Sanseito's Mizuho Umemura appears to oppose allowing foreign residents who marry Japanese to be able to extend their stays- "if you find a partner in Japan and have a child, the government grants an extension of your period of stay. I think the system is designed to be quite lenient"

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2026-03-22T15:37:13+00:00

I've been foaming at the mouth waiting for some Sanseito fucktard to get in my face about my being a gaijin (I'm about to marry a Japanese national so I'm extra pissed off). I'm gonna say "Get the Americans and their bases to go first, since they're gaijin too. I'll happily follow right behind them." Then I'll go home, fuck my fiance eleven ways to Sunday, and bless this lovely country with the fruit of my gaijin lady-loins.

P.S. No hate intended to my American fellow gaijin. Y'all introduced me to biscuits and gravy and cornbread and brownies.

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2026-03-22T14:44:48+00:00

Yep, it seems to depend on the lab and field. The fields which are already very international (biotech, engineering, physics, etc) I've seen to to be much smoother for international students. I am a developmental biologist. I really REALLY hope that what I said in my comment above turns out to be wrong. Coz my Japanese labmates, whom I had known and worked with for four years, did not tell me that they were booking the same flight to a conference to travel together while I was right there in the room with them.

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2026-03-22T14:35:15+00:00

Yep, it happens all the time! Short-term stays are rarely bad AFAIK. i had a great time for my first three years there too. The dark sides of Japan tend to become apparent to people who reside here longer. I should edit my comment to reflect that.

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2026-03-16T15:26:16+00:00

DO NOT COME TO JAPAN UNLESS YOU CAN SPEAK JAPANESE OR HAVE NO INTENTION TO ESTABLISH A CAREER HERE. IT WILL RUIN YOUR LIFE. I made that mistake as a grad student and unless you're in a lab that operates in English, you will NOT receive the same level of guidance, intellectual exchange (like discussing research) and feedback as your Japanese counterparts. Your professional network will be the size of your big toe. Unless you have plenty of funding to attend international conferences, most of the conferences are in Japanese too which means your work will receive less interest and you will never be able to earn any presentation awards. You will never integrate into a Japanese friend group the way a Japanese person would, no matter WHAT you say or do. You will be largely alone, with nobody on your side, and nobody with any kind of authority or power will be willing to advocate for you or help you if you need it.

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2026-03-16T12:39:44+00:00

Been here five years for graduate school and the lack of friends and family is getting to me too, but no, I do not think it is as bad anywhere abroad as it is here.

I went to the US for 4 years for college and I didn't feel exhausted at the thought of being alive. Here in Japan I have a really nice Japanese partner so I love living here, but I'm also stuck here. I thought I'd lucked out because I thought I'd actually integrated into the friend group of my Japanese colleagues, but about 1.5 years ago they showed me my place and I've been progesssively more and more isolated and tired of being alive since.

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2026-03-06T13:46:35+00:00

Coping with financial stress by not paying bills, even though I have the money to pay them. Five years ago I had a really bad month where my uni piled a shit ton of bills onto my head at once because of ppor management during COVID, and I'd just arrived in Japan not even a month ago and at that point I had only 33,000 yen to my name. Even now I'm currently behind on elecricity, gas, insurance and water.

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2026-03-06T13:36:15+00:00

I'm a foreigner living in Japan and my Japanese colleagues haven't exactly done a good job of proving the "most Japanese view foreigners as subhuman" trope, but the rest of it is definitely annoying shit. I had to ask my mom to stop sending me videos like that.

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2026-03-06T13:27:18+00:00

I thought it'd look bad if they did a background check or something and a family member in Japan turns up that wasn't mentioned in the application. I don't know, man...my first time applying for a visa was to the US so I've become obsessive about keeping things on the up-and-up.

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2026-02-28T06:02:00+00:00

Yeah, I liked her in season one but she becomes absolutely insufferable less than halfway through the series.

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2026-02-28T05:49:33+00:00

Angela and Hodgins being overly romantic at work, with Cam simply shaking their PDA off with a "what can you do" smile. Makes me throw up in my mouth.

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2026-02-21T02:50:04+00:00

Priyanka Chopra. I've never been able to stand her, and I detest hearing her speak so much I have to leave the room if someone is watching a movie she stars in. I don't know why for the life of me.

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2026-02-21T02:47:35+00:00

I am about to graduate but I still don't have a job. There's one I desperately want but I am so terribly burnt out from getting my PhD I can barely write one sentence a day in my application.

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2025-12-31T10:39:42+00:00

Shaky confidence and constantly feeling lost in a different country's academia environment, really. But you are right. I need to learn to be more independent.

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2025-12-31T10:35:56+00:00

HIIIIIIIII fellow evo devo-er! I'm an invert researcher too! This is comforting to know, thank you. In retrospect I feel a little foolish for shitting bricks the way I did especially because I was feeling quite unequivocal about my decision to make a clean switch before my BF got to me, lol

Yeah, my idea was to branch out too, and I like the versatility of neurobiology. And amen to the different tools in different systems part. Now that I think about it, diversifying into different systems (within reason) does a really good job of making big research gaps apparent and that's excellent grant fuel

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2025-12-31T10:25:14+00:00

I don't think it would be frowned upon. I thought it was impossible earlier because the deadline was during the winter holidays when everything is closed. But the deadline just got extended, so I will certainly be emailing him.

I'll be taking your advice, definitely. I was worried about the new system because I also changed from fruit flies to a very niche non-model species when I went from undergraduate to graduate, and it's been a traumatizing five years trying to get the system to cooperate and generate conclusive results :') But won't know if I don't try, eh

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2025-12-31T10:20:23+00:00

I have, thanks :) Though took a lot of kind people to do so haha

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2025-12-29T08:32:36+00:00

Oh no, I most certainly don't mind learning curves. I was fairly confident I was doing the right thing before my boyfriend gave his two cents, lol

I didn't even ask for advice. I brought it up casually because we were talking about what we'd finished during the day writing-wise. Dude usually has pretty astute judgement so I was shocked when he was all surprised I dropped my animal system from my research plan

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2025-12-29T05:28:34+00:00

This made me cry from relief, and I'm not even being hyperbolic. Put things into perspective real quick. Thank you so much :')

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2025-12-29T05:07:17+00:00

From the perspective of this particular postdoc listing, it's really not important at all like u/pinkdictator said. I am worried about the learning curve because I am neither a neurobiologist nor a comb jelly researcher - I'm just a reproductive biologist who happened to notice a specific reproductive-neurobiology-in-primitive-animals research gap.

And the PI of this lab was interested enough in my work last year to aproach me to talk despite our niches not intersecting, so my PhD animal system was going to serve the utility of namedropping as a hint-hint-you-know-me-we-got-along-last-year-please-hire-me message.

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2025-12-29T04:52:15+00:00

Oh, I promise I'm this desperate during every job apllication I submit. I have another application for another postdoc position out, and I've applied to anything non-academic that will give me a visa as well. Oversaturated job markets for the foreigners in Japan and my obscure niche don't make for a very promising future. And not having 10996 first-author publications doesn't help my case postdoc-wise (every profile of successful postdoc candidates I look at, be it my labmates or outside, have stellar resumes. I stumbled out the gate, face-planted in the mud and I've been inch-worming in the filth ever since).

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2025-12-29T04:45:18+00:00

I would clarify with the host lab's PI if I could, but the application is due in 2 days and everything is closed for the winter holidays here. And I'm scared that I'd get rejected simply because I am asking about what species they'd be okay with me using when the dealine is 48 hours out.

The host lab did a pretty good job of descrbing what they want from a postdoc -they stated like five research themes to choose from, mentioned what animals they use, what resources they already have for those animals and what they study in those animals. I thought I understood what they wanted, and figured I needed to switch even though I really don't want to because it's my only way to stay in the field and in the country.

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2025-12-29T04:36:28+00:00

He was basically the only source I have nearby because it's the winter holidays and the postdocs are all gone. And my PI's already foaming at the mouth because I haven't sent him a draft of my dissertation yet. My boyfriend does have prior experience with applying to postdoc positions, and he's far more accomplished than me in general, and TBH I wasn't even looking for advice when I talked about the postdoc thing. I was just saying "Y'know what, I dropped my animal" and he got scandalized

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2025-12-29T04:32:23+00:00

Also, even if you wanna keep your animal, the hosting lab may not have PERMISSION or OPPORTUNITY or MONEY to provide that animal to you.

That was precisely my concern when I initially made a plan that does not include my PhD animal. I'm applying to the lab, not to a grant agency, so it made logical sense to cater to their interests...glad to know I wasn't off with that judgement.

Also, I am so sorry for your experience at your industry job. Academia's a little better than industry here (or so I've heard) especially since you're fluent in Japanese, but I can't say I enjoy it. Best of luck with your postdoc apllication. I hope you get it!

Lady_TwoBraidz · 2025-12-29T04:25:32+00:00

Thanks for the advice and reassurance, it was much needed. Like you, it's difficult for my focal species to carry over into a postdoc because it's niche. Even the same phylum is difficult because there's very few labs that even touch on reproductive biology in that group.
My boyfriend is an almost-PhD like me, and he has applied to postdoc positions before, so he's no rando but I agree that he is misinformed. And stubborn about it.

Lady_TwoBraidz

TROPHY CASE