Japan Life

I watched this recent video by Dogen about how immigrants should adapt to Japanese life etc.:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_tXp5sFlHQ

One of the things I found odd was that he mentioned "eating while walking" as one of the offensive behaviors foreigners should stop doing. Many of the other examples made sense to me, but for this one - I never thought this was "rude", rather "odd". Thinking about it, I had a few conversations about this over time, but never got negative vibes for it (at least directly). Might be that people don't want to tell me it's rude, but I also got no negative opinions about it from people who lived abroad for a while (and thus are maybe better at communicating with foreigners) and/or are usually more upfront with me.

So my current understanding: It's odd but not rude. Thankful for any further insights.

Complementary coverage by the BBC and South China Morning Post

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/17412546

Hospitals are stretched to their limits during unseasonably early heatwave, as medical authorities liken public health risk to a ‘natural disaster’

Medical experts in Japan are to add a “most severe” category to the current heatstroke index, amid warnings that the extreme heat is straining medical services and causing damage to public health comparable to that in a “natural disaster”.

The Japanese Association for Acute Medicine said it would add a fourth category to the three-level classification later this year in an attempt to reduce deaths from heatstroke.

The announcement came in the same week as authorities in Tokyo said six people had died from the effects of a heatwave that has sent temperatures as high as 40C in some parts of the country – well above the 35C threshold classified by weather officials as “extremely hot”.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/13104054

A Japanese high court ruled Thursday that denying same-sex marriage is unconstitutional and called for urgent government action to address the lack of any law allowing for such unions.

The court does not have the power to overturn the current marriage law, which has been interpreted to restrict marriage as between a man and a woman. Government offices may continue to deny marriage status to same-sex couples unless the existing law is revised to include LGBTQ+ couples, or a new law is enacted that allows for other types of unions.

cross-posted from: https://kbin.social/m/[email protected]/t/797034

A group of Japanese citizens, including a man of Pakistani descent, is suing the country’s police, accusing authorities of racial profiling and discrimination.

Cross post from reddit that just got locked:

/r/japanlife/comments/18ycbqu/returning_back_to_europe_after_45_months_in_japan/

I have been on on exchange living in Japan and I must say I have been impressed and felt very very very welcome here. Have never felt this way in any country (maybe not even my own). I am heading back now unfortunatly.

Apart from all the good food, nature etc. The things that I have noticed and really appreciated was:

• Never had a conflict with anyone here. Not a single one (yes, it is obvious I am not Japanese, so I guess locals will be more accepting, but still).
• Everyone seems to be very mindful of others and things are so clean and orderly. No one is loud, take up space etc. And no one minds you (people dont stare at you or comment on what your doing).
• Japanese people would ask if I needed help on train stations etc. * Very kind people ! It has been very easy to meet locals and I have made good friends (maybe not on tatemae level?).
• Overall, sitting in the airport, I already feel the European/western loudness, taking up space, clumsiness etc. ... Very uncharming to observe actually comming straight from Japanese living.

I know I probably have some of the traits myself (as I grew up in it) but I am almost a bit affraid to return to all the random people creating conflicts, loud and obnoxious people etc.

Anyone who can comment on things that might help ? I have already tried to find Tonkotsu ramen places (hahah!) in my city and other Japanese things that might make me feel more at ease. Non the less, thank you Japan for an absolutely amazing experince here !

Canadian here. Most of our banking is electronic in Canada and I just don’t physical currency much. I mostly stuck with using paper currency in Japan this past summer.

I couldn’t find a quick and easy way to easily convert my coins back to paper yen before the flight home so used up some of my baggage weight allowance with a big sack of Japanese coins. Any tips?

I don’t mind paying a percentage to do it but don’t want to count myself. If there’s a shortage of coins in Japan right now it’s because all your yen are in my luggage.

Banks here used to have machines to do it with Canadian coins but with few people using coins now they all got removed.

Plan B was to pour my 2kg sack-o-yen into a temple donation box and reap the good Karma for years to come.

Anyone else feel that? Strongest earthquake I've been in.

I've been trying to find some good restaurants to go to when I visit Tokyo around New Year's. I live near Nagoya, which has a few good western dining options, but isn't quite so good for Malaysian, Burmese, or Middle Eastern. I generally find Gurunavi and Tabelog overwhelming unless you're searching for one specific area and/or with specific conditions to narrow the results down to a reasonable level, so I've been more interested in blogs and other sites with curated content. Here are a few I found, so please comment with any others you know.

Niche Dekae Blog site featuring posts about restaurants that mainly serve more difficult to find cuisines such as Kurdish, Persian, Ethiopioan, and regional Chinese and Indian. Search Ethnic Features information about "Ethnic Cuisine" (which in Japan seems to refer exclusively to South and South East Asian food). Includes information about restauants abroad and in Japan.

Dear cozy little Lemmy World Japan Life community,

I made a random small self-observation recently and would be curious about y'all's opinions. Where I'm from people casually talk about being super busy. A conversation can go like: "Hey, how are you doing?" "I'm fine, just drowning a bit in work. I have these 5 projects in parallel, 3 families to feed, and do some sports on top, but yeah, nothing exceptional".

I don't understand this as "bragging" in most cases, just a casual conversation item and most people really are super busy these days.

In Japan however, I noticed the dynamics around this are a bit different. I feel like I am quite busy here as well. But when I say something similar the conversation often becomes a bit awkward. For example, a friend recently asked me for a translation job as a favor. In a later conversation, I casually mentioned that I'm quite busy, so they felt bad for burdening me with even more work and directly addressed this ("I'm sorry that I asked for this, I can try to ask someone else" - "no, no, that's fine! That translation is not so much work actually! In fact I enjoy it even!". In my mind this was not really connected, but after saying it, there was this little awkward moment and I needed to do some conversational repair work. I had similar experiences with other friends, but now I thought that's an interesting small cultural difference. Here, I feel people would rather appreciate and talk about how much other people do (as manifested e.g. in お疲れ様).

I know, it sounds a bit cliche ("Japan is so awesome, wow!!!"), but I was actually more curious if you had similar experiences/thoughts about this?

I live in Aichi, and I'm planning on visiting Tokyo over the New Years holidays. I'll have a few days when I'm not meeting friends, and as I can't travel often due to my health, I'd like to make the most of Tokyo's wider variety of restaurants while I can. Nagoya doesn't have the variety of international cuisine you can find in Tokyo, and as I'll be going to plenty of Izakaya with friends, I'm more interested in non-Japanese food.

I'll be staying in Taito-ku, so any places nearby would be great, but anywhere in the special wards is fine. I like a wide variety of food, so any recommendations are fine. Especially for January 1st, as my friends normally need the day to recover. I found South Park, a decent South Indian restaurant in Asakusa last New Year's day, so I suspect there are other places like that open throughout the holidays.

I thought the seemingly constant requests to update or verify your information was supposed to stop this!

Hi all, I hope you are doing fine recently.

I need to go buy clothes and I was wondering if anyone knows of some second hand shops in Tokyo or nearby that have a bit taller sizes as well? I'm 183cm, male, so pretty standard in Europe but last time I checked (few years ago) that was way out the range and I gave up on it.

OSAKA – An American man known for streaming provocative videos has been arrested on suspicion of breaking into a construction site in Osaka, police said Friday.

Ramsey Khalid Ismael, 23, known as "Johnny Somali" on YouTube, was arrested with another American, Jeremiah Dwane Branch, 24, who says he is a university student, according to police.

Ismael's videos include those in which he makes light of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and makes racist comments about Japanese people.

The two men allegedly made an unauthorized entry into a hotel construction site in Osaka's Chuo Ward on Aug. 30 with Branch filming a masked Ismael at the scene, according to the police.

They have told police they will not speak until they see lawyers, police said.

Did your wages go up? Mine didn't, neither my wife's.

6% is huge. The question is, who benefits?

For the past two years I have been actively avoiding places which refuse to accept electronic pavement methods. It is just so much easier to manage finances (for me at least).

I’ve even been in the situation where the only cashless payment which was accepted was SUICA, so I charged my SUICA at the register on my iPhone via credit card!

Unfortunately, there are a few holdouts (looking at you local clinics etc).

What do you do when you encounter an establishment which only accepts cash?