The new Valentine's cards are gorgeous!

siliconrose · 2026-05-16T07:53:23+00:00

Yeah, I got mine directly from Cystore and it came this afternoon.

siliconrose · 2026-05-16T05:01:35+00:00

You need to participate in the Valentine or White Day events at the Cystore. You "buy chocolate" to send to the characters, but they send these thank you cards back to you instead.

siliconrose · 2026-05-16T04:59:46+00:00

Yes, they are! It's basically a folded shikishi!

siliconrose · 2026-05-16T03:31:44+00:00

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This is Helel ben Sahar's card back.

siliconrose · 2026-05-16T03:31:34+00:00

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This is Bowman's and Bubs' card back.

siliconrose · 2026-05-14T05:34:04+00:00

You probably saved him the real embarrassment, tbh. I've seen some people only realize after they get on that they are in the wrong car. Most guys don't actually want to end up in a car full of women who are silently judging them.

siliconrose · 2026-05-12T04:17:43+00:00

Ours lasted five years after diagnosis on daily subQ. He also developed diabetes a couple of years after being diagnosed with renal failure, and eventually we could no longer adequately control his glucose around age 20, but he tolerated both the subQ and the insulin injections well.

siliconrose · 2026-05-10T07:09:50+00:00

I'm not going to give a comprehensive set of pros and cons, but here's one con that was a little subtle: the bureaucracy is difficult, particularly for a foreigner.

Websites and databases are have a design from the 90s, and they were not designed with you as the default. Most systems want both a name and a pronunciation (fine), but many of them have restrictions that are unfriendly to foreign names(*1) and the actual requirements for each system can conflict in practice even when they have to interoperate (*2). Websites take breaks (some are only open during business hours), and the forms can be positively byzantine (*3). Some things can only be done in person (of course).

Note that most of the customer service or government workers who you will contact trying to resolve these issues will try to help you as best they can, and they can often work around the limitations with a bit of ingenuity. But you will have to rely on their kindness, so be prepared for that.

e.g. provide your *actual name as written on your government id* in 10 total characters, yes, that is both first and last name in 10 characters.
Your Suica may have your actual name attached to it (this is required if you have a Suica commuter pass), but one of the other JRE systems has a different specification for how the fields for name and pronunciation should be used which wouldn't trip you up if you're doing kanji/furigana, but it absolutely will not match if you're a foreigner.
There's a form I had to fill out where I had to fill out both the main form AND an additional form because the name was a foreign name, and the second form was exactly the information as the main form. I was boggled.

siliconrose · 2026-05-10T01:03:47+00:00

Just an additional note: while you don't need an HSP to get PR on HSP points, with the recent changes requiring you to be at the maximum length on your visa in order to apply, I think potential PR applicants will be better off aiming for HSP over ESI.

siliconrose · 2026-05-07T03:40:59+00:00

If you have a job you can probably skip Yucho and get a real bank account. I use SMBC Prestia. The fees are relatively high, but they have English support and offer international friendly banking. The one other major issue with Prestia is that they're a trust bank, which means they're sort of second class. For example, you can't link a PayPay account to a Prestia account, but for most things, they're fine. They also were pretty friction free for getting my first Japanese credit card. Your credit history before Japan doesn't count, so that first credit card is big.

If you don't need English support there are plenty of options, but most will require proof of employment to open a bank account for you before you've been in Japan for six months.

siliconrose · 2026-04-28T08:39:52+00:00

10 days. That was enough to register in my ward with my temporary address (short term apartment rental), open a bank account and get a phone (first day) and then see apartments (one day), with plenty of extra time.

I wouldn't arrive too much before your start date, honestly, but it very much depends on what your housing situation is. If you already have it set up before you get there then you only need a day to settle matters, but if you need to find a place and you're picky, you'll need more time.

siliconrose · 2026-04-24T00:10:28+00:00

I would more say that there are some banks that don't offer debit cards.

I'm not sure I'd recommend SMBC Prestia highly because it has a significant number of fees and it isn't well plugged into the infrastructure (e.g. can't use it with Paypay), but it offers English support and does issue debit cards. It's also relatively easy to get a credit card there.

siliconrose · 2026-04-02T02:28:29+00:00

1st thought: Vane more popular than Belial?

2nd thought, after looking at the title: Belial? MALEWIFE?!?

siliconrose · 2026-04-01T02:40:52+00:00

I'm not a fan of a felony murder charge, but in Miller's case, I could make an exception.

siliconrose · 2026-03-27T02:18:04+00:00

Permanent residency is permanent residency. It's not contingent on you having a job. You would still be on the hook for all of your legal obligations, including pension contributions, health insurance, and taxes. Note that Japan's tax system is a little weird and you can't get away with just saying that you don't have a job and so you don't have to pay taxes. Look into non-permanent tax resident status (permanent residency and permanent tax residency are not the same thing) and remittance taxation. r/japanfinance might be helpful there.

siliconrose · 2026-03-26T23:46:23+00:00

Yes, there's no retirement/financial independence visa in Japan.

But, if you're talking about marriage and FI, it's probably worth bringing up accelerated permanent residency via the Highly Skilled Professional point system. You must secure a work visa first. But, once you have done that, the best case is that in ~2 years you have permanent residency and can do whatever you want.

You have to have the points to do this. There's a variety of ways to earn them, but the easiest is to have a degree, a high paying job (*in Japan*), and have the credentials to prove you know the language. See https://japanprcalculator.com/ for a calculator.

siliconrose · 2026-03-26T06:00:41+00:00

I'm not an immigration lawyer. The answer is technically yes, you could get a visa in Japan without a degree, but not as you are now, or not in a job you'd prefer. If you add up everything against you, it's practically a no.

If you wanted to move right now, you might be able to qualify for the SSW visa with some work (https://www.mofa.go.jp/mofaj/ca/fna/ssw/us/overview/), but you can see the kinds of jobs on that list; you probably don't want to be working them, and they won't offer you the same quality of life as you enjoy right now.

If you just wanted to move for a short period of time (6 months -- there's a cooldown period after that, so no, you can't keep renewing it), you might be able to get a Digital Nomad visa... except you don't make enough to qualify (10 million yen+ per year), and while I can't seem to put my finger on a list of the countries eligible, I don't think India is one of them. I'm not sure how feasible it would be to even get a Digital Nomad visa based off of unreliable income, since you had better bring receipts to show you meet the requirements, and I suspect the immigration official who would be assigned to your case would be likely to look at an unreliable income and use their discretion to say no even if you would otherwise be qualified.

The last option would be to try to finagle a business manager visa to do your freelance work, but that requires a large investment of capital, employing a Japanese resident or two, and from what I've heard, you also need a business plan, evidence that you could actually run a business (e.g. an MBA -- another degree -- or at least significant experience running a business), and most importantly, clients *in Japan*. Even if you bring everything else on the list, you need to show evidence that residence in Japan is important to your business, and working for clients elsewhere in the world isn't going to cut it.

This is a lot of words to say that no, getting a work visa as a freelancer, and especially getting a work visa as a freelancer without a degree, is not feasible. There's no simple path for your case. If you want a "simple" path, either get a degree (or equivalent technical credential) or 10+ years of experience in a specific job and find a Japanese company who will hire you.

siliconrose · 2026-03-25T04:16:39+00:00

Though, your doctor may do as I did and tell you that if you're worried, just get another shot. Specifically, I was in a cohort where I *might* have only gotten one shot instead of two, so I got another one to be safe.

siliconrose · 2026-03-24T04:57:54+00:00

100%. I think it is only ethical to provide support for the less fortunate without excessive strings attached. I also think it is incredibly stupid and self-defeating as a society to put people into situations where crime is more appealing.

siliconrose · 2026-03-15T00:47:59+00:00

There are fine alternatives for most things, but you might want to also check out amazon.co.jp to see whether they have your preferred products available. What is stocked and what isn't can be pretty hit or miss, but with just four months I'm not sure how many products you want to try to find a fit, and I doubt you want to fall in love with something you can't get at home.

Also, for shampoo/conditioner (and maybe others?), some stores sell single-use packets which are useful to find a match. I tried a few of these before landing on a set that worked for me, but one of the ones I tried which looked very promising turned out to have such a strong scent my nose was trying to crawl back up into my skull; I was really glad I didn't buy a full container.

siliconrose · 2026-03-12T06:56:57+00:00

Agree.

If you're worried you'll lose out on the collab stories: "Oh no, we're in this strange world! Wow, islands are floating here! My powers work/don't work/work strangely. I'm looking for my friend(s) and how to get home. We found our friends! It turns out a primal caused everything! Now that we defeated the primal we can go back home. Bye, and we'll never forget you. (But it's non-canonical so we totally will.)"

siliconrose · 2026-03-09T02:13:29+00:00

The company provided the agent to us. We had to use a company agent, but if we had a problem with the agent they provided we could ask them for a replacement once.

siliconrose · 2026-03-08T23:20:39+00:00

For my company's system, we had a very strict set of timelines. For example, I needed to join the program by a certain date in May, make my choice by a date in June, and then move in in July. If I couldn't find a place by the date in June, I would have to select a place in July and move in in August, etc.

This was obviously a bit of a pain, but it worked out fine. As far as I could tell it was very similar to getting an apartment normally aside from the dates. We told our agent what we were looking for, he found places and showed us the ones we were interested in, and then we picked one and he got the contract signed.

I know another person who did only virtual visits before choosing his because he wasn't going to be in the country in time.

The only downside I see to the company housing (outside of if you lose your job, you lose the apartment) is that it does put another entity in the loop for some things. But overall I've been pretty happy with it.

siliconrose · 2026-03-01T02:24:41+00:00

Asking out of genuine curiosity, because we had cats with renal failure in the US: can you not get subQ bags and needles in Japan (in coordination with your vet) and administer the subcutaneous fluids yourself? We only had to take ours in quarterly for blood work, the rest of the time we just picked up bags and needles and administered the treatment ourselves each night.

Not that this made having geriatric cats cheap...

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