General Discussion Thread – 11 July 2023

25 comments

1. Near my work is a large park. In it there were many stray cats. I always enjoyed being greeted ( hissed at) as I strolled past.

   I even adopted the female boss cats baby she abandoned a few years back. I also realized a few months back that I hadn’t seen any of them in a while.

   Two weeks ago I noticed all the bowls are gone that were used to feed them and provide water for them. I suspect they have all been trapped by the same group that used to feed them.

   I am Happy they have gone to their Furrrever homes, but my walks seem a little more empty now.

2. Any parents here had issues with random people wanting to touch their kids? I mean like their face and hair. We’ve had it several times now and it kind of triggers a panic in us. Sometimes you can see it’s just some old person being nice but then sometimes they seem weird. Seems tricky to handle it diplomatically.

   For some context, I had one clearly bonkers woman who had us cornered on public transport trying to give my baby (at the time) sweets. More recently a weird looking old man came up and was trying to touch her face, just as we were leaving the doctor’s.

3. Need help figuring out why apartment personnel (I assume) have attempted 3x to my knowledge to forcefully open my door despite knowing it’s locked and occupied.

   1st time was I went home seeing my door lock knob turned to the unlocking position. 2nd time I was watching TV when I hear my door handle swinging. This got me so anxious I didn’t do anything and just waited for the person to give up. I believe it was room maintenance staff because there was a notice days before for renovation of empty rooms. But they should’ve known my room is occupied and should’ve stopped the first time it couldn’t be unlocked. 3rd time was just yesterday and again forcefully trying to unlock my door and I could hear voices. I finally summoned the courage to say “excuse me what are you doing?” in Japanese. I’m not sure if they said sumimasen but they stopped then I looked outside and it was 2 people (a guy wearing a motorcycle helmet and a woman whom I assume to be an agent coz she had a lanyard and wearing office attire) trying to open the next door now which is unoccupied. But again they’re trying so hard to unlock it but can’t. I hear them talking again then left. This is so weird to me and making me paranoid.

4. genuinely thinking of moving out of Tokyo area because of this heat. currently looking up the climates a little further north. Miyagi seems nice

5. are the new peach and watermelon monster flavors limited time? i’ve only seen them in a few select stores so i grab 1 or 2 when i do find them.

6. Every year in Summer I think “Wow, this is the hottest weather I’ve ever experienced”.

7. [deleted]

8. I recently learned about borderline personality disorder.

   I have heard so many horror stories about abusive / emotionally unstable Japanese wives and I am almost certain a lot of this must be undiagnosed mental health issues.

   Bpd can be caused by the child having a weak connection to one or both parents. Is your wife’s dad a good, loving attentive father? .. probably not right..

   Absent father, high pressure society, strong mental health stigma, lack of skilled therapists in Japan .. boom! Lots of women with bpd suffering alone or with partners who don’t know how to support them (and they don’t know themselves).

9. I ordered something on a website that seemed a bit odd, but seemed legit. Took forever for them to get back to me to send me info to furikomi, and after sending the money, suddenly the website no longer exists, and the emails are silent. Of course I would have gotten scammed. The person’s account I sent the furikomi to was not a Japanese person. Not sure what to do, go to the police, or consult JP Post Bank? Luckily the furikomi was between two JP Post bank accounts, and I still have my receipt from it. But man, disappointed.

10. All hail the god that is hinyari blankets and pillowcases. There are plenty of brands and lots of the products are quite good. They are lifesaver on hot summer nights.

11. Wondering why companies don’t seem concerned about employees or former employees leaving bad reviews on Vorkers or other similar sites. Just wondering about this as I and others at work are leaving our company due to horrible boss/management, and thinking about writing a review. Don’t the higher ups consider this possibility?

12. Anyone have any recommendations for patio/garden furniture?

    I have a 5m x 6m space and I want to get a table and chairs, or just a general place to sit and have my morning coffee or post-work beer. Waterproof and generally low-maintenance would be preferred.

    There are options for sale on Amazon, etc. but there are very few places to actually go see things in Tokyo. A lot of them aren’t overly pricy but its hard to pick with no actual showrooms or stores that carry them.

13. So it has been around 3 years living in Tokyo for me now. And recently i received a big mail with a booklet and a form from the City Office. The booklet contains options to choose from a list of items useful in disaster management. Image attached. I don’t i want to take any disaster kit or anything from the list but some daily use items can be worth the hassle.

    Looking for suggestions what to choose and what is of more benefit than some non useful items.

    https://imgur.com/wjZYTKJ
    https://imgur.com/8Qe87as
    https://imgur.com/YhmPKWD

14. Of all grocery stores I‘ve been to I really liked the OK store when I went there the first time recently. They had everything and so reasonably priced. Unfortunately it‘s like 50 mins by foot so I‘m not sure if it‘s worth it to go there instead of a closer store.

15. Have you ever had convenience store staff get angry at you for using the rubbish bin for stuff you didn’t buy there? Occasionally I sneak in rubbish I had been carrying. My friends also do this very stealthily. Just made me think, do they even care? If it is just a small thing like a juice box NOT a bag of rubbish or whatever.

    When I was in high school working at a juice bar, I would occasionally have people trying to sneakily take a straw without buying anything. I would have just given it to them if they asked. I worked minimum wage and didn’t care enough.

16. Just wondering for anybody here, how’s the software engineer life treating you guys?

17. Trying to buy a ultrasonic cleaner from amazon… Know zero of the brand they sold there…

    Should I just bite the bullet and go with the unknown brand?

18. With corona “over” a lot of companies, including mine, are pushing to get employees back in the office. A lot of employees actually want to go back as well, with reasons ranging from not being able to concentrate on work at home (or maybe not wanting to be home at all), to work being their only source of human interaction.

    Cultural differences? I read articles about wfh becoming a new standard in the states, while here in Japan it’s like, well we tried it, saw that it can and does work but…nah, let’s go back to the old ways.

19. Is 4k tv worth it for PS5? I use a 1080i tv that I got for free from a friend. Also is ps plus worth it?

20. USDJPY is going down, woohoo!

21. I think that I should do something about my lack of irl friends. Does Tinder/Tapple/etc actually work? Any advice/experiences/things y’all wish you knew before trying those apps?

22. So [I was complaining about drone rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/14v9n7t/daily_boss_super_premium_deluxe_stupid_questions/jrceku9/) in yesterday’s question thread.

    Today I bought a DJI Mini 3 Pro in the Amazon Prime Sale.

    I spent nearly 2 days going through all the rules and laws so I figured not getting a drone would mean I wasted 2 days.

    I don’t plan on taking it out regularly, but it will be a nice activity when we visit some quieter places across Japan and in my wife’s rural hometown.

23. For everyone who has clothes or outerwear with suede trim (or suede collar), what home delivery cleaning do you use?

24. When you get a prescription from your doctor, if they don’t specify, do you usually go for generics or not? I usually do, but never really thought about it.

25. I was today years old when I found out you open the FamiChiki packaging from the middle not the top…

    in unrelated news, the Habanero Famichiki is decently spicy. Definitely better than their regular Spicy Chiki