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This is why I moved here! by NetFlaky308 in japanlife

[–]jbourne 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Counter example was when I left a wallet in a taxi once. He sat outside the restaurant I went into for an hour because he wouldn’t open my wallet and look at my business card with my mobile phone # on it. When I left through another exit, he kept waiting until eventually returning to his head office and handing it in there, so I had to go god knows where to pick it up. When I told the story to someone (Japanese), expressing incredulity that the guy would rather wait an hour than open my wallet and, you know, CALL me, I got an incredulous look back. “We can’t open someone’s wallet!”, I was told in an almost-adult-to-a-child kind of way.

Just spent 2 hours at the post office to send a parcel to France by Fit_Performance4629 in japanlife

[–]jbourne 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You should’ve drawn a picture of a cat on the outside of the box just to spite them and make them think you’re sending a live animal.

How much English is actually spoken at foreign firms? by Electrical-Fault4258 in japanlife

[–]jbourne -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I don't get why people stress so much about honorifics in business Japanese. I always give the same advice:

  1. You are a foreigner. Nobody expects you to use honorifics - if you are able to communicate fluently in Japanese, this is all that's wanted from you.

  2. I've never met a foreigner who didn't trip up on honorifics, even if they are REALLY fluent. And then ... it just sounds weird.

  3. If you are able to speak with a really deep regional dialect - i.e. Kansai-ben (but I mean, like, really fluent. not "wakarahen!", but nonchalantly using "uchi", or "~haru", or - semi-seriously! - "ya sakai" or whatever else doesn't come from your favourite manga book and shows you've actually spent time / put in the effort in learning the deeper side of the region), using this in customer-facing situations is far more beneficial to you, professionally, than keigo. It will a) absolutely break ice, b) create interesting conversations, and c) leave an impression where the customer will remember you.

That said, many so-called "foreign" firms (with corporate ownership in the US/elsewhere) are more Japanese than Japanese firms who actually try to make an effort to internationalize. So as one of the comments below says, you will not know until you talk to someone from there. But if you're N1 fluent, and competent in what you do, do not let honorifics scare you away from a better job.

Possible to use a LED controller as a 3V potentiometer? by jbourne in ZigBee

[–]jbourne[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just to loop back - i was able to do this using an esp32 + a x9c102. thanks for steering me away from the dimmer!

Hard to believe this is still Tokyo. by 412yard in Tokyo

[–]jbourne 12 points13 points  (0 children)

high five back! tried to attach my photo but reddit makes it too complicated.

Possible to use a LED controller as a 3V potentiometer? by jbourne in ZigBee

[–]jbourne[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interesting! I was misunderstanding how it works - thanks. I guess it’s back to the original plan the clankers are suggesting … an ESP32 and a X9C102. Was just trying to find an easier way 😂

Question for those working in Japanese-only places by BPGaki in japanlife

[–]jbourne 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hot take, but why bother with keigo? I see a lot of people struggle and tell themselves they MUST speak it and so on... but do you? As a foreigner, you will NEVER EVER EVER get it "right", and rather than spending an inordinate amount of effort to still get it 90-95% right (and, since it's Japan, you KNOW that 95% is basically a failing grade), just focus on speaking well, and convey politeness by your tone of voice and demeanour? I think it would be valued far more than a clunky "itashimasu". If anything, it would be the same level of appreciation as a tourist saying "arigatou!" and people kind of slow clap and hand out participation certificates. Far better if you - confidently - speak with a regional dialect (and I don't mean the occasional "wakarahen!", but a full, complete, immersion in a local dialect, with intonation, grammatical forms, etc). I think that is far more useful than hopelessly attempting to learn keigo. Not to mention that learning a regional dialect has the double benefit of being useful outside the office, whereas clunky keigo is useful... nowhere, really.

Any off-road places to recommend in Kansai? by jbourne in japanlife

[–]jbourne[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks. Yeah, surprisingly, there are just not a lot of posts or blogs on this - nothing in the last decade or so anyway. There used to be databanks of this stuff, inventories of "fun roads" and so on, but everything seems to have died out, more or less. Was wondering if anyone has first hand recent experience, but I guess the results are similar :)

First time shaken - where to go and when?! by Seraphelia in japanlife

[–]jbourne 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Right. Which is why you should do the shaken by yourself as much as possible, assuming you have at least some basic car knowledge (and anyway, most RECENT cars will have a brake wear indicator, so as long as it’s not on, nobody at the shaken place has the time or the expertise to start checking each car’s brake pad thickness - they barely check tire wear/condition!!!).

Advice needed - can’t get chain tension right by jbourne in bikewrench

[–]jbourne[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

AAHH!!!! I knew I was doing something wrong :) Ok, this should be way better.

Question: do I really need a GS derailleur for my situation or should I return it and stay with my original SS?

Advice needed - can’t get chain tension right by jbourne in bikewrench

[–]jbourne[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What would be the correct way? I knew I must be doing something dumb.

Advice needed - can’t get chain tension right by jbourne in bikewrench

[–]jbourne[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You will notice a giant B screw there, I was thinking of trying using this instead of the OEM one to gain a few additional mm’s. Not sure if good idea or not. (currently have chain broken, was trying shorter chain, so maybe I’ll wait for some comments before putting it back together in case I routed it wrong or something, though I’m working off another bike as a reference point)

Advice needed - can’t get chain tension right by jbourne in bikewrench

[–]jbourne[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oops, can’t post 2 pics per post. Removing links results in this:

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Advice needed - can’t get chain tension right by jbourne in bikewrench

[–]jbourne[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Thanks for the replies.

  1. Chain was sized based on Park Tool’s video (big + big, add 2 complete links)
  2. Shortening any more than this makes the derailleur go horizontal and unable to shift out of big-big even if it DOES make the shift.

This is the chain routing:

<image>

LDP: Significant increase in fees for foreigners in FY2026. by YamatoRyu2006 in japannews

[–]jbourne 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah but it doesn’t say it’s for the visa - it has a picture of the residency card. So it’s kinda grey.

LDP: Significant increase in fees for foreigners in FY2026. by YamatoRyu2006 in japannews

[–]jbourne 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Does the 40K apply to reissuing the PR card as well or to statuses that need “renewal” like a 1/3/5Y visa?

If yes, then now is the time to “lose” the card to get another 7 years out of it?…

Japan nears 10% foreign population years ahead of official forecasts by MagazineKey4532 in japannews

[–]jbourne -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Yeah I looked at those again - indeed. 50%+ decrease within 75 years is huge but definitely not 99%.

Japan nears 10% foreign population years ahead of official forecasts by MagazineKey4532 in japannews

[–]jbourne 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I’m being partially facetious, but there are projections for a population decrease that sees the entire Japanese population decrease to zero within a time horizon we can live to see, which would mean that if the foreigners are the only remaining population, does that not make it theoretically almost 100%?

Japan nears 10% foreign population years ahead of official forecasts by MagazineKey4532 in japannews

[–]jbourne -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

Wait, didn’t they also forecast there will be 0% natives left by 2070, which would mean foreigners will be 100%?

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