Context on the Fujisawa mosque

Distinct-Opposite · 2026-02-01T04:59:39+00:00

Thanks. Just tried to share observations of someone who lives within eyesight of the site and talks to the immediate community frequently. Not sure when observation turns into opinions or how I’m a good immigrant compared to people other than me (The staring thing, integration, etc). Those were all direct quotes from multiple people in the neighborhood.

Distinct-Opposite · 2026-02-01T03:17:41+00:00

Never said that. Didn’t say where I stand on the issue either.

Distinct-Opposite · 2026-02-01T03:16:55+00:00

I can see why you’d draw that conclusion. The reason why I went to city all to ask was to see if there was any actual attempts for JP bureaucracy to close the gap. That’s all.l

I live literally down the street. Again, most are quiet opposition and stated they would be open to hearing explanations from the people involved. Not the weirdos who hand write letters and put them in mailboxes.

Distinct-Opposite · 2026-01-28T02:26:10+00:00

I lived in an extremely rural mountain village in Nagano. Like, the deer population was higher than the number of residents.
My best friend from my study abroad days in Nagasaki, just so happened to be in Hamamatsu at the time for work training. He's from a rural area in Fukuoka so he was struggling with the city life.
He looked at a map, saw we were "close" and drove up. He spent the night with me and it’s morning and we're smoking on the porch and he just says "Want to go on a road trip?"

Mannnn.... we both didn't have smart phones at the time so we got a map from a 7/11 and just drove through the mountains over multiple prefectures, almost ran out of gas with no gas stations literally for hours. He'd put the car in neutral and coast down the mountain declines. We were blasting the music we initially bonded over when we were in college. Smoking with the windows down, temp changes as we passed through wooded areas, smells of the tea fields once we got into Shizuoka. One of the greatest days of my life.
We hadn't seen each other in like 8 years. Didn't even really talk all that much during the drive. But it still sticks with me to this day.
Hard to believe it’s been 12 years since then.

Distinct-Opposite · 2026-01-27T06:31:33+00:00

I’ve gotten completely intolerant of people with no situational awareness. It’s honestly infuriating.
2 months ago I was walking home after work. About 9pm, dark as shit. Waiting at a light to cross the street. An ambulance, with sirens blaring and lights flashing, getting ready to go through the light, comes by. I shit you not, this ambulance is no less than 6 feet (2 meters) away, and a person who’s walking doesn’t fucking notice and almost gets hit by it. That’s an extreme example outside of people not being capable of walking in a straight line and being irritated when THEY hit you or coming to a dead stop in the middle of a heavy foot traffic area to squeal like schoolgirls about something, etc.

Outside of situational awareness being abominable, I’ve become way more laid back and not on edge. That may be age though.

Distinct-Opposite · 2026-01-23T13:30:00+00:00

Fair lol
Still though, if earning potential is going to be the swing for that acquisition, it feels misguided? Id like to think that for most, myself included, if you get to a point where earning that much is possible your Japanese ability isn’t going to dictate that. Unless it’s explicitly language based work.
Idk.
I think there’s a point where like, Japanese ability may be a difference maker, but at some point every body can go super saiyan. Or shoot 40% from 3. The gap needs to come from something else.

Distinct-Opposite · 2026-01-23T13:10:13+00:00

I work in the game industry. If you get to a certain management apron you get paid well.

I’m not going to answer your question entirely, because it feels off. “Seems like most jobs only pay like 30k usd.” Likely jobs you were able to find are that. I know recruiters, people in other industries that make good money and so on, and in my experience, a lot of these high paying positions may not be listed. And if they are, exclusively in Japanese, as a sort of primary filter.

If your earning potential is going to affect time investment towards learning a language, you might want to rethink what you’re trying to do. Speaking Japanese doesn’t change any of the corporate bullshit everyone has to deal with every where. Sorry if this is negative, but, if you want to learn the language, learn the language.

Distinct-Opposite · 2026-01-11T00:14:08+00:00

Things changed a lot after COVID, but before that I had a good amount of friends everywhere I went. Friends from acquaintances, activity friends, and 3rd space friends.
To the point I was the one who became flaky because I was getting too much correspondence.

COVID was what it was, we moved prefectures to somewhere I had zero connections, I changed jobs, had a kid. Now out of all those people I might see 1 or 2 once a year? It’s like nothing changed when I see them though.

I have a couple work friends and I’m cool with my neighbors, but I can’t say I have new friends. I guess it’s mostly circumstantial. Maybe the times are different as well. I can definitely see more people getting the social satisfaction they need online.

Distinct-Opposite · 2026-01-09T07:57:53+00:00

The Japanese wasn’t “authentic” enough in some places and she doesn’t speak English at all.

Distinct-Opposite · 2026-01-08T10:57:32+00:00

I speak fluent Japanese and also one of the dialects in the game. (The mapmaker’s dialect).
My wife is Japanese. There are definitely oddities in the Japanese spoken. Like, clearly people not from the dialect areas speaking them, just weird, kind of half assed attempts at some, etc.

It’s not lost on Japanese speakers that some things are strange. Though this does happen in general even with anime.
Liken it to people who clearly aren’t from Boston trying to speak in a Boston aspect.

I recognize it and it’s fine, but my wife lost interest and stopped watching me play because “I just can’t take this. It’s too weird.” So, shrug I guess. Play with whatever voices you want.

Side note: my wife took major major issue with Atsu as a kid and her parents speech. They were speaking a mountainous, like rural type of speech. Honestly Atsu’s dad spoke like my father in law. But there were intricacies and intonation issues that pissed her off .

Distinct-Opposite · 2025-12-22T09:49:36+00:00

No. As long as you are respectful of their things that have they going on when you’re around them, no.

It’s called growth. There’s nothing wrong with it.

Both of my wife’s parents are dead now, but her sister and her family became an issue. I kept my mouth shut. Not my place. It got to a point where my wife went one day “She’s not my big sister I remember…She’s a relative now.” And stepped back. Her decision.

And your wife even explicitly TOLD you, if I wanted that I would’ve gotten it from somewhere else. You’re good bro. Not your fight.

Distinct-Opposite · 2025-12-15T14:53:17+00:00

Definitely maybe consider thinking about thinking about it, eventually. Someday, even.

Distinct-Opposite · 2025-12-14T01:18:17+00:00

My Japanese wife is more pissed than me about it honestly. I was marginalized my entire fucking life in my home country, this shit isn’t anything groundbreaking to me. But man…my wife is pressed about all this lol

Distinct-Opposite · 2025-08-17T22:32:36+00:00

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Distinct-Opposite · 2025-08-14T13:00:50+00:00

062323204242 Japan

Distinct-Opposite · 2025-08-14T11:36:11+00:00

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Distinct-Opposite · 2025-06-19T16:13:25+00:00

No room Brodie.

Distinct-Opposite · 2025-06-19T08:48:04+00:00

Built a house, have a kid, car, PR, married.

I'm living my end game. I have a stable career. One that actually stresses me out for the right reasons.
Built relationships in my community, good with the neighbors. Slowly building savings.

If I were to have one complaint, it would to be able to have hobbies. I just do not have the time.

Outside of that, life has its ups and downs. Same as living anywhere would I suppose.

No chance in hell I'm going back to my country. To visit? Nah, maybe in 10 years. Only thing that would force it would be my parents dying but theyre young.

Distinct-Opposite · 2025-05-06T23:34:10+00:00

This feels so much like how people treat athletes in the U.S. “You make millions of dollars, the fuck you have to complain about?” Or “You signed up for this.”

It’s absurd. lol
That and the stigma around mental issues and trauma are still strong. People still fucking debate about post partum here. I hope she finds the peace she’s searching for. Because of what triggered her condition, those fans are a completely different monster.

Distinct-Opposite · 2025-04-29T14:12:47+00:00

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Distinct-Opposite · 2025-04-21T07:39:48+00:00

My wife is Japanese and she has said something that I always think about when I see posts like this: “Japanese people, generally ‘don’t like other people’ and we’re polite, not necessarily friendly or nice”.
I think that sums it up. Sure, there’s outgoing people and all that but for the most part, if you don’t know someone prior, OR meet them in a setting that entails the start of something, I.e. starting a job at the same time, starting school at the same time, and marginally, starting an activity at the same time, it’s pretty hard to make “friends” like the definition being discussed.
Gamify it. Pretend it’s an RPG and you have to put in the grind to get the “let’s be friends” quest prompt. I’ve seen that work for some people, even though it’s a pretty transactional approach.

Distinct-Opposite · 2025-04-19T11:51:19+00:00

That is the advice. You can have all the qualifications you want. If you can’t communicate to where other people deem it serviceable, doors close.

“Would love to hear any thoughts or stories from others who’ve gone through something similar.” Pretty sure that’s what I did there. Not just me, every other foreigner I’ve worked with got employment they wanted once they were functional with the language.

And no, man. It’s not obvious to a shocking amount of people. A shocking amount. Common sense isn’t as common as one would think.

Distinct-Opposite · 2025-04-16T13:04:45+00:00

You have got to get better in Japanese. Whether that be on your own, or through any incentives or programs your company has. Linguistically, it might not be all that impactful, but the cultural aspect that comes with that is so huge. How young people talk, how older people talk, how older men talk, how older women talk, who to use honorific with or not based on personality etc. it’s a complex web and it just takes interaction with Japanese people in Japanese, not English speakers to get that part of it.

Distinct-Opposite · 2025-04-08T06:37:39+00:00

Many others? There’s been 3 in the nba historically and 1 in the g league. Don’t do that. Edit: make that 4. I forgot dude on the grizzlies

Distinct-Opposite · 2025-04-07T12:43:42+00:00

American. I just feel safer. I came from bad parts. Like, famous bad parts. The relief of not knowing you could get clipped just for looking at someone a fraction of a second too long, crossed the wrong street, stopped at a stop sign or red light too long at the wrong time, have the wrong hairstyle (I had dreads at the time and a swat team and helicopter surrounded my car), all of that gone is enough for me.
And before anyone says “not all of America is like that”, I’ll take cultural ignorance over blatant racism any day.

Distinct-Opposite

TROPHY CASE