A while ago I compared two discount supermarkets 950m apart in Saitama. This time I went bigger: three stores on National Route 17 in Chuo-ku, Saitama, the same 30-item list at each, and a photo of every price tag.

• Seiyu Yono, the Trial-owned store from last time (Tue 29 Sep)
• OK Store Yono (Wed 30 Sep)
• Kakujo Gyorui, a fish market (Thu 1 Oct)

Full results, with a photo for every price: https://claude.ai/artifact/TaF1gfoAQNkMVHzdCjGDrm

What stood out:

• OK was cheapest on 13 of 25 items I could compare: milk, yogurt, eggs, rice packs, coffee, juice.
• Same 5kg bag of Shinnosuke rice: ¥5,605 at Seiyu, ¥3,558 at OK.
• Nescafé Gold Blend 120g: ¥862 at OK, ¥1,295 at Seiyu, for the same jar.
• Seiyu won 7 items, including Chilean salmon, ground meat, tomatoes and a ¥299 katsu-ju.
• Kakujo won 5, all fresh food or rice: Koshihikari, mackerel, chicken breast, bagged potatoes and carrots.

How I compared:

• All prices include tax.
• For OK I used the non-member price; members pay about 3% less.
• Where pack sizes differed, I converted to per potato, per 100g of coffee, and so on.
• Items that weren't the same product (powdered tea vs leaves, southern bluefin vs yellowfin) are shown but not ranked.

Caveat: each store was surveyed on a different weekday, so daily specials affect a few items.

Disclosure: I made the iPhone app I used to collect this (FieldPic Checklist). Each price tag was photographed against the checklist, and the export went to Claude, which read the tags and did the unit conversions.

Crazy day for Japan cybersecurity. So far seen reports about data breaches from Yakiniku King, Times car share, Osaka Metropolitan University, and Daiwa securities today. Anything I missed?

Please keep your data safe everyone

I’m comparing the old and new bottle. The new bottle is lighter in color, less calories and tastes less strong.

Hi Reddit, I’m hoping someone can offer advice about applying for a British passport from Japan for my daughter.

She has dual Japanese-British citizenship through my wife and me. However my wife and I have different surnames, and while my daughter goes by the Japanese surname here, we registered her birth in the UK with a double barrelled surname (think Sato-Smith).

I’ve applied for her first UK passport and received an email from the passport office that we need to supply evidence of her name change in the UK because the name in the UK birth registration doesn’t match her Japanese birth certificate. I phoned them and they explained that the UK birth registration isn’t sufficient, so it’s unlikely that we would be able to get the double barrelled surname on the passport.

We haven’t applied for her Japanese passport but we were going to get her name as Sato (Smith) on there, which my wife has done on her passport. I wonder what f that would be acceptable for the UK passport office.

Does anyone have any experience of having kids with two different surnames between Japan and the UK, and if so what did you do? Thank you!

Someone has deliberately* knocked over my bicycle in the apartment building's bicycle parking area (private property, but accessible to anyone) and, from the looks of it, gave it some kicks for good measure as well. I'm incredibly upset and want to report it.

Just looking for some advice/experience in terms of:

• Do I need a police station or will a koban do?
• What kind of documents or other information should I prepare and bring?
• Should I get my bike fixed at the store first, then bring the receipt to make the report, or make the report first?
• Any other kind of advice/ experience?

Just want to avoid wasting the Police's and my time as much as possible. Thank you!

*) I haven't seen it happen, so I can't say with 100% certainty, but given the way I found it, it would be a miracle if someone managed to do this accidentally; plus this isn't the first time someone has messed with my bike.

So, this happened a long time ago, and I don’t remember exactly if it was Yamada denki or Bic Camera. I just remember that it was the store next to the Zara near Ikebukuro station.

After I approached the staff and asked my questions in Japanese to a middle aged guy working at the mobile carrier counter, saying「ネットでYモバイルやUQの乗り換えキャンペーンをやっていると見たんですが、量販店では何か独自のキャンペーンや特典があるのか知りたくて」, I don't know why, he just immediately asked me“Cですか？”

At first, I didn’t really understand what he meant because I’d never been asked that before. I thought I might have misunderstood him, so I said “ん?” He then repeated“C国ですか？” and that’s when I realized he was asking if I was from China.

I said yes, but explained that it was actually my Japanese partner who wanted to change carriers and that he was right there with me. The guy completely ignored what I said and called over an older guy on his walkie talkie. Then that new guy asked me the exact same thing“C国ですか？” I said yes again, and then he finally called over a Chinese girl to assist us... I was speechless

I’m confident enough to say that my Japanese speaking skills are better than those of 95% of Japanese language learners and I had explained very clearly in Japanese what I needed, so I honestly don’t understand why they handled the situation that way.

Honestly, I felt really uncomfortable with the whole situation, especially the weird “C” thing and the way they treated me as a customer. I mean If they genuinely believe that Chinese people who don’t speak Japanese well will somehow automatically understand what “C（国）” means instead of just saying “ちゅうごく” or “チャイナ” or something, then I seriously doubt their whole operation has its shit together.

Otherwise, I can’t help but see it as another xenophobic experience.

I have a printed out letter regarding my quitting (2 weeks notice because of my shit english teaching job) but the boss wasn’t available today. I have already signed and dated my letter and want to be gone 2 weeks from now.

My question is the title: is that enough?

Im already stressed and suffering health wise so im jumping ship ASAP

Everytime the workers at Yodobashi realize I am not Japanese they call over a Nepalese person to help. The truth is almost everytime the Nepalese person asks really strange questions and speaks in broken english I can barely understand.

I always be nice and answer their bullshit questions but they always try to fish for strange info like where do I live now...where did I come from and when I answer America they ask which part of America...It feels like they are sizing me up and when they realize shit this guy lives in Japan and I can't get away with denying him service they speak some random gibberish I can't understand in English. I just nod my head and the Japanese worker always thanks them for helping me but the truth is that motherfucker can barely speak english and wasn't helpful at all.

If it were the states I would go and complain and call them out but since it's Japan I let it slide but it still bothers me. Japanese people are too nice and believing of others I've come to realize.

I got hired this year in march, passed about 8 interviews, went to one day of training where we comment on other teachers classes. Something I did back when working in china so I focused on content, flow, and engagement as well as STT vs TTT, never heard back from my notes. Company didn't schedule a new training day. I waited 2 weeks before calling them and asking if everything was ok and was told that someone else had been hired and our contract with visa support had been cancelled.

This started a long back and forth of them agreeing to do the visa anyway despite not needing me now, to deciding that no they can't. 3 months later they told me they can hire me as a substitute teacher for 10,000 a month as opposed tot he original contracts 200,000 a month. Desperate for at least a visa contract while I have other work in Sapporo I agreed.

They stalled and had troubles with visa paperwork. But they were finally able to submit a visa in September 6 months after hiring me, which was promptly denied due to not enough working hours despite me finding some work elsewhere.

Maybe I made some inexcusable faux paus during that one training day, maybe me not actively calling for the first week of training and being proactive was a turn off. I had maybe 5 different excuses from them as to what went wrong and I honestly don't know what to feel or beleive, other than I feel like I've been gaslit.

Also the owners son comes to work smelling like pot (when I confronted him about it he explained it's because people smoke pot in niseko), wearing rastafarian robes or something, and other than being a pretty chill dude I'd be happy having a friend with was complete hell to work with, he never understood anything. Constantly caused delays, and always used ai to communicate (which he also admitted that chat gpt is how all their teachers do their lesson plans)

Imo avoid at all costs. The owner is dishonest, her son who manages things is incompetent and inconsistent, and the work culture while my first impression seemed friendly, may be a college girls dorm in terms. Of betrayals.

Not to skirt all personal responsibility but this has been an extremely stressful matter concerning my life, and now I may have to leave japan in part due to the negligence and or incompetence if not outright vindictiveness of people working here.

Supplementary info
---

Just before the end of the contract I did ask him if he was on drugs himself.  He got quite offended naturally.  While that can be taken as an accusation, it was merely a question to pressure him into getting shit done finally.  Not the smartest move.  But it did make him slip up and admit to a lot in 5 drafts of chat gpt made legal note which documented our interactions, full of mistakes confessions however so I think it didn't help him if he was hoping to go a legal route later.

Additional context on the working situation.  Until I worked here I was happily employed as an alt for a small company until I got a corona related stroke at 40.  Something about the virus and my Immune systems response clogged my arteries and caused me to nearly die (190lb 186 meters. At the time).  A medical mystery the docs said.   But we are seeing more similar cases lately, the assumption is corona related .

After that I was unable to recontract due to being hospitalized during recontracting period with a new school. following this I started helping at a friend's exotic pet shop.  Tho she left for Okinawa and left me in charge.  No one else would do the work, and the company owner threatened to 'get rid of all the sugar gliders' if I quit creating a strang kind of hostage situation.  I told her it's illegal her boss isn't a breeder and it's also techbically theft or worse depending on how.

I know it's not my responsibility but sometimes we are in a place where we are the only one who can do something.  It's not a big deal. Best case she loses money and all her investments that she ran from anyway.  but it's still important to me as they are helpless animals and I'm the one who has custody.

I'm working at a high school now, as a main teacher part time. But the visa office said the hours for that job and the current visa are insufficient so I have to leave japan.  I'm terrified.  I don't know what to do.  I've been out of the USA for over 10 years and I don't have a hometown.  

So first and foremost I’m a Japanese American guy who works at a company in Japan, and I have a co-worker whos also a Japanese American that has some serious BO. im also 25 and she’s like 33 and a mother so I don’t know how I should tell her that she needs to wear some deodorant. Should i tell her in English or in Japanese or what? Should I just bring out the American in me and just straight up tell her or what? I can’t leave this be no more, looking for any suggestions.

I have cancer and I'm in Japan on a student visa. I'm trying to balance my student obligations and how I feel on a day to day basis, but lately the medication has been kicking my ass. I'm so exhausted everyday, I'm trying to manage symptoms, navigate the healthcare system, applying for refunds because something went wrong with my high cost medical benefit ((限度額適用認定証) and I paid my monthly cap twice in the same day and I overpaid last month, all while trying to have the energy just to show up to school and have my assignments complete. Before this I was a straight A student and my GPA dropped .7 points.

What I'm particularly worried about is how this will be perceived by immigration. I'm trying to work between my doctor and my school to receive accommodations but in the meantime, I'm racking up a lot of absences. Additionally, my school says they can only accommodate so many absences which seems pretty ruthless considering that this is cancer. I worry that I could be deported or denied a visa renewal and immigration will lecture me on some bullshit like "you came to Japan to study, not have cancer."

I'm considering buying a property in the Nagoya area next year.

I wonder if there are English speaking services that would play the role of a real estate agent and then help me with setting up the place, from furniture purchasing to dealing with all the paperwork/tax of shipping one of my specialty cars from the U.S. to Japan.

My Japanese is actually passable (I have N2 and I can read all Kanji as well) but I'd much rather deal with this hassle in one of my native-level languages so that's why I'm looking for an English speaking service. I also don't want to deal with Chinese services because they are mostly geared toward Chinese mainlanders buying investment properties but I am an American buying a place for personal use.

I know of corporate jobs that would do this for their high level employees but this would be a personal instead of professional move for me, and I'm willing to pay up to 3M Yen for the service. Unfortunately none of my Aichi friends know anything (it's even hard to find an English-speaking realtor who specializes in buying instead of renting) and I've not had a lot of luck searching on the internet.

Any pointers would be appreciated, thanks.

Only ever use netflix and it has a quite poor selection of japanese horror movies. Don't even have the ring.

Hello,

My wife and I are expecting our child to be born sometime around december and we've bought this air monitor to check the humidity, temperature and co2(ppm) of the room.

After doing some research about the co2 values it seems that less than 1000 is ideal for sleeping and from 1000~5000 can cause issues on sleep(this is why air feels like heavy sometimes when you go into a closed bedroom).

We noticed that we are reaching around 1800 ppm which is not ideal for us nor the baby so we need some ventilation in the room. The air conditioner doesn't do anything as it just recirculates the same air. We are both foreigners so we aren't sure if there's some unwritten rules on how to keep the house ventilated in Japan. We are living in a ZEH house so it's quite well insulated which is part of the reason I think we get this high level of co2 concentration. We have some air vents in the walls that we can open but am not sure if they are bringing in enough air.

So I have a few questions for those who have dealt with this situation.

1. What do you to improve air quality? Opening the window is possible but it can get kinda loud and am not sure this strategy will be possible during mid winter or next summer.

2. If anyone knows, what do you when you have a newborn, do you have to open the windows repeatedly to ensure it doesn't get to a high ppm level or is there an easier method to manage this.

From google the only reasonable answer is to open the window and run the heater during summer but I'm worried this might skyrocket our energy bill :( so hopefully there's another way.

Cheers!

Edit: We also have the kitchen exhaust, the toilet exhaust and one in the shower room. Our realtor said to keep the one in the toilet and shower running 24/7 so that's what we've done.

I’m an international design student living in Osaka, and I’m getting to know the city beyond the big stations and class. What’s one ordinary place, habit, or tiny detail here that made it feel like home for you? I’d love to hear the local version, not another must-see list.

Hi everyone!

I’m currently living in Kyoto and I recently left my full-time job. My official last day was September 24th.

I’m actually going back to my home country permanently in December, so I’m not looking for another job in Japan during this period. I’ll just be staying here until my departure.

Since leaving my job, I’ve been waiting for the documents from my employer, especially the health insurance loss certificate (健康保険資格喪失証明書), which I understand I need in order to switch to National Health Insurance (国民健康保険).

The problem is that tomorrow, October 6th, will be 12 days since I left my job, and I understand that I’m supposed to complete the procedures for National Health Insurance and National Pension within 14 days (so by October 8th).

The documents still haven’t arrived, though...

I’m planning to go to my ward office tomorrow anyway and explain the situation, so hopefully they can tell me how to proceed even if I don’t have the certificate yet.

But I was wondering: has anyone been in a similar situation?

What normally happens if your employer hasn’t sent the necessary documents before the 14-day deadline?

Can you start the National Health Insurance/National Pension procedures and submit the documents later? Or do you have to wait for the health insurance loss certificate before you can complete the procedures?

I know the best thing is to ask the ward office directly (which I’m going to do tomorrow), but I’d really appreciate hearing how this worked for other people.

Thanks!

US citizen living in Japan. Renewed my visa, and went to the bank to reconfirm. They scanned my new residence card, got my hanko, done.

Next they called me and said they forgot to ask for my passport, and I said I was renewing it and wouldn't have it for a few more weeks. They said okay, but then called me again, sounding like they were scrambling, and said they actually needed my greencard. I confirmed I was a US citizen and don't have one, but then they asked for my social security number instead (and that they no longer needed my passport).

What is actually expected? I'm hesitant to trust the bank because of how disorganized they seem to be.

edit - Not opening the account. Just renewing the residence card info.

It's Monday! Did you do anything over the weekend? Go somewhere? Meet someone? Try something new?

​

Post about your activities from the weekend here! Pictures are also welcome.

It's getting cooler by the day! It has been raining since Saturday here, and today I even wore long sleeves, is anyone else wearing them by now?

Hi Chat, I've been in Tokyo for about a month on a Working Holiday visa and work remotely as a freelancer, so my income is stable, but finding an apartment as a WHV holder has been honestly exhausting.
I've been searching for the whole last month and I'm starting to feel pretty lost. It's getting really hard right now, and I'm still staying in an Airbnb.
Most places want a 2 year contract, and my visa only covers one year. I'm fine with paying the usual one month penalty for leaving early. But starting this month, a lot of companies suddenly want a 3 month deposit from WHV holders, which on top of all the other move in costs is just too much.
So I wanted to ask: does anyone have a friend (or are you yourself) leaving Japan or moving out soon and looking to hand over their apartment? I'd also be open to a sublet, as long as the landlord is okay with it 😭🫶

My coworker got mad that I took half a day off to get my residence card last week. I got the letter saying my new residence card was ready, and I went to pick it up a few days later. I literally explained to my boss that I got the letter and had to go get it this Thursday, and he was like “yeah, okay, sure.” Just in case, before taking the day off, I even messaged the coworker I’m close with on LINE so they’d know where I was if anyone asked.

Then (Friday), I got my new residence card. We had a meeting to talk about problems at the company this week and how to solve them, and one of my coworkers who’s a senpai brought up my half day off. He said it was よく無いbecause it was so sudden and it was 迷惑 for him and the others since they had to do some of my paperwork.
(They barely did anything btw)

Apparently they were also saying stuff like when i came back after taking half the day off and worked only just 3 hours, that i didn’t seem guilty enough and there was no “謝罪してる気配がない”they also said that if I wanted to take a day off, I should’ve written it on theシフトボード a month in advance.

I literally told them I couldn’t do that because the notice for the residence card was only like a week and a half before. I had no way of knowing a month in advance when the letter would come.
Then he and another coworker started being passive-aggressive, saying stuff like 誤ってて言わないけどでも社員としてこれはよく無いだけ。そこだけわかって欲しい Basically saying “I’m not saying u should apologize but as a full time worker u should be more responsible”

Even one of my foreign coworkers defended me and said there wasn’t really anything I could do about it. Once you get that letter, it’s best to go get it within the week, and 入管can have a huge line where it sometimes takes hours just to get everything done. And I returned to the company to finish my days work But they didn’t really listen. To them, everything I said was just an excuse lol.

I didn’t want to escalate it so I just said I’ll be more careful next time. But honestly next time instead of telling them I have to go somewhere important I might just take the whole day off and say I have a headache
It’s honestly hard explaining to some people here that sometimes foreigners and Japanese people can have different circumstances when it comes to stuff like this.

Along with the blue envelope, I also got a green ご不在連絡票 (absent slip) from those NHK people stamped with their hanko, I thought it was a missed mail delivery at first.

Then there were checkboxes:

⬜︎ 新規契約・住所変更のお手続き new contract/address change (this one was ticked)
⬜︎ 衛星契約への変更のお手続き satellite contract change
⬜︎ 受信料のお支払いのお願い fee payment
⬜︎ その他 other

I got the envelope a few times but this is the first time getting that slip.

Did anyone get this too?

In east Tokyo / near Chiba, need to send suit measurements back to my brother for his wedding. Went to two shops and they both very rudely refused to do such a service and said I wouldn’t be able to get it anywhere. Anyone got any suggestions?
I’m happy to pay as long as it isn’t more than a few thousand.

Feeling really tired after being so horribly spoken to. The other workers there looked mortified at the guys behavior.

Thanks in advanced