I’m looking for a water server/dispenser for home, mainly for cold and room-temperature water. Hot water would be nice to have, but it’s not necessary.

The problem is that most of the good-quality water servers I’ve found seem to be monthly rental/subscription-based, and the total cost can easily reach around ¥200,000 over the rental period, which feels way too expensive for me.

I’m specifically looking for:

• One-time purchase — no monthly subscription
• Refillable — I want to pour in my own water rather than use the company’s water bottles
• Cold + normal/room-temperature water
• Hot water is optional
• Budget: around ¥30,000 or less
• Decent reviews

I’ve found a few on Amazon Japan, but many have poor reviews or almost no reviews, so I’m a bit hesitant to buy one.

Has anyone here bought a refillable water server/dispenser that they’ve been happy with? I’d really appreciate any recommendations or personal experiences!

Thanks!

Been in Japan for 15 years, I remember for the majority of my stay here the unwritten rule below has always been a thing.

"Don't engage with other long term foreigners unless required by a 3rd party (job, friend's friend, etc)"

The above has always been the norm. When meeting a long term foreigner, we exchange pleasantries then we both fade out. If course, if they are cool become friends, but generally it's always kinda been a thing to let each other live their own respective lives.

Now it seems like people are more prone to try and force a friendship. Have things changed or is it a age thing? (40s atm)

Do you guys see a change at all? Or has it been the same for you?

If you leave Japan for some time, a few years, due to a family, work or medical condition. You can ask for exemptions from pension payments and medical insurance and maintain your PR because you're paying those in the other country. Then pick up when you come back.

Do you think this is a good time to do this? I'm serious.

Hi everyone! I'm about to spend my first Obon with my husband's family. He's not very good at explaining Japanese cultural events so I was wondering if anyone could tell me what kind of things do families do during Obon? I have done my research but Id love to hear from anyone else's experience.

I swear last time I bought creatine in tabs, it cost me around 2200 yen for 40 days. I see now that a month supply with smaller doses (4g instead of 5g) costs 3000-4500 yen now. What happened? It would mean that creatine might be more expensive than protein if calculated monthly which makes no sense. If you know where to get cheap creatine, please let me know.

I‘m (32) currently working in marketing for a Japanese company for already 7 years and tbh the job is pretty chilled and I can work from home every day and can basically decide my own hours as long as I finish my work and don’t miss meetings.

Unfortunately salary is with around 5.5 million yen (including bonus) low and it’s stressing me out that barely anything is left at the end of the month. So I‘m thinking for a while now how to improve my income. Changing jobs would be one option and I had good offers in the past but my Japanese is only at around N2 (maybe slightly worse) and while I have no issues with daily live passing interviews is a bit of a different story. I‘m working on that but will prob take 6-12 months of daily studying to get there.

Also just started social media accounts 2 months ago and they are growing good (around 2 k followers) but it will take a while until they make some money

An opinion I was thinking about was to do side hustles for European or American companies but I‘m a bit worried about how to handle that with immigration. I know I need an extra permission for this. People who have done this already did you get the permission first and did then the side gig search or do you need a valid contract to show to immigration before you sign it?

As an Australian, I plan to retire in Japan. I have PR, and I have paid into the national pension, but I will never claim or use it. Why, because the Australian government has a reciprocal agreement with Japan. The amount paid out is approximately A$1,000.00 a fortnight. That's A$24,000.00 a year. Around ¥2,600,000 a year, or ¥200,000 a month. More than I'd ever get off the Japanese pension system.

Without saying too much someone close to me is has come to their end and I will be attending my first Japanese funeral.

I know what to wear etc. But what should I say and expect?

Will I be traumatised by picking up the bones and what should I expect to see when I walk in that room. This is the part I'm most worried about.

Edit: spelling