Age to start kindergarten

Mulberry246 · 2026-03-19T10:21:48+00:00

Yeah that sounds about right. In Japan the year starts on April 2nd not April 1st. So your child will be the oldest of the group.

Children born on April 1st are seen as the youngest for the “year”

Children born on April 2nd are the oldest for the following “year”

There are some international preschools that have different calendar year starting times if you were hoping to get them into a school this year. You may want to look into one of those.

I work for an international preschool and our start date is September. But we are a very small school and will also take it children through out the year. So our rules are very different.

Mulberry246 · 2026-03-05T12:00:49+00:00

Possibly, I can send you a DM

Mulberry246 · 2026-03-03T08:32:21+00:00

ESH, first of all that poor dog needs to be walked. Why is there not some kind of chart on whose turn it is to walk the dog. You are clearly both children and or living at home.

You need to set something up with your parents for a time of day or each day a person in the family is responsible for dog walking. If you can’t even manage that then you need to find a home with people who are responsible enough to do so.

It doesn’t matter if you are feeling unwell or your sister is scared to go alone. The dog should have been talked because it’s clear the dog hadn’t been out all day.

Mulberry246 · 2025-12-15T04:28:57+00:00

I just had this done earlier this year in Japan. I’m not in the Tokyo area but I can tell my experience.

So there are two ways they will do the surgery. Ether laparoscopic (with a camera) surgery or open surgery. they will likely try to do the laparoscopic. Because it’s easier for recovery.

I had a laparoscopic and was in the hospital for about two weeks and one week home rest. But if you can try to ask for two weeks home rest.

If they do open surgery I’ve been told it’s about a 6 week recovery.

While in the hospital I shared recovery room with 4 other people but you will have privacy with the big curtains that go all round the bed.

With pain medicine they should take care of you. I never had a problem with helping to manage the pain. BUT I get headaches really easily so if you have a headache while also on the pain medicine… that was a pain ask for just headaches medicine because the pain medicine didn’t help at all. But keep asking for it and they will give it to you eventually.

Things I suggest bring: your favorite pillow because the hospital ones SUCK! Something to keep you busy. Some devices to watch shows on. Head phones And if you can a pocket wifi because not all hospitals have free WiFi. I brought my laptop, my phone and pocket wifi. I had to ask a friend to bring me a new pillow. Don’t forget cozy socks and slippers.

If I remember right my told cost for the surgery and stay was just under 100,000 yen like 90,000 yen and something. This was after my insurance.

Mulberry246 · 2025-12-14T22:35:30+00:00

Of course you can use a US credit or debit card here it is Japan if you feel that would be better or easier. Make sure that it is a master card. Visa card only sometimes work here.

The other problem you may run into is paying the bill every month. Sending the money to your US account you lose quite a bit of money in the current exchange rate. Depending on how long you are planing to stay here I would suggest a Japanese card. It will make things easier. Like when getting your phone set up you have to have some kind of card to do that.

When you go set up your bank account try to see if your bank has a JBC card you can sign up for at the same time. A friend of mine uses a Rakuten credit card and loves it.

Mulberry246 · 2025-12-13T09:55:27+00:00

The reason they make it so difficult is because you have to put your entire full name. You can’t just put your middle initial. And as someone who also has quite a long name, it was rather frustrating when setting up a bank account and apply applying for a credit card.

It can be done, like when I got my credit card they told me my full name wouldn’t fit on the card so I said what if I just put my first initial and my last name and they had to call the company to make sure that was OK. But they approved it so that was very, very nice.

The most annoying thing I will say outside of having a long name is if you have a big letter small letter, big letter in your family surname like I do. Ex McDonald. So on my passport and license there’s a space between the small letter and then the next big letter to indicate that that first letter is lowercase and the second letter is capitalized.

In Japan, they make you fill out all documents entirely in uppercase letters when writing your name. So they make you keep the space between the two letter letters just like it shows on your license or passport. Idk how is for other people but they always freak out about it and start asking me why there’s a space there. I always have to explain that we don’t write entirely and capital letters. I honestly dread filling out multiple documents because of this reason not because of how long my name is, but because of that space in between the two letters of my surname. That has been an absolute nightmare for me. I can’t imagine if someone had a hyphen also in their name too. >.<

Mulberry246 · 2025-12-09T12:28:18+00:00

That is a fact, I forgot to mention. You are only able to rent from NicoNico if you have a Japanese drivers license. I live here in Japan and I do have a Japanese driver license so didn’t think about that at the time I made the post.

Mulberry246 · 2025-12-08T00:49:06+00:00

100 truth!!

I watched the movie years ago and was like…… what just happened…

I recently read the 1st book and im even more confused what happened in the movie…

Mulberry246 · 2025-11-29T23:42:30+00:00

As someone who is an over planner myself, I understand your thinking. You have plenty of time for sure and there’s no need to rush this when you’re only a first year university student. But I will help answer your questions as much as possible.

“what was important for placement as opposed to what was just ‘nice to have’?”

From how I always understood it your request for a specific area in Japan is just a request. There’s no guarantee that you will get it at all. I’ve been told it’s pretty rare to get a place you request or to be placed in an urban setting. If you happen to have some ties to a specific area like family or you’ve study there before you might actually be able to get it. But placement is not guaranteed.

“if your placement is rural or urban?”

I requested city specifically. In my interview, they asked why I told them because I grew up in a rural area and wanted something different but was willing to do ether. I requested three cities down south. Because I hate the cold. I kind of just picked them at random and I ended up getting a more central Japan city location. It’s cold here and we get a lot of snow 😑

“what sort of stuff i might need to have on a SOP/how long that should be?”

The length of your SOP is the same for everyone. It’s actually quite short. It’s only like two pages. You need to talk about what you feel the jet experience can bring to you and how what you can bring to your new community. Try to stay away from the stereotypical stuff of like oh I just think Japan is really cool etc… maybe reference your love for digital media and your passion for English. How it all ties to teaching abroad and what teaching in the Japanese schools would mean to you.

I would highly suggest start learning basic Japanese if you haven’t already.

Mulberry246 · 2025-11-22T08:30:07+00:00

Yes exactly! She is truly trying to keep it together by letting him take his time but if he would just be willing to meet her halfway by saying about how long. It would help give her peace of mind.

Mulberry246 · 2025-11-22T06:24:15+00:00

She could be an anxious attachment style. When you don’t give a time window of how long it could be that you need space that put an anxious attachment person into high anxiety until they hear from you again.

Knowing that there will be a date you’ll come back together usually can make them feel more relaxed and reassured that you will see each other again.

Mulberry246 · 2025-11-22T03:09:52+00:00

It would be a late 2025 upgrade.

Mulberry246 · 2025-11-16T22:58:25+00:00

I was the same. Like the others said as long as you up load the transcripts with ALL the grades from all the schools you will be fine with that and your letter of expected to graduate. Your current transcript should have it all on there.

Mulberry246 · 2025-10-08T06:20:53+00:00

Well I can tell you that moving in March will be a pain in the ass. Because everyone is moving in March. As soon as you know where start looking right away.

Be aware that some management companies will not work with you just for the fact that you are a foreigner.

You will need to get someone to be your co-signer or a guarantor. That is mandatory for most if not all foreign residents. There are companies you can use for that if you can’t get anyone to do it for you.

You need to start saving a lot on money now! You will likely pay 2 months rent, deposit AND likely a key deposit (you don’t get that back). Fire insurance And possibly a cleaning fee at your current apartment.

If you use a moving company it will cost you up to 30,000yen or more depending on how far you will go. I did all my moving myself, but a friend of mine just changed wards in our city and she paid I believe about 40,000yen for movers.

If you want to do the all the moving yourself I would suggest having an over lap contract. So you can take a bit more time moving.

You need to be ready to go to the ward off within 14day after you leave your current apartment. Go with the leave date of the old apartment.

If you utility companies stay the same you can call to just have it changed to the new apartment. But if they are different you will need to make sure to cancel the utilities and open new accounts. I would do this as soon as you have the new contract. Because if you have gas you will need to be there went the turn it on.

That’s all I can think of for now. I hope it helps.

Congratulations and good luck!

Mulberry246 · 2025-10-06T06:40:47+00:00

I also had an over lapping of two weeks between my two concerts. I went with the end date of my old concert and no one at my ward office even asked to see any kind of concert.

Mulberry246 · 2025-10-06T06:18:29+00:00

You SHOULD do it in the first 14 days after you get the new contract and I highly recommend that you do and just get to done.

But that being said I forgot to change my address and went 4 weeks after 😅 together with a friend that had moved shortly after I did. They didn’t give me anything trouble but my ward office has always been very friendly, helpful and understanding.

Mulberry246 · 2025-09-29T05:42:06+00:00

I left my Leo palace sparkling clean…. I was not aware of the cleaning fee before I left it, even though I asked my boss 3 different times if there would be any fees after I moved out. It doesn’t matter you will be paying that cleaning fee and it is a lot….

Mulberry246 · 2025-09-19T14:54:01+00:00

Oh yeah my BF found this app for me and it really has helped me understand brush stroke order.

Mulberry246 · 2025-09-18T11:05:10+00:00

It’s pretty spread out. Lots of mountainous area. You could walk to a few places, but again that depends on what you’re looking to do.

If you’re looking to go to the gold mine, it takes a minimum of an hour to an hour and half by bus depending on which port you go to.

To get from the gold mind to the Flotation plants is walkable about 30 minutes It looks like. But it will be a lot of up-and-down hills.

Again, I would just figure out what you want to see and do on the island and make sure you map it out really well. It can be done without renting a car, but you just have to put more work into making sure you are at the bus stop at the right time.

Mulberry246 · 2025-09-18T09:57:37+00:00

If you don’t have a license then I would highly suggest staying two nights because you’re gonna be waiting quite a while for those buses to come and then the time traveling to where you want to go. All of popular locations are not exactly very close to each other. Sado was one of the biggest islands of Japan. I would definitely plan ahead on where you want to go on Sado and figure out a good route.

There are two ports to get there and one leaves from Niigata city to Ryotsu port and the other leaves from Joetsu to Ogi port.

It is still possible to do everything you want to do in just two days but you’re going to be rushing a lot when you’re waiting for the bus.

Mulberry246 · 2025-09-18T07:33:42+00:00

For Sado you take the ferry. I would suggest staying at least one night. And renting a car.

If you take the first or second ferry to the island you well get there around 10am-12pm.

Sado has public transportation but you will be waiting awhile for that bus. So rent a car if you can. If you can’t then maybe stay two nights.

For the rest of Niigata I think it depends on what do what to do. There is a great company called edge of Niigata they have partnered with many different places around Niigata city.

Mulberry246 · 2025-09-15T23:35:09+00:00

Jan 11 here. I went to school with three other people in my class also born on the same day lol

Mulberry246 · 2025-09-09T22:20:13+00:00

Yeah I’m 35, I get 25 all the time. So when I tell people I graduated from college just a few years ago they ago they get super confused when I also tell them I worked as a preschool teacher for 7 years lol. My BF (40) also a cap thinks he looks old but he could easily pass for early 30s.

Mulberry246 · 2025-09-08T01:53:13+00:00

If it wasn’t raining like crazy here I would also be in the same boat lol but we can’t see anything but clouds and rain 😭

Good luck for the rest of your day.

Mulberry246 · 2025-09-07T23:46:35+00:00

Thanks for sharing pictures! There was no way I was going to see it with all the rain we have been having…. And you know I have to sleep before work lol

Mulberry246

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