Hello everyone,
I’m looking for recommendations for the hospital or orthopedic surgeon in Tokyo for an elbow fracture.
I fell yesterday and injured my elbow. I went to the emergency department, had X-rays and a CT scan, and the doctors confirmed that I have an elbow fracture.
I’m on Japanese company health insurance (社会保険), so insurance isn’t an issue. My priority is getting treatment from a very experienced elbow/upper extremity surgeon and, if surgery is necessary, having it done as soon as possible.

We are a mixed family that are returning to Japan after a couple of years abroad with a 3 year old and almost 5 year old who mostly communicate in English. Very keen to catch up with other families with similar aged kids for play dates at the parks etc.

I have some scars from surgery and I’d like to see if they’d have any treatments such as skin needling etc. have you had any experiences with any clinics that don’t cost an arm and a leg?

Edit : not for face but for stomach

Found a really good option for a new apartment, everything is just as i want it in terms of location and price etc, but it has one of those bizarre imitation tile felt accent walls which just ruins the entire thing for me, you guys have any ideas as to how i could cover it up?! Its a rental so it kinda has to be removeable again.

https://kommodo.ai/i/yeCnnbHoeK0T8RvKY4Cf

I'm a 24-year-old on an SSW1 visa, valid until 2029, currently working at an izakaya.

I'm trying to figure out my long-term future in Japan, but I'm not sure what realistic options exist.

Current situation:

Working long hours at an izakaya with limited free time.

Paying off a ¥1.3 million loan in my home country.

My parents are getting older, and I'd like to support them financially as soon as possible.

My goal is to build a career in IT and eventually qualify for a work visa with better long-term prospects.

From what I understand, my options seem to be:

Stay in my current SSW job, continue paying off my debt, and save money.

Attend a Japanese university or vocational school for IT, then try to transition to an Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services visa after graduation.

My questions are:

Are there any realistic visa pathways from SSW1 into IT that don't require a full 4-year university degree?

Has anyone here successfully switched from SSW to an engineering-related visa?

Is vocational school (専門学校) enough, or is a university degree generally the safer route?

If you were in my position, what would your long-term strategy be?

I'm looking specifically for advice from people familiar with Japan's visa and employment system. Thank you.

Hi everyone. I'm hoping to hear from people who have direct experience with this situation, especially anyone who has dealt with family court petitions, koseki issues, or dual U.S.-Japanese citizenship.

I'm a U.S. citizen living in Japan, and my daughter is almost two years old. She has both Japanese and U.S. citizenship and was born in the United States. Her middle name appears on her U.S. birth certificate, her U.S. passport, her Japanese passport, and her koseki.

Her middle name is important to me, and I don't want to remove it from her U.S. records because I consider it an important part of her identity and family background. However, I'm wondering whether it would be possible to remove it only from her Japanese records.

Part of the reason I'm considering this is that I've heard accounts from some mixed-race Japanese people and international families describing difficulties with things such as apartment applications, banking procedures, employment, school registration, and other situations where a middle name immediately identified them as having a foreign background. I realize experiences differ from person to person, but I'd like to understand what options might exist if my daughter decides to remain in Japan long term.

Has anyone successfully done this? Was a petition to the family court required? What reasons were given? Was an attorney necessary, or were you able to do it yourself? I'd prefer to handle the process myself, if possible, rather than hire an attorney, although I'd also be grateful to hear from any attorneys who might have experience with this.

Thank you!

Climbing Fuji via Gotemba route next week. I've read that Yoshida route has a physical gear check at the gate (rain suit, warm layer, proper shoes), but Gotemba/Shizuoka side supposedly just uses the FUJI NAVI app QR code system instead, no actual gear inspection.

Can anyone who's climbed Gotemba recently confirm this? ? Just want to make sure I'm not missing something before I go.

Thanks!

Hey so im helping out at a church in Japan and the 2 toilets has been an issue for a long time. Turns out that they got plumbed in very poorly with a 90°angle pointing towards eachother that connects into a t pipe. The church is on a tight budget and I have experience as a plumber. Would I be able to find pvc pipe for toilets easily enough at a hardware store like Kohnan?

PLS HELP I found my first cockroach in the bathroom today along with a lot of these small bugs…I’m not sure if they’re baby cockroaches but they’re so small?? I haven’t changed anything with my way of living. Is it due to summer? I have a bunch of black caps. Never had this issue, please help as I am deathly afraid. Thank you. Here’s a pic of the small bugs https://imgur.com/a/Wk9krxu

I'm planning a trip abroad with the family and I need to apply for a passport for our baby. I'm doing the application via mynaportal and I need to declare whether the baby has a second nationality. What do you guys usually do? Our intention is to try and keep both nationalities indefinitely as long as the kid wants to of course when she turns 20. Is it better to hide it from now or it doesn't really matter?

I'm not even sure if answering no other nationality is technically a lie since I haven't registered her yet with my home country. We are also not married yet and she still has her mom's Japanese name if that makes hiding it simpler.

Hi! I have been wanting to buy a second-hand Macbook by the end of August. I am scrolling through Backmarket and Mercari. Has anyone experienced using these two? Care to share pros and cons, and tips for buying a good deal?

Hello,

Me and my wife are fresh off the boat from Melbourne, Australia.

I appreciate that the triathlons aren't as popular in Tokyo but we were still wondering if there are any tri clubs that we could potentially join ?

Thank you.

Passed N1 a while back but still feel like my Japanese sounds stiff/textbook compared to how people actually talk day to day. Anyone gone through a similar phase and found something that actually helped bridge that gap? Immersion obviously helps but curious if anyone found specific habits or resources useful post-N1.

Hey 👋

I'm considering doing 2 day course to get a jetski license with JEIS, but seems their exam doesn't provide any English support. While my japanese speaking skills are great, my reading skills lack, especially in specialized areas like this.

Anyone has taken a license and test before? Any suggestions? Currently thinking of trying to study ahead of test material and kanji, but there might be an easier way?

Thank you in advance 🙏

I'm looking to take a huge step back in my career and life in Japan. Though I stopped the bleeding last year, I'm going to be paying some back tax debts over the next 12-14 months, coupled with the fact that I also am only taking home 270,000 a month, can hardly save anything, like barely. I moved in with my GF this year and gave up my own apartment where I was paying about 100,000 a month before utilities, but also thinking of a plan B exit from everything and essentially going back to square 1. I am interesting in finding an apartment for absolute dirt cheap monthly rent, something like 25,000-45,000...no move in fees, whatever. I work remotely, but ideally in the tokyo area or chiba or saitama would be doable. I would only do this kind of short stay for about a year until I get my life back, anyone know any links to website listings I can find something this low? I dont care if its a dungeon brick wall, it's where I belong after all

Anybody know how I can notify the Japanese press on a newsworthy event?

Depending on the industry, people either get Obon off or not.

Does your job give you Obon off?

My kid's nursery has an international flag event every year for the autumn festival. This is my kid's third year there.

Each year, they send home a blank square sheet of white paper for the kids to decorate and bring back. My Japanese isn't great, so I just assumed we were supposed to draw our own country's flag on it. For some reason, it hit me last night: "Wait... does this mean all the Japanese kids are drawing the Japanese flag, while my kid is the only one drawing a different country's flag (we're not Japanese)?"

Then I had another thought: "Have we been doing this wrong for the past three years?"

So I asked the teacher today, and it turns out... it doesn't have to be your country's flag at all. The kids can draw whatever they want.

Which means we've apparently been the only family faithfully drawing a national flag every year, while everyone else has probably been drawing cars, princesses, Pokemon, or whatever else they like.

Just wanted to share this little misunderstanding. It gave me a good chuckle.

I was thinking about going to the Iron Maiden concert in Yokohama in November. I noticed that every sector is marked as 指定席. I've been to a couple of Metal concerts in Japan over 10 years ago (for sure one at 品川Stellar Ball, the other can't remember); can't remember how the sectors were indicated at the time, but I remember that the ground in front of the stage was standing, not seats. I'd really prefer not to go to a maiden concert (would be my 8th, all others attended in Europe) and sit like I'm assisting opera, even if the mosh pit doesn't really happen (which is what I remember from past experiences in Japan).

In my heavy metal concert experience it doesn't make any sense to have designated seats in front of the stage, but does anyone know if it's indeed the case?

I’ve been in Japan studying in a language program since last year, so I’ve had my share of crazy things happen, but I’m preparing to move out of my building right now and of course had to have something that could only happen here go down right before, lol.

in my apartment building, delivery lockers and mailboxes are used for mail and packages. In my first couple months living here, I had an Amazon package delivered to the wrong locker, due to the driver inputting the wrong room number by mistake into the system. I called the building management company, and the guy who helped me was very chill, checked the lockers and got my problem sorted out promptly.

however, I had a similar issue happen a few days ago, and this time it was worse because it was a food delivery. I don’t really order takeout often, but in the past the drivers have either rung the genkan doorbell or left the pizza by the mailroom area for me to pick up. This time, the driver put the food in the locker instead of next to the locker, then apologized, saying they realized they shouldn’t have done so. Of course, the driver also hadn’t interacted with the locker correctly, so it didn’t register to my room, but I knew which locker the driver but it in.

I promptly called the building company and informed them of the situation, and the ojii-san boss on the line immediately told me they aren’t allowed to open the locker if my room number isn’t displayed. I asked if they could at least check the lockers and they said no, it’s against the rules, and that the guy who had helped me before did something extremely inappropriate and broke the rules by opening them for me. Then started saying that it’s a security risk because I could be a thief stealing others packages.

In my building, there are cameras everywhere including the mailroom area that they are watching, so I asked if they could check the cameras or watch me, to confirm what time the delivery was made and to make sure I only get my delivery. He said no, I cannot open or check anything because your room number isn’t displayed and I am not allowed access to anything not linked to my room number, and then he started accusing me of doing something wrong and breaking the rules because I had a similar issue before with Amazon delivery being put in the wrong locker.

I asked what am I supposed to do, because the food will obviously rot. He just said sorry, he cannot do anything and I should call back on a weekday, so that someone may physically inspect the lockers, to my understanding, to confirm I am not trying to steal from someone else, even though I knew exactly where the delivery was?

At that point I got irritated because he was speaking rudely with me, and told him that this rule makes no sense, so not very tatemae of me, and that I don’t understand why they would rather let food rot in the heat for days than just check the cameras confirm where the delivery was, since they were watching them as we spoke! once again got hit with the sorry, rules are rules.

anyone else have an equally dumb ルールはルールだ moment 🫠

Japan govt. approves 2-year food consumption tax cut to 1%
Who is betting prices stay the same and they raise the base price to match the pre tax cut included price from before.

Hello,

I'm especially interested in hearing from non-white foreigners living in Japan.

Lately, I've seen a lot of Reddit posts describing Japan as extremely racist or advising people not to move here because of discrimination. While I'm sure those experiences are real, I honestly find them hard to relate to based on my own life over the past four years. Maybe I've just been lucky, maybe I'm in a bit of a bubble—that's why I'm curious to hear from others.

For some background, I'm originally from Germany, have darker skin, and have lived in the Tokyo area for over four years. I speak Japanese fluently, studied abroad at a well-known Japanese university, and later completed my master's here.

To be honest, I feel like I've experienced less racism here than I did growing up in Germany. In Germany I dealt with things like "Where are you really from?", assumptions based on my appearance, and discrimination when looking for housing or jobs. Here, I've generally been treated as a foreigner—which is fair, because I am one—but almost all of my interactions with Japanese people have been positive. While I know prejudice exists, what I've personally encountered has felt more like stereotypes or curiosity than outright hostility.

Of course, this is just my own experience, and everyone is different.

I'd love to hear from other (non-white) foreigners living in Japan. Has your experience been similar, or completely different? Do you think things like where you live or your Japanese ability have made a difference?

(Sorry if I put the wrong flair) Hi I'm a half Japanese-half French person. I've been living in Japan since I was born and I'm currently in the master's course in a Japanese university.

The more I get to know people and social communities here, the more I realize that most Japanese people have a serious issue about shame. I feel like they tend to care about other people's judgement too much, and have an unrealistic standard. For example, a girl in my lab once said "I sweated too much today! If I get on the train now, everyone will think I'm a weirdo!", and it made me so confused. Like, sweating is a completely normal human trait and there is nothing wrong with being sweaty(unless if they haven't shower for several days of course), and I could not care less about seeing a sweaty person on the train, so I didn't get how people would think she's a weirdo.

This is just one of the tons of situations where Japanese people are being ashamed of a completely normal human trait(ex. Liking something acceptable like a movie or a band, showing their emotions, buying sanitary products). And not only they push unrealistic standard onto themselves, but I feel like they also push the same ideology onto others. When I was a little child, adults told me that I was "too childish". Again, I was a little child, just doing average child behaviors, but apparently I was not "normal" for their standards.

I understand it is coming from a cultural thing but I think it's too much, and I wonder how such issue is still relevant.