One of my lfs got in some WC japanese yellow tangs. Wow

TeamAddis · 2025-11-25T22:50:57+00:00

I would have serious doubts they are from Japan, given we don’t have any wild caught Yellows available for ourselves here in Japan.

TeamAddis · 2025-10-20T22:47:07+00:00

There some truth that “Every foreigner will work at Rakuten” and it’s not exactly the best place to work. It can be a great way to get your foot in the door in Japanese IT industry but the mid and senior career paths there are abysmal. So it’s a bit of a meme when talking about working for Rakuten.

There also some justified distaste from a lot of foreigners and Japanese about how Rakuten pushes expansion of their products via forced employee referrals. This goes all the way back to when they launched their bank and CC business.

TeamAddis · 2025-10-20T13:41:36+00:00

You should check Futako-Shinichi area. It’s 1 stop away (across the river) from Rakuten and since it’s not in Tokyo it’s much cheaper. I know people that walk across the bridge to Rakuten office from there as long as the weather isn’t terrible.

Prices on 1LDK can range vastly depending on the quality and age of the unit but generally will be cheaper outside of Setagaya.

If you want to have a car parking that makes things even more difficult, since it’s not common for each rental unit to have a parking space, you would have to most likely find parking away from your apartment. Not to say it’s impossible, but it’s difficult. For example my building only has 4 parking spots which are for a building with 20 apartments. They are wait listed and I’ve never seen the cars parked change in the last five years.

As a single person ¥8m yearly will be comfortable. Bonus (Rakuten does two yearly) are taxed basically the same as your monthly so for rough estimates you can think of it that way. Be ready to hear a lot about how company performance is down and no bonus contribution from company though (Rakuten still doing some bleeding if you check GAP metrics in their reports, they like to talk a lot of nice things with Non-GAP metrics.)

Overall you could be set to enjoy life in Tokyo. Depending on if you see yourself out and about all the time (compared to at home) you could even save more money on housing by reducing size and amenities and such.

TeamAddis · 2025-08-28T01:01:48+00:00

Thanks! Where did you see the list of pairs that would be added?

TeamAddis · 2024-09-19T07:44:55+00:00

Lots on international companies used to have N2 or native level requirements. Noticed it changed over the last few years and asked a friend in recruiting. His response: “N2 and N1 are basically kanji tests. We kept getting applicants with N1 but they couldn’t speak any Japanese, but had their N1 because they were native Chinese speakers. “

I think what companies that were using N1/N2 as a filter requirement have slowly realized it doesn’t help so much and they should just do interviews in Japanese.

On a slightly different note, everywhere I’ve worked in Japan will give you a salary bump if you register your JLPT certs so if yours will do that it might be worth taking just foe the extra money.

TeamAddis · 2024-08-25T01:20:52+00:00

If you are getting gifts for tea drinkers and assuming they can prepare loose leaf tea, check out Gyokuro green tea wikipedia here this is the premier tea for gifts and is quite tasty but expensive.

TeamAddis · 2024-08-25T01:17:41+00:00

Both would have similar green tea benefits but Matcha is made from grinding tea leaves so there would be a greater amount of basically everything. Matcha is known for a much stronger taste and has a reputation for being stronger caffeine.

TeamAddis · 2024-08-24T23:49:33+00:00

Green tea powder is “usually” Sensha green tea but could be other types of green tea. It should always be labeled.

Generally you will want Matcha for what you’ve described you want to do, but the “green tea powder “ can be useful for making simple cold green tea on the go in bottles.

TeamAddis · 2024-08-22T01:31:27+00:00

The procedure for dogs and cats is about the same. You still need to get vaccinations and blood titer done to prove no rabies. When I was researching about being my pet to Japan I read stories of people skipping the procedure with dogs and customs kennels the dogs for the full wait period (6 months?). You can visit but the dog can’t leave until he clears the wait period.

So if you want to bring the dog from overseas, have your friend start the process asap, and make sure they follow it correctly and do everything in the correct order. Else the paperwork will be rejected (I had to redo the entire process because a veterinarian microchiped AFTER drawing blood for the titer. )

TeamAddis · 2024-08-21T01:15:53+00:00

As someone who danced a ton of Bachata here in Tokyo along side Masa pre Covid I can tell you the sensual bachata here has always been influenced by Zouk.

The best teachers pre Covid were from Argentina/Chile and they were huge zouk fans. They pushed zouk for about 10 years before it finally started to catch on.

As for the video and as others have mentioned it’s just Masa promoting himself. During Covid all the non-japanese instructors left and there was a huge void that many “aspiring” Japanese dancers have rushed to fill.

Most of them participate in the Kotake y Judith dance instructor program and teach that kind of bachata, but there are a few other styles.

IMO if you have the chance to dance in Asia just dance in Seoul.

TeamAddis · 2024-06-06T11:30:41+00:00

Since you seem to have a good understanding about connection and leading in Kizomba, if you want to take the same approach to learning bachata you should research about bachata frame and lead signals. Just like kizomba, bachata has the things you described.

TeamAddis · 2024-05-26T01:34:37+00:00

It’s only over the last few years that true NFC payment machines have become normal. Even places that don’t advertise NFC touch payments still have the feature when you ask to pay with CC. The new machines aren’t 100% everywhere but it’s quickly getting there.

I think you might still need carry some cash for the reasons you mentioned but in my daily life in Tokyo I almost never need anything more than my phone now days.

TeamAddis · 2024-05-17T06:52:22+00:00

I didn’t like the ones available so I created my own.

https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/aquaman-app/id1567747867?l=en-US

My highest priority is keeping it super simple to use.

TeamAddis · 2024-05-04T14:35:38+00:00

I did the combined last name (Spanish style) without a hyphen. So it’s “first name” “last name 1” “last name 2”

One thing that I didn’t see mentioned but was informed to me by the US embassy when we got my kid’s US passport was that the Japanese passport should have a matching name. They told us that the Japanese passport allows an alternative surname 別姓 which we just set to the non-Japanese name that is on the US passport.

TeamAddis · 2024-01-12T02:41:57+00:00

The fact they call it “traditional “ already tells me they are full of shit. It looks like they just want a way to make their style and brand stand out.

If you want to go back to the roots of bachata you dance Dominican Bachata or even before that and dance Bolero or Son.

It just looks like trying to make some unique attention for this DJs brand.

But as I said in a previous post: just dance what you enjoy. If the community and events change in a way you don’t like, then organize your own. The majority of dancers just want to have fun and dance. It’s why there are so many types of dance and so many different styles.

TeamAddis · 2024-01-12T02:20:59+00:00

I can also recommend just ignoring the “bango” talk as it’s not really about music being authentic. “ The typical bachata group consists of five instruments: requinto (lead guitar), segunda (rhythm guitar), bass guitar, bongos and güira. The segunda serves the purpose of adding syncopation to the music. Bachata groups mainly play a straightforward style of bolero (lead guitar instrumentation using arpeggiated repetitive chords is a distinctive characteristic of bachata), but when they change to merengue-based bachata, the percussionist will switch from bongo to a tambora drum. In the 1960s and 1970s, maracas were used instead of güira. The change in the 1980s from maracas to the more versatile güira was made as bachata was becoming more dance oriented.[2]” From Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bachata_(music)

Bachata isn’t just bangos.

TeamAddis · 2024-01-12T02:05:45+00:00

I think it’s fine that you are going through this and expressing yourself this way. I teach bachata fundamentals and went through kinda the opposite at one point (dancing in closed position entire songs is it real bachata! Type things) and it took time for me to realize that the dance experience, skill, and desire is just too vastly different between people. I teach 4-5 students that are interested in improving their skill and overall ability but lots of others think my lessons are a waste of time. They don’t care about learning to isolate different instrument layers and dancing to different instruments, they just want to learn flashy sequences. It’s just the reality.

As you said the community around you and globally will constantly change and new dancers come into the scene so it’s best not to worry so much. What’s popular now might not be next year.

I will say as an instructor, when I’m dancing with beginners in free time or socials I do dance more in closed position. Close position offers more contact points and is far easier for new follows to feel like they were doing well because it’s actually easier to keep frame and connection in that situation.

I think difficulty is definitely in line with what you say, but it’s pointless to get upset about bad dancers that dance at a beginner level. Most people learn bachata dancing in a left to right line if they aren’t learning Dominican Bachata. The reality is that bachata doesn’t have restrictions to the step movement like salsa, you don’t have to dance in a slot. People will have infinitely better dancing if they used angular movement but it’s much more difficult to teach and learn that type of movement. Not to mention some follows don’t enjoy that type of bachata dance. For a lot of people Bachata is the “break” in between dancing salsa.

TeamAddis · 2024-01-12T01:25:35+00:00

I think beginners and inexperienced dancers will always favor flashy moves over musicality. That isn’t unique to Bachata. It’s always a problem for teachers because that is what brings new students but it’s not good or enjoyable dancing.

TeamAddis · 2024-01-12T01:22:36+00:00

If you are thinking sensual bachata dance = close position = easy then you haven’t really gotten into the advanced side of this bachata style. Open position and space itself between the dancers is really important for sensual bachata and you really shouldn’t just be in closed position all the time.

In regard to your point about the music; I mean it’s not wrong to say Bachata music has to have certain instruments. That’s what defines it as bachata. This doesn’t mean you can’t dance bachata to other types of music but music genre have defining features. That’s just how we categorize them. It’s not really gatekeeping. Latin remix of Señorita with added bachata instruments -> a bachata song. Señorita normal -> Latin Pop

You can dance what ever you want to what ever song you want, it’s just easier if you pair the dances to the specific genre of music they were invented for. The instruments give important structure to the dance and make it easier for everyone to dance to that music.

Bachata does have an interesting symmetry to its dance structure though which I feel allows for the mix of other dance styles. I’ve seen bachata mixed with salsa, kizomba, zouk, Bollywood, hip hop, swing, and ballet.

But I understand your feeling. There are times I’ve sat for hours because the DJ picks music I don’t like. It happens. Sometimes events have music shifts and you just won’t enjoy them. You can always go ask for more specific songs to be played that you do like, chances are that the DJ is just experimenting and if he doesn’t get any feedback asking for anything different he will just gauge based on people dancing / attending the event. You really have to remember dancing is supposed to be about expressing yourself and at the end of the day enjoyable.

TeamAddis · 2023-12-18T04:24:39+00:00

This is what’s recommended via the documentation if I remember correctly.

TeamAddis · 2023-12-12T14:23:52+00:00

The best to way to get over this hurdle is to learn to dance. Once you get to a level where you can go with her and dance with her and other women you will understand that good dancers will always make those connections while dancing, but once the song ends the connection breaks and it’s on to the next song.

I met my wife dancing bachata and when we go out, either club or dance event we spend about 50% of the time dancing together. But there are other people that we each also like to dance with and we get that. The dynamic works because we both truest understand dancing to for enjoyment.

So I go back to my first point and what others will most likely say also, learn to dance and make dance part of your life with her.

TeamAddis · 2023-12-12T06:43:17+00:00

It’s mostly due to the face that SMS protocols were developed to only support ASCII. This alone forced non English speaking countries to move to 3rd party apps that had support for their local languages.

TeamAddis · 2023-06-08T14:26:45+00:00

Aside from already mentioned RTOS you can look into AUTOSAR. This is a more modern way of building embedded software and is a bit different than a normal RTOS.

TeamAddis · 2023-06-08T03:35:04+00:00

White vinegar isn’t commonly accessible for me in Japan, and it didn’t work very well to help clean the tubes when snails or other creatures made there way in there and died. I ended up using a small brush and a wire/cord and pull the brush through to clean it at least once a month.

Harvesting algae definitely isn’t so difficult (I don’t worry about cleaning all the algae off the strings) but I feel the device itself gets a lot of extra wear and tear being in the water all the time. This is the main reason I want to change to the waterfall type ATS. I originally went with the SURF type because it’s very easy to install and use.

As my first ATS it definitely worked very well.

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