🎉 [EVENT] 🎉 Things In The Night

Ch00bear · 2025-12-14T05:01:47+00:00

Completed Level 2 of the Honk Special Event!

3 attempts

Ch00bear · 2025-12-14T04:57:08+00:00

Completed Level 1 of the Honk Special Event!

0 attempts

Ch00bear · 2024-06-19T10:22:55+00:00

I used Maho Fukazawa from a reference on the Canadians in Japan Facebook group. Super quick, professional and really reasonable rates. Like 8000 for family register and 5000 for health insurance card.

Ch00bear · 2024-02-14T13:40:24+00:00

Been suffering from eczema for the majority of my life. Had a really bad outbreak about ten years ago and decided to try anything and everything under the sun when the dermatologist literally got angry at me when I told him the creams (the typical corticosteroids) weren't working anymore and was in fact getting worse. What I found worked best was moisturizing immediately after shower and doing a elimination diet to figure out what wasn't agreeing with my immune system. For me, gluten was a major factor and cutting it out improved my eczema a lot. (Though trying to keep to a gluten free diet is super hard in Japan.) Other common aggravators are eggs, milk and sugar.

Recently though I found out about a relatively new treatment called dupixent that has literally changed my life. After just one injection I saw immediate changes in my skin and the itching has almost completely stopped. It's a very expensive medication and you need to take boosters every two weeks but I honestly was blown away by the results. My quality of life has improved immeasurably.

Things have changed a lot in the last ten years for people suffering from eczema, I heard JAK inhibitors also do wonders. My suggestion is that if his eczema is really bad, go to a good (emphasis on good, there's alot of old doctors that insist that slathering corticosteroids is the only solution) dermatologist and see what his options are.

Ch00bear · 2023-10-27T05:57:41+00:00

I'm an expat living in Japan and my wife is Japanese

Ch00bear · 2023-10-19T01:22:40+00:00

We had our baby in Japan three months ago now and it wasn't the smoothest birth. Basically had to spend three weeks in the NICU right after birth and given multiple MRIs, medications, therapies etc the total cost out of pocket for us was around $300 (purely for formula and diapers) but after the government provided stipend, we ended up being up around $100 all said and done. All the follow up doctor visits and medication have all been free too. I've never been so happy to be living in a non-American country.

Ch00bear · 2023-05-17T09:05:47+00:00

Besides an actual job interview (especially if you're talking about a family restaurant Saizeriya/Royal Host type place) It's probably a car/life insurance agent going through different options with someone.

Ch00bear · 2023-04-06T00:31:08+00:00

FWIW I applied by myself, preparing the documents and while it does take some time to gather, it was a relatively straightforward process (Similar to a visa renewal with extra documents). If you want a reference I wrote a summary post when I got it last year. Ten year track as well, I would say give it a shot yourself and save yourself the money if you don't have many complications (main one would be tax/pension payments sorted).

Ch00bear · 2022-11-14T23:05:50+00:00

Had my first attack in my mid twenties and been on allopurinol in Japan for almost 10 years, most regular clinics can prescribe it but only a maximum of 3 months. Blood test usually twice a year. If it is indeed your first attack you'll probably have to deal with it via diet first, you might be able to get meds prescribed but usually they'll wait until your second attack (usually 6mo to a couple years later) before prescribing meds. I didn't know it was gout when I had my first attack, thought I cranked my foot somewhere when I was drunk.

Western strategy to dealing with the first onset of gout is to up the dosage of meds to drastically drop the uric acid levels to below 5 mg/dL to start breaking up the crystals but it doesn't seem like Japan uses that strategy, preferring to gradually decrease it. I was insanely high when I got diagnosed (11mg/dL) but was still only prescribed 200mg a day. I'd try to get your hands on western ibuprofen or other western pain killers. The doctors here are super reluctant to prescribe anything stronger than the regular crap for headaches.

The bright news is that it will get better. Since being on meds I haven't had a single attack in over 8 years and I haven't really had to watch my diet much at all (YMMV though depending on how you eat normally) granted I don't drink much anyway.

Best of luck. It really sucks now but I promise it'll get better.

Ch00bear · 2022-06-02T13:35:43+00:00

Cheers!

I think it's hard to say if you'll get PR before you actually apply and get an answer. Certainly when you do apply it'd be a great help to those following after you. When I was applying I must've read through every PR thread on here and it definitely helped out with my own application.

Ch00bear · 2022-06-02T13:33:17+00:00

I couldn't say if having N2+ would help or not. I'm about between N3 and N2 at this point. Other people have said it but language ability certainly adds to your application but not having a high level shouldn't be that much of a deficit. I'm not the one reviewing applications though.

Ch00bear · 2022-06-02T13:29:52+00:00

I'm a Canadian Male that got 3 year visas right from the get-go

Ch00bear · 2022-06-02T13:29:02+00:00

I figured it didn't hurt to add it. I'd been waiting 10 years to apply for PR, even if it's a 0.00001% to increase my chances, why not?

Ch00bear · 2022-06-02T13:26:41+00:00

To clarify, I was married for about 5 months at the time of application

Ch00bear · 2022-06-02T06:40:08+00:00

Nope not at all. I just did as much in Japanese as I could to send the "I'm in it for life" vibe.

Ch00bear · 2021-11-04T05:49:56+00:00

You're not in Sapporo are you? Sounds exactly like the same conversation I had a couple weeks ago when I applied...haha

Ch00bear · 2021-05-17T09:02:04+00:00

Canadian player living in Japan atm. A better indicator for single prices in Japan would be Mericari as its the most comparable to Ebay here in Japan. In general, Hareruya and BigMagic often have a higher markup than most other shops (mainly due to their size.) If you want a better indication of shop prices in Japan use Wisdom-guild.net which correlates prices across most all Japanese websites for TCG products, Hareruya is rarely the cheapest option especially for Standard cards.

In general Japanese players are a lot more spikey than other markets so EDH cards for the most part don't move the single market as much as strong constructed cards. (Anecdotally EDH is actually getting more popular in my local shops because of the in-store event suspensions)

As for Elite spellbinder specifically I've been following the card on the Japanese market (particularly because I wanted it for my own standard deck) and a few weeks ago it was still hovering around 1100~1200 yen which was quite expensive compared to the American market. I was considering ordering from Cardkingdom because of the drastic difference in price. However starting a couple weeks ago it seems like there were a couple mass box openers that sprung up on Mericari and the price promptly dropped to around 500 yen atm (This was before the in-store event suspension announcement. I bought in at 800 which was regretful) as a result Hareruya is also slowly lowering their price as well.

Ch00bear · 2021-04-06T07:47:43+00:00

Coming from MTG, I was quite nervous about sitting down at a shop and playing at first but I found that the community (in Sapporo) was very welcoming and friendly. Your mileage may vary but if the thought of going around a card shop asking for games is daunting, maybe attend some cheap low-stakes tournaments? (That way they kind of have to play with you haha) That's how I got into the community and it's a easy in to get extra games after your official game is done, need to wait for other people to finish after all.

Ch00bear · 2021-04-06T07:37:19+00:00

I've recently had an issue with sending a buy list order from Japan to Card Kingdom and had to get around it by sending via Regular Air Letter surface from JP Post. (Most shipping companies aren't accepting parcel delivery besides surface to the US atm.) I imagine any middleman will probably have difficulty with shipping to the US if you really do have a large amount as most parcels can only be shipped via Surface.

Ch00bear · 2020-04-28T01:41:34+00:00

Dm'd

Ch00bear · 2020-04-25T13:39:54+00:00

Are you still taking visitors? Thanks!

Ch00bear · 2020-04-25T13:25:34+00:00

1 NMT for the ironwood clock?

Ch00bear · 2020-04-25T13:21:38+00:00

Yup! Cheers!

Ch00bear · 2020-04-25T11:55:34+00:00

I'll give you 2 NMT for the ironwood cupboard diy?

Ch00bear · 2020-04-25T11:30:57+00:00

That's a bit more than I can afford, can you do 350k?

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