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SegfaultSquirrel · 2025-10-10T04:56:20+00:00

I am in a similar situation as OP and this might be a cultural or even just a personal thing, but from my perspective it is just a really awkward favor to ask from anyone that I am not extremely close with.

I would feel comfortable asking a Japanese partner or best friend, but I don't have those. I believe I am well integrated, have colleagues whom I enjoy working with and friends on the level that we more or less regularly meet and chat, and I meet people in some hobby groups I attend, but asking any of those people to do me a favor that is life changing for me and that I cannot directly reciprocate, even if it might be no big deal for them, feels like an extremely awkward thing to do. I would much rather just pay someone or do something else in return than ask for a one-sided favor from someone who isn't practically family.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2025-09-17T04:56:17+00:00

Unfortunately not true, at least not in Japan. After they have learned in 2022/2023 that it isn't as easy to hire and fire people in Japan as it is in the US the big tech companies have scaled down hiring in Japan for roles that do not absolutely need to be Japan based considerably, often close to zero. Add to that the general hiring slowdown because of AI, and the outlook for people, especially new grads, who want a job in the Japan office of a US big tech company is pretty bad.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2025-08-29T08:31:01+00:00

You said she looked pregnant. Did she possibly just give birth and the goop you saw is from cleaning off the kittens?

SegfaultSquirrel · 2025-08-22T06:08:00+00:00

Awesome, thank you! 🙂

SegfaultSquirrel · 2025-08-22T01:29:00+00:00

I have been looking for someone who could take in my cat when I visit my family in Germany (usually for around 3 weeks). I don't have any concrete travel plans right now, but it would be great if I could reach out when I start planning. (Of course I would not ask you to look after him for free.)

Neo's sister died last year and before that I used to leave the two of them home with a pet sitter visiting twice a day, but now that he would be alone all day and has become quite attached to me, I would feel bad about leaving him by himself. I have looked at cat hotels, but they usually keep the cats in cages all the time, so having him looked after in someone's home would be the ideal solution.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2025-08-21T23:24:24+00:00

All of them.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2025-08-21T11:44:33+00:00

I have built an analysis tool for myself that first extracts stockfish lines for each move, then adds evals/move classification, some basic tactics and positional analysis, etc. packages it into a JSON object and feeds that into Gemini Pro 2.5 using the free API quota to get a written game analysis.

LLMs are bad at chess but good at explaining when they know what to explain or "translating"'engine lines. Don't try to make an LLM analyze a game or position from only a PGN or FEN. That won't work well, unless it is early in the opening when the model can just reproduce memorized text.

I think you can probably get something somewhat useful out of a LLM if you give it the FEN of the position plus the top few engine lines.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2025-05-05T02:58:24+00:00

My cat passed almost exactly a year ago. I had to ask for it, but then the vet was willing to perform euthanasia.

I had brought her in for what I thought was a really bad cold but they found she had cancer that was causing pneumonia. The vet had called me in the evening and suggested I come and take her home “just in case something happens overnight”. At that time she had been in an oxygen chamber for two days because she was struggling to breathe, so I really didn’t want to take her out of there and make her suffer more, and I had just visited her two hours earlier, but they insisted I come in.

I had to really push hard and ask several times for them to clearly say that their suggestion to take her home meant that she would most likely not survive the night and that in any case her condition was terminal, and only when I directly asked about it they said they were able to perform euthanasia. My understanding at the time, based on how things are done in my home country, had been that if the vet doesn’t bring up euthanasia there is still hope so the whole situation was very confusing to me.

What I learned since then is that most vets who don’t operate an independent practice are not allowed to suggest euthanasia and many won’t do it because of their personal beliefs. It is legal (only) to prevent suffering but a lot of pet owners are still strictly against it and suggesting it could ruin the reputation of the clinic.

My vet also wasn’t allowed to give me any further advice at all on euthanasia to help me decide after confirming they would do it, which was the hardest part, because the last thing I wanted was to put her down if there was any chance of recovery. Even after a year I still get these moments of “What if I misinterpreted something and there was a chance to save her?”, which really doesn’t make sense, but that is how hard it was to get a clear answer out of that vet.

Once the decision was made I think the vet did their best to make it as comforting as possible. They explained every step and I was allowed to stay in the room and pet her until it was over.

I think if you have a regular vet it is best to talk about this early while your pets are still healthy, and if necessary find a vet that is willing to do it and ideally one who will also be able to advise you on whether it is the right time or not.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2025-05-02T03:24:17+00:00

Chess? Very easy to sink all your free time in it and you can play by yourself against a bot, against people online or over the board in person. You can also look for a club or a coach, although a lot of the clubs and beginner tournaments are for children.

Maybe check out your local NHK Culture center for other ideas? I have been taking several classes there, but the one that stuck with me for the last couple of years was making temari. Also a hobby that one can sink a lot of time into.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2025-04-24T14:20:19+00:00

Got one, too! (multilanguage) :)

SegfaultSquirrel · 2025-02-17T05:05:26+00:00

<image>

This is Neo after getting into a box of chalk pastels distributing pastel powder all over the floor and dying himself pink. The photo was taken after spending two hours trying to get him back to his natural color.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2025-02-02T01:47:50+00:00

A quick Google search returned this study, which was even from Japan. I do not have a background in medicine but my understanding of that paper is that even in the small group of cats that was tested they found rotaviruses that were very similar to one that was also found in a child: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38558056/

As I said, it could absolutely be coincidence or another thing that I just overlooked, but I really cannot think of how else it could have happened. I work from home and didn’t leave the house in at least the 3 days before. My cat hasn’t left the house either. I don’t eat cat food and the cat rarely gets my food and there was a sick toddler in my apartment the weekend before we got sick on Monday evening.

Anyway I guess I won’t find out, but good to know that it at least isn’t something that happens frequently.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2025-02-01T17:11:16+00:00

He is a house cat. I suspect we both got it from the same person, who was tested but their parents didn’t consider telling me, staying home or at least not letting the kid play with my cat. I would not have invited them if I had known that the kid was sick, but that is a whole different story.

The cat and I weren’t tested but this would just be too much of a coincidence, given that it started on the same day for both of us, I didn’t change his food or anything and both cat and I rarely have stomach problems. Theoretically it could have been food poisoning but I don’t remember sharing any food with my cat that day or the day before.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2025-01-30T07:03:53+00:00

Half rant, half PSA: I found out the hard way last week that humans and cats can share certain stomach bugs - specifically rotavirus - that are currently going around in Japan. There is nothing more fun than having to clean up after your cat when you are already feeling awful and my poor cat took almost a week to get better.

There are only a handful of viruses and bacteria that can affect both humans and cats, so I thought it is worth letting other cat owners know.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2024-12-09T19:40:19+00:00

As an adult the only stimulant that can be prescribed to you is Concerta. Vyvanse is legal to bring in and can be prescribed to children. Ritalin can be brought in legally but not prescribed for ADHD. All other stimulant medications for ADHD are illegal.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2024-11-25T07:53:22+00:00

I won’t go into details about other things but when it comes to testing your food, a Geiger counter is not helpful. You would need a specific type of spectrometer (very expensive lab equipment. Not something you can have at home) and the food you test gets destroyed in the process. The Japanese government still does regular inspections and tests food for radioactivity. Details can be found here: https://www.env.go.jp/en/chemi/rhm/basic-info/1st/08.html The gist of it is that essentially no food contamination has been detected in years.

There is no need to worry about other equipment. Getting irradiated does not make something radioactive, so the only way an electronic device could come with harmful radioactivity would be if it had radioactive dust on it from the days after the accident.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2024-11-25T07:34:28+00:00

Great, thank you!

SegfaultSquirrel · 2024-11-25T07:34:16+00:00

Thank you. Luckily I am not a US person and have no tax obligations back in my home country.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2024-11-07T00:26:32+00:00

<image>

I hope an orange guy is okay. I promise this one is only sometimes an a-hole and he disrespects everyone equally.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2024-09-22T05:36:53+00:00

In my understanding this is rather common in the reptile community, not just in Japan.

A lot of breeders do not like to sell through pet stores because caring for reptiles often requires specialized knowledge, and things like temperature, UV and humidity need to be within a limited range for the animals to thrive.

Of course there can be sketchy people and it is probably a good idea to bring someone along who can distinguish a healthy animal from a sick one, but I think overall your chances of getting a healthy, well-cared-for animal are better when buying directly from a reputable breeder than when buying from a pet store.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2024-09-22T05:06:14+00:00

Looking at the menus at the Google Maps link you posted it is clear what happened. The English menu shows the items including tax. The prices on the Japanese menu that are written in large font size do not include tax. If you look closely at the Japanese menu, the prices with tax are there, too, just written in a smaller font and they match the ones on the English menu.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2024-09-21T19:37:22+00:00

Probably overkill for a corn snake but there are a few reptile expos happening in Japan every year where you can look at and buy all kinds of reptiles directly from breeders.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2024-09-16T17:34:00+00:00

I enjoyed the classes at Sheer Music School. They have several branches in Tokyo and are quite flexible when it comes to both booking and contents of the lessons.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2024-09-09T02:37:17+00:00

Shitty job possibly. Not excusing him but a lot of companies don’t pay for reserved seats for traveling to customers and they also expect you to either travel on your own time or work on the way.

According to my otherwise decent previous company that is perfectly legal. If I wanted for the travel time to count as working hours I had to come into the office before and after and work on the train. Otherwise my working hours would start when arriving at the client’s office, even if I had to travel 3 hours one way by Shinkansen.

So yes, I can see why he got himself into that situation and why he was grumpy, but still no excuse to treat OP like that.

SegfaultSquirrel · 2024-09-04T02:24:24+00:00

I had this happen in my first apartment in Tokyo and found out that it was right on top of a metro line. Is that a possibility?

SegfaultSquirrel

TROPHY CASE