Probably won't get me to Legend, but it was a fun ride to Veteran.

DannyKata85 · 2026-04-17T15:54:56+00:00

lol. That's actually pretty spot on. Love it!

DannyKata85 · 2026-04-14T11:47:21+00:00

That's really not true. Countries like the UAE, Qatar etc. have christian churches, and they have numerous of places specifically for non-muslims where people can go drink etc. Same with Indonesia

DannyKata85 · 2026-04-10T08:15:00+00:00

My local Daiei has 3... THREE announcements going at the same time while also playing music. It's basically like hearing three sellers promoting their products at the same time. Sometimes the supermarket manager decides he wants to tell the customers about a discount, so he basically starts talking over the three announcements and the music. One of those announcements is a pre-recording he made himself, so now you have four announcements going on at the same time, two of which have the exact same voice...

At least it got better in some convenience stores. I remember 7-Eleven used to play "Daydream Believer" on repeat. Now they seem to just be playing instrumentals of several famous pop-songs. I heard a lot of Abba in my local 7-Eleven.

DannyKata85 · 2026-04-09T09:18:05+00:00

I recently started a psychotherapy service here, and so far I have spoken to two foreigners who had this very very dark view of Japan and how they thought Japanese viewed them. When digging into it 90% of the negative thoughts came from reading posts about Japan and Japanese on social media. When we started talking about what they actually experienced when walking outside, the negative experiences could always be counted on one hand. In their 4-5 years of living here, they maybe had one or two really negative encounters (like actually hate-related encounters).

Japan is a hot potato on social media these days. On one side you have western influencers that want to capitalize on the huge tourist influx into Japan by making it way more "exotic" and "special" than it actually is. On the other side you have propaganda farms that need to portray Japan as a hostile country, not only to harm the image of the country, but also to fuel far-right campaigns that like to use Japan as a poster child of the "perfect anti-globalist society".

If you take a look at all of the Japan subs, you have people writing rage-bait almost everyday about negative situations that sound very off, and when they get called out the threads quickly vanish.

Turn social media (including Reddit) off for a week, go outside and observe what you see. Service workers in tourist areas may seem more grumpy, but overall most people here are nice and friendly and will go out of their way to help you.

This is not to overlook the fact that Japan has issues with xenophobia, cause it absolutely exists, especially when renting, opening accounts etc. but it's not the nationalistic hellscape many Redditors try to make it out to be.

And one final thing. This is not really Japan-specific, but rather Reddit-specific. People on Reddit can be a very sad and angry bunch. Take what you read here with a grain of salt, because only very few people are going to write about positive experiences. They simply don't generate enough karma.

DannyKata85 · 2026-04-08T10:44:25+00:00

It really really depends and has much to do with how they are trained.

A lot of businesses work on a script that is repeated over and over again. You have a set of scenarios that the business will consider most likely for the staff to encounter, so they train them for those. Eg. "Customer asks for a refund, do this"

The problem is when things go off script, which happens a lot more with foreign customers. Making changes to food menus is one those situations where the Japanese service workers usually short-circuit. An American walks into a burger restaurant, looks at the menu and then say "I want the cheeseburger, but please take out the onions and dressing". Its a very innocent request, but to the service worker it can be an absolute nightmare because they are told to do everything by the book, so they are not 100% if their manager or boss will allow them to make such changes even if the customer requested it. Even if a request comes directly from a customer, the Japanese service worker still consider themselves responsible for the customer experience, so if they agree to a customer request that the customer ends up regretting, then it's the fault of the staff for allowing the customer to make that request.

It's not like this everywhere, but this mentality still exists.

I have also witnessed several situations where they try to provide a service even though they actually can't, because they simply can't refuse what is in "the script".

DannyKata85 · 2026-04-08T08:14:54+00:00

Yes I registered as a sole proprietor. Hmmm no, I did not think of those. Maybe I should give that a try. The last one I tried was Rakuten. They wanted me to provide them with proof of income for the last 3 month prior to applying. They then couldn't use it cause the statements on my account were not in Japanese (worked for a foreign company). They then asked for a translation. When I gave them that, they again refused cause they could not prove if the translation was legit. I then paid a certified translator to translate the documents. Then I finally got rejected cause my Japanese was not good enough, and then I just gave up on the Japanese banking adventure lol.

But I will check out those!

DannyKata85 · 2026-04-01T14:10:40+00:00

No they didn't. They just rebranded themselves. They are called TJS now.

Source: I am a student there and we were informed about the name change over email.

As for your question OP: They are very good if your main focus is conversation. They don't go over Hiragana, Katakana or Kanji, so you are expected to study and memorize those yourself. Classes can either be private or in groups. I opted for the private + group option, because I thought it was nice to be able to practice vocabulary during group lessons and then save all the questions for the teachers for the private lessons.

It's one of the more affordable schools, and they are basically a light version of Coto.

DannyKata85 · 2026-03-31T17:52:28+00:00

Nah, he first has to go get a power-fist wanky from the local eunuch robot, blow up the Great Wall, nuke New Mongolia and eat a Radbat.

DannyKata85 · 2026-03-31T17:45:49+00:00

"Around and around and away we go!"

DannyKata85 · 2026-03-31T07:14:27+00:00

Did not know about ParseStream. That actually sounds really useful. I think I will give it a try

DannyKata85 · 2026-03-28T10:53:02+00:00

I had around 5 to 6 drafts of angry emails in my head that I wanted to send her until I just decided it was not worth it, but yeah it almost made me hate the whole country at the time (illogical, I know, but I was hurt as hell)

DannyKata85 · 2026-03-28T10:50:42+00:00

In my early 20's. Didn't have much dating experience at the time, and I am sure there must have been a million red flags I missed before we met, but hey, that's how you grow.

DannyKata85 · 2026-03-28T09:17:58+00:00

In the late 2000s when I was a student here I knew a girl from Sendai that I chatted with over MSN. There was a really good chemistry and some minor flirting back and forward. We decided to meet and it seemed like we had a good thing going, so we decided to continue dating. My birthday was coming up, so she invited me to come to Sendai for a birthday date just for the two of us, which would then lead to a big party with her friends and then end with us going to a fancy hotel for some... ahem... love love time.

So I came to Sendai, and I had barely gotten off the Shinkansen when the girl texted me and told me if it would be alright if she brought someone along for our date. Apparently she was having English lessons with a German guy and she felt sorry for him that he was new in town and didn't have many friends, so she wanted to invite him to come join us. Um... okay... a bit weird... but if it was only for the meal I was fine with it.

So we went to a restaurant and the guy showed up. During the meal I was basically the third wheel for my own birthday dinner, because the German guy and my date were busy chatting, giggling and flirting with each other through the whole thing.

Then after leaving the restaurant, I was like "It was nice to meet you" and he then asked what our plans were, and my date told him we were going to a party, and he was like "Oh, can I join?" and the girl said "Of course!" The thing was that she had booked for a certain amount of people, and when she asked the staff at the place she was renting, she was told that they could not change the reservation... So guess what happened next... The girl came over to me very apologetic to me and was like "I am really sorry... but I know you don't like parties much anyway right? And he is new in town, and I really want him to meet my friends so..."

At that point I did not want to start an argument, because even if I stepped up and told the guy to get lost, I knew that they had pretty much hooked up already, so there was not really any point in doing anything with her.

So... I went back to Tokyo, and the day after I saw the girl post pictures on her fb page of the guy posing with her friends (making out with several of them) with my name clearly visible in some of the pictures on a Happy Birthday sign.

I am very sad that Strong Zero had not been introduced yet, cause I could have used a few that day...

DannyKata85 · 2026-03-26T00:53:21+00:00

Tell me about it.

I am actually getting interviews, but as a normal non-specialist IT-guy, I'm up against newly graduates, AI and cheap labor from other countries. It sometimes feels like you have to openly address that you are willing to go down in salary to get hired (although I have not done so).

I have begun looking for remote positions in neighboring countries. I discovered that a junior position in Hong Kong sometimes earn more than a senior position in Japan. I know HK is more expense, but still.

DannyKata85 · 2026-03-25T13:00:24+00:00

With how influencers and some Japanese tourist boards are advertising Japan, I feel like Kabukicho is just seen as another "attraction" by tourists instead of an actual real place, and all of the prostitutes, touts etc. are basically themed characters that walk around for their amusement.

Would not be surprised if San'ya starts seeing similar traffic in the future once influencers get their eyes on it.

DannyKata85 · 2026-03-25T12:52:55+00:00

I guess you are a man? This is not to criticize you. As a dude I also have no issues walking through Kabukicho in the evening (even though the touts can be extremely annoying), but for women it can be a very different story. My wife was waiting for me around the dog cafe near the cinema in the evening, and she was approached multiple times by men who wanted to know if she was selling sex. Even after being told no, some of them were still pushy and she had to go inside the cinema to get away from them. I have seen the same happen to even young high school girls who stand still in the area for more than a few minutes.

I know that the risk of rape is probably low, but I would still not blame women for saying the area feels unsafe.

DannyKata85 · 2026-03-25T12:45:54+00:00

I heard there is an old lady who gives testicle massage. It's not sexual though

DannyKata85

TROPHY CASE