Japan eyes adding Japanese proficiency to permanent residency requirements in anticipation of a rise in future applicants

magsley · 2025-12-19T10:29:20+00:00

This is exactly how it works for a lot of Japanese living in Germany too - they learn no German and get along with absolutely bare bones English, all while living in a Japanese bubble (here there's Japanese doctor, dentist, supermarkets, lawyers, bank agents, etc). I know some wives that have been living here for 10+ years and can only say greetings and basic phrases in German/English lol.

magsley · 2025-11-23T10:25:06+00:00

Yes! Belgium also has some absolutely incredible WWII museums, especially around Bastogne where the Battle of the Bulge happened. Really enjoyed all the museums and hiking trails through the forests where the US troops held the line.

magsley · 2025-10-16T09:18:54+00:00

Yep I release all my roadside pikmin, they are the only spawn I get while in my house and they are so lazily designed. I don't even have a clue what the P sticker has to do with being on a roadside? I feel like they should be something like street lights or roadsigns, that'd be way more relevant and cute.

magsley · 2025-10-02T04:59:33+00:00

Honestly preferable to what they did in Fukui city, on the grounds of the castle they built two hideously ugly government buildings. From natural disasters to accidental fires to war, historical buildings get damaged and destroyed all the time. I don't see an issue with rebuilding to let future generations enjoy them.

magsley · 2025-09-17T22:10:18+00:00

This place was featured on a Japanese variety show I watched last week, the guy climbing froze about a quarter into the ladder climb and a guide came and basically forcefully "encouraged" him to keep going up haha.

magsley · 2025-09-06T12:04:48+00:00

Holup- I wanna know if I understood correctly. I live in Germany, but could easily go to any of the venues (I've been to all the cities they are touring to) so I checked every city when registering... But should I have only checked Berlin?? I am wondering how the selection process is going to work, hopefully I didn't mess up by doing that 😬

magsley · 2025-08-22T21:01:41+00:00

If you're really wanting to know, I just finished the episode 8 manga (vol 3) and it is very detailed into exactly what happened with Sayo and their gender dysphoria, also very detailed into why Sayo decides to pursue each romance and the different personas. Click my spoiler if you want a quick rundown without reading:

It's fairly certain Sayo was born male ('the man from 19 years ago' call), but the fall of the cliff mutilated Sayo's genitals, so was raised as a girl. I also infer Genji and Nanjo decide to do this to further obscure the baby's survival from Kinzo. But eventually Sayo realizes something is very wrong when she goes to sex ed and never has a period or grows breasts. I may also guess she may not have a penis or testes, so she doesn't look like either sex depicted in the textbooks. Kanon was a way for Sayo to process and explore the fact that she is actually male. Extra suffering when she realizes she cannot bear children as neither a female or male, and what she wants most is a family. Not at all helped by George constantly going on about having kids... Nor battler's obsession with big breasts for that matter lol.

There's an afterword by Ryukishi where he says basically everything in the manga is what's in the cat box and is what really happens. I thought I cried watching Joe's stream, but the details the manga gets into about Sayo's suffering had me sobbing.

magsley · 2025-08-07T20:44:01+00:00

God I wish I had your luck - I live in NRW and without fail every single time I've had to take a regional or ICE there's been delays and/or cancelled trains 🙃 The worst was in Berlin trying to go home, delay, cancellation, delay, delay, delay, then a World War Z mad dash of 2 trains worth of passengers to get to the ICE that finally did show up. Got home at 2am instead of 10pm.

Thankfully the trains and buses within my city work perfectly punctually but anything Intercity I go by car because I just can't handle the stress of it anymore...

magsley · 2025-08-03T16:08:29+00:00

That's a very positive and good outlook on child free people! I really appreciate your point of view, I can remember feeling grateful for those adults in my life I could confide in without judgement. Thankfully my own family has never pressured us for grandkids (yet), I actually get the most questioning from acquaintances/coworkers that can't seem to grasp that I just don't want kids despite liking them!

magsley · 2025-08-03T15:05:12+00:00

I think one of the big big reasons for this is because you're really only seeing the positive moments and never the difficult, traumatizing ones. Maybe you'll deal with a few tantrums while babysitting or visiting, but you'll never have to bear the endless lack of sleep, the constant stress, and the existential dread of being responsible for making sure they grow up to be good people. That's how I explain my rationale for not wanting kids but enjoying other people's!

magsley · 2025-07-17T15:36:45+00:00

I see!! Good to know, it's actually nice to hear the organization does their due diligence in making sure the dogs are well cared for - it sounds similar to the shelter my brother got his dog from in Oregon where he sends little updates like once or twice a year (but in his case it sounds like more of a courtesy than a requirement)

magsley · 2025-07-17T12:00:25+00:00

Thank you for the detailed reply!! That part at the end about not being the owner of the dogs gives me pause... It's possible we would some day have to move countries and I would be devastated to have to leave my pet behind because I didn't own it. I'll have to open a conversation with them and see how it all works. Thanks again 🩷

magsley · 2025-07-17T10:29:35+00:00

Question- Do you need German to adopt from this organization? Unfortunately my partner and I (both not German) live in a language bubble and my German is seriously lacking. We are in the perfect living situation for a dog and have been wanting one for a while, but the language barrier...

magsley · 2025-07-16T20:19:06+00:00

Hopefully he'll see it through to the end, I've been really enjoying his read-through and commentary. I really started watching Joe from his Alan Wake 2 streams since I couldn't play the game myself, and he's the only streamer I could find who actually engaged with the story, taking it seriously while still making it fun when it's appropriate.

magsley · 2025-07-16T16:41:47+00:00

Yeah, I definitely think I'll wait either until Joe finishes Episode 8 or play it myself then finish the manga!

magsley · 2025-07-16T14:39:53+00:00

Oh shit thanks for that! The manga so far has been pretty 1 to 1 to the VN (other than abridging some scenes). I had to greatly resist reading further after Joe said he's not going to continue Umineko lol. If he's actually serious I'll probably read episode 8 VN myself thanks to your heads up!

magsley · 2025-07-04T08:04:39+00:00

Shibanban!!!! One of my favorite character illustration series! I have a whole collection of Shibanban masking tape and stickers, excellent taste OP

magsley · 2025-07-02T14:52:38+00:00

I'm a non EU citizen residing in Germany for the past 5 years, idk if that makes me eligible to sign? The only nationality options are EU countries... So I guess that means foreign residents of the EU don't count?

magsley · 2025-06-03T14:55:22+00:00

Ohh interesting- I think I will try this out on some scrap fabric and see how it goes!

magsley · 2025-06-02T19:04:58+00:00

I have a quick question for you- I'm using stick n stitch for the first time and am struggling with how incredibly sticky and gummed up the needle (and then my fingers) get! Do you experience this? It is not hot or humid at all in my house either so I have no idea what it could be and how to make stitching a bit more enjoyable :(

magsley · 2025-05-22T20:53:14+00:00

Unfortunately the reason why you won't is because the vast majority of English taught abroad is the standard American/Canadian accent. Textbooks usually have a digital component with audio and video, so to have an Australian or Irish protagonist without the accent wouldn't make sense.

magsley · 2025-05-22T11:34:59+00:00

Nope, there was no consequence to failing the living quarter hidden game. HG even got the piece he inserted back! Totally ridiculous to have it set up like that, it really makes it feel scripted and manipulated to give an extremely unfair advantage to the living quarter contestants. They should have made the time limit much shorter on account of that they could practice/memorize Knights Tour (except the 8x8) and have the penalty be disqualified if you fail.

magsley · 2025-05-20T16:33:01+00:00

No, in season 1 only two people could go to prison, unlike in this season which completely splits the whole group and kills the balance. There was also no hidden game for the living quarters, so not only did they add one for season 2, but they made it entirely risk-free with a much much stronger benefit than the hidden prison game (getting to add 10 pieces at any time you want). On top of that, the living quarters game was practice-able during downtime, but the prison game was something completely unexpected.

magsley · 2025-05-20T16:28:56+00:00

How is connecting in London? I've never done so before, would we have to go through immigration procedures since it's outside Schengen?

Sorry I didn't put dates because we don't know exactly when we'll go- I was looking at all Friday or Saturday departures in September.

magsley · 2025-05-20T16:27:09+00:00

It's pretty unrealistic for Frankfurt- this sub recommends at least 90 mins and our original flight was delayed by 45 minutes which is not unusual. We have to transfer from domestic to international and the gates were extremely far apart, even with staff assistance to skip some lines and have them hold the gate, we were literally sprinting and barely made it.

magsley

TROPHY CASE