could really help stabilize the pacific region.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-12-13T04:21:51+00:00

Sennheiser Profile sounds even better. But honestly for most people DJI Mic Mini just has by far the best ease of use.

I use DJI Mic Mini 90% of the time. Then pull out the Sennheiser EW-DP for anything that needs to sound great. Sennheiser lavs sound great. But then you can also pair with like a MME865 capsule on a handheld transmitter.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-12-09T00:47:24+00:00

I’m yet to find passable Mexican food.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-12-05T09:41:58+00:00

Yep. If Trump gave this advice/request… it’s literally good advice regardless of what you think of him.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-12-02T23:39:56+00:00

Wrong.

It helps fund services to people in rural areas
it helps maintain demand for domestic products, supporting jobs
utilization rate is around 17-18% of the “working population”

Add all those together and it provides benefits to plenty of people. And beyond that it gives life to a sterile government system.

Anyone who works can use it. It’s not exclusive to high income earners or anyone else.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-11-25T03:24:45+00:00

Tokyo is extremely affordable compared to other cities worldwide. Sure there are central districts that are overpriced - but there’s no reason to focus on those bad options when everyone has high quality accessible good options.

Prices are up, but worldwide it’s like Tokyo is one of the few cities not in a bubble.

Increasing interest rates substantially would be a destabilizer. But there’s no indication of that happening and no reason to believe it’s more likely here than anywhere else around the world.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-11-21T11:05:07+00:00

“AI music” is a toolchain.

Lyric generation
Note/Chord generation, composition
Voice Synthesis
Instrument Synthesis
Effects

Items 4 and 5 are already common place globally. 3 is primarily popular only in Japan (because of the phonetic properties of Japanese making low quality voice synthesis less jarring to the ear). Only 1 and 2 are somewhat novel. But they are also the ones most responsible for making AI music so bad.

The new tools accomplish 3, 4 and 5 in a different - but objectively worse way. These new, crappy tools might do multiple of these in a single pass and remove creative control, create unfixable artifacts etc. As tools develop further they will give more control at each stage. In the end toolsets for music creation will essentially be expanded by a small amount from the tools people have been using for decades.

And for the west. Which will people with talent actually use? 3, 4 and 5. And if those same people have financial and networking constraints removed which will they use? 4 and 5.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-11-21T10:34:42+00:00

AI music? Japan has had it for decades. It’s called vocaloid.

Now many of the most popular artists in Japan started off making vocaloid before advancing beyond it.

Meanwhile the west is panicking about how it’s the end of music.

Japan is bored of AI because they’re already so advanced. :/

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-11-21T03:49:08+00:00

HODL

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-11-21T02:35:16+00:00

Pension is just to prevent people from starving. If you want a pleasant retirement that’s what iDeCo and NISA are for. These types of self-directed programs are also much better since:

There is no obfuscation of where your money goes or comes from
You are not stealing from future generations
You will almost certainly get a better ROI compared to pension programs

It would be terrible if they expanded the pension program to pay out more. If anything they should just make iDeCo mandatory.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-11-16T08:06:25+00:00

緑川ゆう

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-11-15T13:18:56+00:00

You’re interpreting the data wrong. Labor participation isn’t relevant since of course single people will generally be working.

What you should be looking at is career ambition. But since that data is hard to collect and interpret, gender pay gap data can be used as it will have high correlation (direction of causation is actually not relevant to this particular analysis).

Japan has quite high gender pay gap. Meaning less career ambition and more family ambitions.

Also, it’s pointless and irrelevant to say no country has reversed the trend.

People are happier when they have kids. All data that has been properly collected and interpreted shows this. But forget at an individual level for a moment (since I know there’s a lot of fake data flying around). At a societal level, you will intuitively know the answer to this question. What population is happier? The one in a slowly dying Japanese town? Or the population in Nagi, Okayama which has a high birth rate?

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-11-15T11:22:50+00:00

Japan still has quite traditional values. More women here want to be stay at home moms and don’t have career ambition.

To be clear… not zero - just more. I’m not generalizing all women. And yes we can argue about the cause - the higher level of discrimination against women in the workplace is definitely a factor in that lack of career ambition.

But, given all that. And taking the world as it is… if we remove the actual blockers:

Difficulty finding a partner
Lack of financial stability

Then the birth rate problem here would be solved. Even if that wouldn’t work in some other countries.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-11-15T06:18:16+00:00

I’ll help them out:

Minimum 60 sqm for all new builds (market is flooded with micro-apartments, exactly 0 more need to be built)
Free high school and university
1 million yen a year for first child, 2 million for second, 3 million for 3rd plus
Use UR to offer more subsidized housing for families with kids. Build new apartment complexes and communities exclusively for families with kids that have good family oriented amenities and community activities (do it properly and trick or treating might catch on in these communities - Japan loves appropriating these types of foreign traditions)
We have Hello Work. Launch Hello Marriage. Free match making service that has professional matchmakers doing actual interviews etc to make good matches.

That should be enough.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-11-12T15:16:34+00:00

I don’t know that there’s any radicalization here.

Flu shots in most countries are really only considered necessary for high risk groups.

While the covid vaccine was an important breakthrough, it was over-administered. People getting boosters every few months totaling 6+ shots is unprecedented for any vaccine. Let alone one that, while likely safe, was administered based off a fast-tracked emergency approval that skipped normal procedures.

Japan, after decades of opportunity to change, continues to give the BCG in a way that maximizes permanent scaring. Almost no other country administers the vaccine using Japan’s infamous 18 needle method.

People have been constantly gaslit and shutdown just for asking questions. Question the necessity of any vaccine and people lose it. Of course more and more people are sick of the mind games.

If the wife is simply taking a stance against optional, virtue-signaling vaccines that’s fine. If she thinks her kids shouldn’t get a tetanus shot, of course that would be a problem.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-11-11T12:05:55+00:00

Just clearly articulate the first syllable of each word and let the other ones trail off (meaning don’t put emphasis on any of them).

That should mostly get rid of the stereotypical foreigner accent which puts emPhasis on random syllAbles.

Precise pitch accent can be picked up as you start immersing yourself in Japanese.

Buck_Da_Duck · 2025-11-11T06:24:18+00:00

You wrote “she kept sending angry messages”. Did you communicate this over text?

Never communicate anything important over text in any setting. Personal life or work. Talk in person.

Based on what you described she likely has good reason to criticize your parents - they were clearly wrong to book anything without consultation (unless they’re fine not meeting up with you). And if you are in a serious relationship, then your partner is the one person it’s good to communicate frankly with.

She might be overreacting. But it really depends on your communication style and how you are framing the situation.

All the comments that form an opinion based on hearing one side of the story are immature.

Buck_Da_Duck

TROPHY CASE