Top 5 things you hate about living in Japan

[Demon Dave]

This is really intended for the other Japan residents, but I figured everyone would be interested to know. So come on, what really bugs you about life in Japan?

1. Hanko's. One word: WHY?!?!? I hate the damned little things. Which brings me to Number 2.

2. Hanko certificates. That's right, a piece of paper verifying your hanko is legit

3. Key money. It's expensive moving into a new apartment as it is, never mind about paying one months rent as a "compulsory thankyou" to the landlord!

4. Drivers reading the newspaper/shaving/watching the TV while driving. Also people who leave their engines running while shopping in stores, all purely to keep the aircon/heater on.

5. high school kids on bicycles, mobile phone in one hand, riding in the middle of your lane, towards you as though they have some kind of deathwish!

There's loads more, I'm sure.

[Evo_Lee]

dave, key money is bullshit but apparently other Asian countries have it...but recently landlords have stopped that because who is going to afford the rent let alone the keymoney.

in no specific order...

1. English Teachers because they earn more then I do.

2. which brings me to this 2nd one...my company and long working hours...hope no one at the office reads this.

3. Street drains and narrow streets.

4. Bozosoku, and dirty men...I do feel for the ladies.

5. Rules and the fact you think they don't know what your talking about...if we can figure out what they are talking about so can they.

have to add another...

6. designated days for dumping rubbish...which is all good for the recycle stuff but why do we have to take the trash out at 6 f**king AM (worst in winter)...I'm not an early raiser.

but then we're comparing things to what we are used to...to them it's pretty much normal.

[G0DF4Th3R]

the thing i hate the most about living in Japan is.... i dont!

nvm, one day one day

[Rezz]

Bloody hell, where do I start???

Ok:

1) Absofookinglutely the early morning "Guiness Book of Records see-how-many-people-you-can-stuff-into-a-train" commute on JR. I've had a girl pressed up against my torso so hard the only place she could put her face was against my armpit... lucky I use Rexona!!!

2) Saying "mochikaeri de" then having the girl behind the counter yell back at me "MOCHIKAERI DESU KA???" like I'm a 3 year old... every fuggin time I go there. I can speak Japanese... get over it luv!!!

3) Staring. Old ladies, old men, young men, young ladies (yes, it gets annoying believe me)... I even catch the students I've been teaching for 6 months or more still catching a perve. I feel like I should charge 'em 200 yen a squiz just like the zoo! "I can't believ it's not a Japanese!"

4) "Out of nowhere" lane changes by d1ckheads in Toyota Crowns, assorted German marques and Cimas. Like they give a f**k.

5) People who WILL NOT get off their bicycles even though theres, like, 500,000 people packing the sidewalk.

Theres more, but these are the biggest peeves.

[Rezz]

Dave and Troy are alot more composed than me it seems... I've just had a loooong day. It's not as bad as I make it out to be

[4150]

1: The inability of the vast majority of Japanese to be able to “think outside the box”.

2: Text message zombies, meaning people who write emails on their mobiles wherever they are, be it in their car while driving/causing traffic or walking aimlessly down the road almost getting hit by myself.

3:Traffic lights, very very poor timing.

4: Staring, yes this does get annoying at times, sometimes on the train I seek out people staring at me and do the same thing right back at them. It's funny watching their reaction.

5: Racism, of course this exists everywhere in the world but me being a white male from a predominantly white area of the United States who has never experienced racism against my own kind made this a real eye opener.

This really is just scratching the surface of what I hate, after nearly ten years in this country I've found many things to dislike, however there still is no other place I'd rather be in the world.

[InspectorGadget]

OOOOH! OOOOOOH! Me Too!

1) Crappy little apartments with no insulation

2) The attitute that "if you don't need it, throw it out the window/burn it"

3) Obachans who think that since they are too weak to use a push bike up a hill, but the road is too 'scary' . . . . . . . that it is OK to ride their 50cc scooters on the footpath.

4) Bureaucracy

5) Only being able to claim 3 years of pension refunds, even though you've been paying into the system for considerably longer than that.

6) Bicycle and Motorcycle helmets that offer the same level of crash protection, whether you wear them the normal way or on backwards (ie none)

7) People out for a 'free' English lesson. IE just randomly striking up a conversation on the train etc just to practice their English.

8) All the ATMs needing to 'sleep' over night. IT'S MY GODDAMN MONEY!!!!

9) The NHK Nazi's

10) Stalkers

11) High School girls screaming and shreaking on the train like a bunch of banshees.

12) Ganguro girls and poptarts (Fashionable J-girls who dress like cowboys or 80's teen hookers)

13) My train catching fire, and after alerting the driver, him doing nothing more than open the windows to let the smoke out.

14) Not having a car

15) You just can get decent ethnic food here. It's always CRAP Japanese bastardised versions of Italian, Chinese, The land of goat sphincter rings . . . .

[funkymonkey]

hehe while I was there:

1. Trains and how packed and expensive they are which brings me to

2. How expensive everything is

3. Japanese word that have a gazillion meanings making me say the wrong things

4. Key money... grr grr grr micro meters more annoying than Gaijin Houses.

5. The host on Itouke no Shokutaku... i wish I had a VIP style Cima to run him over in numerous times with

[DaiOni]

this also has to be my #1...

"1: The inability of the vast majority of Japanese to be able to “think outside the box”."

2. closely related - the hierachy/bureaucracy - and in particular, rigidly sticking to the system despite, in many many cases, the overwhelming illogicality (is that a word?) of doing so

3. teeth sucking (the 'japanese no') - "tsssssssssssssssssshhhhh.... hmmmm, maybe...." - even though I've caught myself doing it

4. cultural 'bull in a chinashop' gaijin, who try to transpose their own culture over the japanese, then whine about it not being the same.

5. I could put a million here about my own inability to progress with the japanese language - they're all my own fault, but definitely a 'thing I hate' in japan

[Sciby]

lol, seems like y'all had to get a few things off your collective chests, especially InspectorGadget.

Speaking of which, what's up with 10) Stalkers?

[DaiOni]

6. Winter. Snow. Lots of it.

7. The proliferation of cute.

8. Mazda paint - what daft bastards.

9. Rice - I feel for you poor buggers who are here for the long term! And tofu, too - both high points in the world of bland. A lot of sashimi can also be slotted in this category - taking a lump of bland and pouring shoyu all over it - and calling it a delicacy (well, I like the flavour of soy sauce too, but it's not a delicacy)

10. Living on an island - definitely has its plusses, but for a car enthusiast, it's depressing at times. Probably a good thing for the wallet though.

11. Yahoo Auctions - so good it's bad.

12. The money system - for two reasons. (a) dealing in units of 1000 seems like it would lead to being more careful with money - but I find you end up treating it like 'toy money'. Spending a 1000 here, 10,000 there - feels like spending nothing! (B) change!!!! for god's sake - do we really need 1 and 5 yen coins?????

13. When there's a good movie/show on TV and it's not bilingual. Actually - the whole bilingual system - the crap nhk news translators. When the bilingual starts freaking out and breaking into bursts of loud japanese. And the fact that my TV, in bilingual mode, always seems to have a weird bell chiming in the background (is that just me???)

14. I can never find anything worthwhile to eat at conbinis - and always seem to end up dining on slimey, half-cooked, deep-fried (ala microwave) chicken

15. In accordance with 14, what japan is doing to my internal organs and weight

16. The price of haircuts - though I did once get a 1000yen buzzcut in tokyo

17. Porn - the pixels and the plot (poor girls)

18. Students sleeping in class - being accepted by teachers

[InspectorGadget]

Speaking of which, what's up with 10) Stalkers?

Oh yeah! I has a strange Japanese woman (butt ugly with sproglet, estranged husband and mental issues) tracking me for a while. She showed up at my apartment a couple of times, but eventually got the idea when I reported her to the cops and threatened to thrown her down the 4 flights of stairs from my apartment if she ever came back.

Other foreigners have issues with them as well. Especially those living in REALLY inaka (rural) areas.

16) Japanese roads that have no camber on then so the water just pools in the middle.

17) Stupid questions. Ie "Do you have four seasons in your country?". "What blood type do you like? and my all time favourite asked to my Irish friend while he and his supervisor were sitting drinking Guinness in a bar . . ."Do you have Guinness in Ireland?"

[Demon Dave]

I totally agree with the ATM one...ATM's that close at night

[Demon Dave]

and my all time favourite asked to my Irish friend while he and his supervisor were sitting drinking Guinness in a bar  . . ."Do you have Guinness in Ireland?"

LMAO

[Rezz]

Hehehe... the teeth sucking drives me nuts too! "hhhhsssssssssssssshhhh... sooo kanaaaaaa..."

6) Japanese who won't let you finish your sentence when you're speaking Japanese... you're just about ready to bust out that new vocab you learnt, and they just cut in and commandere the conversation.

7) Japanese Drivers license wait... wait some more, submit a document, wait, wait some more, go outside while all the staff have lunch and wait, wait some more... THEN get your license. You only do it once though...

8) Immigration office workers who, even though they've never met you before, are out to make your 7 hour visit as painful as possible. (not that I go there often, and since I got married to a Japanese they've somewhat been more friendly).

9) Insurance salesmen who target foreigners... I don't know if you guys in the country have this happen, but at my school, we're situated right across the street from an insurance company. They specifically sent out a "gaijin specialist" to try and sell as many policies as he could. He kept coming back, and back, and back... in the end I just started talking about how annoying salesmen are to him, and he AGREED with me!!! He came back one more time after that, then stopped.

10) People who let their dog (should I say "cutest family member") sh1t anywhere in the street, even though theres a car coming. I'm sitting there tooting my horn and the owner just looks up and gives me a look like "can't you see he's busy???" The dog was wearing a jumper with a hood too btw!

[Rezz]

my TV, in bilingual mode, always seems to have a weird bell chiming in the background (is that just me???)

Thats just the "on screen message" bell isn't it? You know, when thers some breaking news and they just have a text message up the top of the TV screen.

[Demon Dave]

Japanese Drivers license wait... wait some more, submit a document, wait, wait some more, go outside while all the staff have lunch and wait, wait some more... THEN get your license. You only do it once though...

I hate renewing my license too - even with no mishaps it still takes forever. Justin are the rules different over your way? I've had to go and renew my license once already (and endure 3 hours of waiting, which includes a compulsory safety video you must watch, though 90% of the people in the room fell asleep!) and I understand even with a gold grade license you still got to go back every 5 years or so...right? :confused:

[Rezz]

Dave: I haven't renewed my license yet so I wouldn't know. But from what you described, it sounds almost what I had to do to get my license so I'd say it's almost the same proceedure.

[InspectorGadget]

18) Mitsubishi/Fuso

19) Scandals, product recalls and lack of consumer protection

20) Speaker trucks filled with rightwingers . . . . . . . or selling hot sweet potatos

21) Taking a number and waiting . . . everywhere

22) Smokers

23) Pachinko

24) ATM charges

25) Obachans seeing the queue for the womens toilet at a festival . . . . . . and just wanding into the mens side instead.

26) Mens toilets designed so that you can see EVERTHING going on inside.

27) Unrestrained children in cars.

28) Racism

29) Having to use stinky kerosene heaters in Winter.

30) Natto (in particular the natto factory 200m from my house stinking all the way through winter)

31) Arrogant new arrivals, fresh off the boat, thinking they know everything.

32) Spiders the size of my fist

33) A medical system that doesnt test it's drugs properly and turned me blind and unable to urinate for a week with simple cold medication

Keeping this in perspective, I could write as many things again about Japan that I enjoy.

[Demon Dave]

Yeah, I asked Kayo about it. Apparently us gaijins get started on a lower grade license that what regular Japanese first time license holders do or something like that. When I renewed mine, despite not having any accidents or fines I still had to listen to the lecture, watch the safety video and waste 3 hours waiting all to get a new license.

Though, the next time I renew (assuming I've been a good boy ) I simply have to wait to get a new card issued...

OT: and a funny side note: UK laws state that if you permanent address is outside the UK, the your UK license becomes invalid. Can you believe I had to go to the license centre in Japan and get an international drivers permit to drive in my home country! Got some funny looks from the staff when I said I wanted a permit so I can drive in the UK, handed over my Jap license and it clearly states I'm from the UK!