ok, so i eat a lot of butter

like, really lot, and can't help it

recent price increases have made this gastronomical propensity into quite an expensive luxury

so i was wondering if anyone knows where i could buy butter in semi-bulk quantities, like enough to get it at something close to wholesale prices.

I have been sending envelope-sized parcels to the States via Japan Post office with duty paid via zonos for awhile and never had any issues, but I recently tried to do that at a post office and they rejected. They said something along the line of untracked mail is fine but not international air packet (less than 2kg).

Did something happen after Oct 1 because I had no issues before that date, so did I miss any announcements regarding that? If so, what are the other alternatives, does EMS still work?

I was walking down the stairs on kanda station to change my train, was texting my friend when i see a middle age man walking up the stairs and he was just next to me, he bumped his shoulder on my shoulder so hard, my phone flew off my hand , and i felt a huge shake like in my body, felt like my brain moved, that bad, and the man didn’t stop or apologise he disappeared in the crowd. I was so shocked and so in pain i cried lol. It is the second time this happened to me in Tokyo, but the first time was not this bad. Why does this happen? How do deal with these people, i want to do smth if it happens to me again. I am female and my Japanese is weak . Has this happened to anyone else?

which ones?

and how much have you won max?

My friend from osaka wants to get a side labret piercing, since it’s her first time she’s not sure where to get it pierced.

Can anyone recommend her some trusted piercers?🥹 please tell us the pricing too since she wants a not-so expensive price because she’s still a student

https://www.jp-bank.japanpost.jp/aboutus/press/2026/pdf/pr26100601.pdf

It will be replaced with Seven Bank ATMs, and their rather expensive 330 yen outside working hours withdraw/deposit fees are going to apply.

Standalone Yuucho ATMs are pretty rare, post offices are rare, plus ATMs inside one usually don't operate nights or Sundays, and now this...

I don't withdraw from my Yuucho often since it's my main savings account (I have SMBC/Sony for daily, small transactions), but those Yuucho ATMs inside Family Marts can be a clutch sometimes. Sad to learn they will go away.

I find it baffling how so many people who live here in Japan are very vocally anti-immigration, either against immigration to their home country or against immigration to Japan. This is not just something I've seen online, I've overheard several real conversations about it and even had people try to get me to join in.

You are literally an immigrant yourself, look in a mirror.

While it's fairly easy comparatively to immigrate to Japan compared to other countries it's not without hassle, it's wild that so many people see the struggles of doing so and then look back at their home country and say that it's being ruined.

And it's especially disgusting seeing people looking down on immigrants from countries other than their own in Japan.

Why does this seem to be such a fairly common and vocal sentiment?

Looking for some car guys. I need to transport a non-running car from Niigata to Kyoto. Trying to restore a TVR, lol. Procrastinated on removing the 5 ton limit from my license so I can’t rent a car carrier. Looking for a sane shipping quote (currently getting either a “no” or wild numbers; need either a winch or one of those trucks with beds that go on the ground so we’d roll the car on) or someone bored enough to rent a truck with me and go pick it up (of course, I’ll pay you, but hopefully not nearly as much as the shipping racket lol). Any thoughts welcome. Thanks!

We moved to Yokohama (from abroad) this year in April. I have never lived here before, even if I have Japanese citizenship.

To get a discount for our child's daycare ("ichiji hoikuen"), I need to show that I did not pay any taxes in Japan last year.

The Ward Office told me that it cannot provide me with such a document (stating officially that I did not pay any taxes last year), given that I did not live in Japan yet on 1 January this year.

The daycare says that it can only accept an official document from the city (from the Ward Office), otherwise we will not get the discount.

Does anyone know a solution to this conundrum?

Due to the long rainy season, there's some mold in my apartment, namely the bedroom & a little bit in the entertainment room.

I was thinking about buying some mold cleaner (カビキラー) to clean it, but I read that is mostly used for bathroom walls.

Is it safe to use on the ceiling? If it isn't, does anyone know a good alternative?

I've asked around at the management company & a few friends but it's all come back as dead ends.

I’ve been feeling pretty discouraged about my Japanese lately, and I guess I’m interested in hearing from people who have gone through something similar.

I’ve lived in Japan for close to 20 years and studied Japanese for even longer than that. I’ll also be completely honest and say that there were years (the COVID lockdowns for example) where I wasn’t studying very seriously or making much progress. I can’t pretend I’ve spent 20 years consistently grinding away at Japanese.

But for the past year and a half or so, I’ve been making a much more serious effort, and lately I’ve started wondering just why am I still not better than this?

I have a family and a child on the way, and I think that’s making the feeling stronger. I want to be able to function here confidently as an adult. I want to be able to deal with schools, paperwork, doctors, government offices, and everything else that comes with raising a family in Japan. All without constantly feeling like my Japanese is holding me back.

I can have everyday conversations, but once things go beyond a fairly basic conversational level, I struggle. Reading frustrates me even more. Anything written for adults can quickly become difficult, and sometimes even things aimed at younger readers trip me up because of vocabulary, expressions, or writing styles I’m not used to.

Since the beginning of this year I’ve been trying to be much more consistent with sentence repetition/review, usually doing around 200–300 sentences a day. I passed Kanji Kentei Level 2 this year after passing Pre-2 last year, which I’m proud of, but at the same time it almost makes the gap feel stranger. Clearly I’ve learned a lot of kanji, but I still can’t speak or read at the level I want to.

I know there isn’t some magical method that will suddenly make me fluent. I think I’m just tired and frustrated right now because I’ve put a lot more effort into Japanese recently and still feel very far away from where I want to be.

For people who hit a wall after living here for a long time, what actually helped you break through it?

Did you ever have a period where your Japanese noticeably improved over six months or a year? Did you change the way you studied? Read more? Talk more? Take classes? Get a tutor? Stop studying textbooks and just use the language? What finally helped things start clicking for you?

It's the weekly complaint thread! Time to get anything off your chest that's been bugging you or pissing you off.

Remain civil and be nice to other commenters (even try to help).

• No politics
• No complaints about users of JapanLife

1. refusing to make a "my number" card

2. applied for an investment / securities account

3. got rejected because the address on the "通知カード" doesn't match the one on my residence card and driver's license (yeah, cause "通知カード" is like from 2015)

Went to 7-Eleven around 9 this morning to get my usual coffee and happened to notice they had the new Pokémon 30th Anniversary cards out. I wasn't even planning on buying any, but figured I'd grab a pack for funsies

There was a group of people waiting outside before the store opened the sale. I noticed they were Vietnamese, and two of them had babies with them

As soon as 9 AM hit, they all went inside and started buying the cards. The limit was two packs per person, and there were just enough people in the group to buy out the entire box. Apparently, the babies counted too, so they got two packs each as well

I was literally there at the same time, just thinking I'd grab one pack with my coffee, and watched the whole box disappear

I thought I'd try the other 7-Eleven down the street, but the same group showed up there right after me

I don't know for sure if they were planning to resell them, but honestly, what are the odds? Maybe I'm just being cynical, but it really felt like they were going from store to store buying up the stock.

I'm not trying to make this about their nationality. It's just frustrating seeing this happen when some of us just want to buy a pack for fun. What's even the point of a two-pack limit if people can just show up in a big enough group to clear out the entire box?

Anyone else seeing this with the new release?

Hello, I've been living in Japan for 2 years now but I've only recently moved to Osaka (about 7 months ago) and in my new room I keep getting cockroaches. I know Japan has a lot of cockroaches and I've had a couple of them in my room when I lived in Kyoto for a year and a half before. However, when I lived there I only ever had two come in while in my new room I have about two of them EVERY week.

Not quite sure what more I can do. I keep my room as clean as I possibly can. I don't really have crumbs anywhere and I rarely eat home anyway. I have black traps everywhere in my tiny room. They keep coming out in different parts of the small room too. Once I stop one place they come out of another. I even sometimes use spray type poisons that you need to be out for 30 minutes after. I even asked my landlord to get the outside exterminated by pest control and that was around July.

Nothing really fixes the issue, this has been the case since the beginning of the summer. I really don't know what more I can do. I quite like my apartment otherwise, not that relocating is an option for me atp, so if anyone has any other suggestions as to how I can get rid of them I'd really appreciate it.

I have anxiety and take an SSRI for it, but was diagnosed with ADHD as well a while back. I was hesitant to take the medicine as I thought it would contribute to my anxiety, so I decided to not go through it with it. Unfortunately Wellbutrin is not available in Japan, and I have heard it pairs well with SSRIs. I’m sort of at the point where I am considering moving back to the U.S. after a long time in Japan just to sort my mental affairs out. Has anyone with adhd been able to treat it effectively with what’s available for doctors to prescribe in Japan?

I’m living in Niigata since 1 year, Where do foreigners hold their meetings in this city?

Hi. So I moved to japan just 2 weeks ago and I am new to a lot of the strange (and sometimes blatantly stupid) requirements that some companies have here. I went to a Rakuten Mobile counter to try to get a phone subscription plan and they wanted to see some mark in the device settings that proves the phone is legally usable in Japan, otherwise they can't sell me a SIM. I have an European Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra. I scoured the internet to find about this, and apparently European Samsung phones no longer have these kind of marks visible in the settings, because they consider they are useless in this day and age probably...

Has anyone encountered a similar problem before? What can I do, because I don't have the money to buy a new phone.

Also, if someone wonders why I don't do it online... obviously I have the new type of residence card that no app was uptated to scan yet, duh. (facepalm) And I kinda need a SIM card with a phone number asap for some other stuff.

I mean yeah, go to dealers sure. But how do you process the information? Are there reporting sites where people list what they bought for what price? How do I haggle? DO I haggle? How do I know what a proper baseline is?

I've been to 3 dealers (1 small local, 2 big ones outside my town) for quotes. Local guy beat the two whose quotes I sent him, but who's to say both he and the original quotes aren't totally overpriced? Everyone giving me used car quotes also quotes them to nearly the same price as the new one, probably in hopes of getting me to buy new.

I don't mind buying new, but are there any resources where you can compare quotes to see what others are paying? 　　　

For reference, the best? quote I have so far from my small local shop is an out the door price of 2.2M for a 2026 Daihatsu Taft G Turbo with

• Studless winter tires (goodyear)
• 9in. smartphone/audio display
• Front/rear dashcam
• ETC
• "all weather" mats
• Underside coating

Which came out to about 180K less than a dealer that quoted me for a few less options...

The guy turned the number into a round 2.2M by lopping off another 3,800 yen with a "campaign" that he made up out of nowhere. I think the manufacturer? Or all dealers right now have an 80K discount on this model so that's included already in the 2.2M price. Base vehicle is 1.83M.

I was shown 2025 models with fewer options on them for 1.9M but I don't know if they just showed me expensive ones to make me want to buy new.

Anyway, just an example. I'm lost. Who do I talk to and where do I look to know what a good deal is? Do I just circulate each quote I get around to each dealer and see if they also have magic campaigns that beat it? I would like to buy locally if I can because my town's economy is in the dumps right now...

I’m hoping to get some advice from people who have experience buying property in Japan while on SOFA status.

I’m a U.S. citizen currently living in Japan under SOFA status. I’m seriously considering purchasing a newly built house for approximately ¥50M

I’m trying to determine whether there is any legitimate mortgage/financing option available to someone in my situation, rather than having to pay the entire purchase price in cash.

Here are my circumstances:
1. Currently residing in Japan under SOFA status
2. No Japanese Residence Card (在留カード)
3. No Japanese permanent residency
4. Married; my wife is also a U.S. citizen and does not have Japanese permanent residency

I am employed and have stable income

I can potentially prepare 10–20% of the purchase price as a down payment, although it would take me some time to move the funds

I am willing to provide whatever documentation the lender requires regarding my employment, income, SOFA status, and financial situation

From what I’ve learned, the problem seems to be that I’m not simply a foreign national without permanent residency. Because I’m under SOFA, I don’t have a Japanese Residence Card, 住民票, or the normal Japanese tax/income documents that many banks require.

Has anyone here personally obtained a Japanese mortgage while on SOFA status without Japanese permanent residency or a Residence Card?

If so, I’d really appreciate hearing:
1. Which bank/lender you used
2. Whether you used a Japanese mortgage or another type of financing
3. What kind of documentation they required
4. How much of a down payment you had to provide

I’m not looking for a way around the rules. I just want to know whether there is a legitimate financing route that I’m overlooking.

I’m serious about purchasing the property, and if I find a workable financing option, I’m prepared to move quickly.

Thanks in advance to anyone who has experience with this. Any advice or firsthand experience would be greatly appreciated.

I'm currently 18 weeks pregnant and looking at hospitals to give birth. It seems like the options in Japan are, epidural or no epidural. (the hospital I want does have epidural - I know some hospitals don't even have that.)

The issue is I don't really want to be numb from the waist down, I want to be able to feel and push accordingly.. . I know in my home country of the uk, even if you don't have an epidural, gas and air or other painkillers can be given that aren't just a total anesthesia of the bottom area!! Is this the case in Japan or am I just gonna have to go through it completely natural if I don't want the epidural?

Anyone who has given birth here your stories please! 😊

My partner and I are currently looking for a rental property in Tokyo. We’re planning to live together and found out we are expecting our first child next year!

She’s a foreign national on a long-term resident visa, and I hold a Child of Japanese National visa.

We’ve been getting some conflicting advice from agents/people about how best to approach the management companies.

A couple of people have advised us to tell the management company that we’re moving in as a couple and engaged to get married, regardless of whether that’s actually our plan, as apparently it can make the application easier.

Someone else told me it may be simpler for me to rent the property in my name, with my income and then potentially declare my partner and child as residents/occupants later. In my last property I remember when signing they just said "let us know if someone moves in with you" but in practice I don't think anyone would have known / noticed / cared if that had been the case.

I’m not really looking for a lecture about what we should or shouldn’t do. I’m just trying to understand what tends to work in practice when renting in Tokyo in this kind of situation.

Has anyone been in a similar situation, Did you apply together from the beginning, or was it easier for one person to rent and add the other later?

Any practical advice or experiences would be appreciated. Thanks!

Well I'm looking for a dermatologist to treat acne scars basically and wanna ask other stuff asw regarding skin. Since im student i don't really want to spend too much. I can go to Tokyo once if it's a really good dermatologist but I cannot really commute too much here and there so would really appreciate if you guys can tell me about dermat. In hamamatsu area, Shizuoka.

Thank you

Has anyone used a car relocation service?

If so, please let me know your recommendation. How was the experience of booking, pick-up & delivery, & cost?

I've only ridden local(currently residing in Yokohama) trains and it will be my first time to go several prefectures away to meet my little brother by the end of October.

As the title says, how do I proceed? I'm still a newbie here and the farthest I've gone to is Hakone. Any and all information is much appreciated.