SDCA comments

I was surprised to find out how expensive Ardbeg has gotten since I last bought in 2021. If I'm paying that much, I might consider buying independent bottlers whiskey when I have enough saved up.

My heart says abroad, but my wallet says within Japan.

Elderly on fixed income must be taking big hits with all the inflation / stagflation. Nenkin is stretched as it is!

No kidding, this is a scary thought to think how useless my nenkin will be by the time I need to retire.

I don't know if I'm the only one who thinks this, but the string cheese here tastes like biting into a rubber band. I used to love string cheese as a kid, and I feel this is a great way to introduce cheese to kids who have a stronger sense of smell and are still unable to eat stronger smelling cheese. Hope they use the excess milk to start creating better quality cheese like everyone is mentioning above!

Marking these all down for my next summer trip, thanks everyone!

This will be harder to do than finding Waldo (Wally in Japanese)

Unpopular opinion: Ichiran is overrated because of how overpriced it is for what you get. There are so many other better ramen shops in Japan and I hope more tourists realize this.

Seems like Roppongi Hills has a sibling.

I kind of agree with this. All those Mori buildings look somewhat identical except maybe Toranomon Hills. All glass buildings are cool and all, but I would much rather prefer the area around Tokyo station and Otemachi where they mixed in old architecture with modern buildings. Add more distinction in designs, but I'm not saying go as far as building something like Mode Gakuen which is a cool looking building.

Where I live, many new houses are being built and have been just sitting there for the past 6+ months without any buyers. And yet, they went and took down the nice little patch of plum trees that was in front of my house after they had already destroyed other sakura and persimmon trees that were nearby. Why are they doing this? We don't need more ugly houses, I sacrificed my commuting time just so that I can enjoy the little bit of nature the suburbs has to offer and now it is almost completely gone. Before you market nature, how bout preserving it?

It must be difficult to calculate his WAR because there simply isn't a high enough value that exists currently.

Japan has always attracted people who have more money available and are looking for higher-class experience, and I think those people won't be dissuaded much by the increase in costs here. A little? Sure. But not enough to matter.

I've never met a single person in my life that didn't care about increased costs. Perhaps the very few you are talking about might not care, but the average person does care because they likely set a budget for their trip, saved up money, and planned their destination based off of the value and experience they can get with the set budget. If going to Japan was their dream and that's what they saved up for, then they are likely holding off right now as they are seeing they probably won't be able to come and enjoy their time here with their current budget that was set forth a while ago before price increases.

Perhaps those who were smart and hadn't spent much during the pandemic are letting loose right now hence why we are seeing an influx of tourists, but my guess is that this will surely die down. The same goes for the other way around, many Japanese are travelling who hadn't really been out spending during the pandemic. It is annoying to hear my wife look at Instagram all the time reminding me of how poor we are because her friends are travelling and we aren't. I have to constantly remind her that those people are only showing the good side of their lives and that they aren't any better off than we are.

You really think so? Pretty sure it doesn't make a significant impact if the plane tickets are higher, JR pass is now 50,000 yen per person, hotel prices are outrageous, and people are getting price gouged at tourist spots.

As for myself, I have a small proportion of my money in yen, but as for the wealth I set aside for the future - that is not in yen.

My philosophy is not to have all my eggs in one basket. My home egg is in this Japan basket… but for the eggs I can have in another basket, I feel it makes sense to indeed have them in that other basket, and have now to good effect for many years.

Everyone is free to make their own decisions for their own circumstances. Good luck!

that makes sense, hence why your name is fxgai! :)

The yen is 130 to 1 USD right now, I don't remember it ever reaching 143 this year

hit [F5] and you should see today's rate

Or, you can bring a portable chair that you can buy at Daiso, buy sake and beer at supermarkets for cheap, sit down and watch the show until you get bored, leave with a happier wallet.

JR already has surprisingly detailed per-train and per-car occupancy statistics, you can even see them online, they just don't communicate those tools very well (how many people know about https://www.train-guide.westjr.co.jp/ for example?)

didn't know that! Thanks for sharing!

Another benefit I can see of this would be to monitor just how crowded trains get during certain hours, log the data for about a year, and then adjust the train schedule and amount of active trains during certain hours yearly to be able to accommodate passengers more comfortably. But I must be dreaming...

I wonder if employers are raising salaries across the board so they can claim they are doing "good" for their employees, but then delaying average annual or biannual salary increases?

It'd be fantastic if Dentsu went bankrupt.

Lots of innocent people will lose their jobs only for the elites to probably go unscathed. The pawns who have been busting their all, working till literal death will suffer the most. Hopefully the name value of Dentsu will give those people some credit when applying for other jobs.

I love going here to feel like a tourist. But if you want the best Chinese food in Japan, Ikebukuro Kitaguchi is the place to go!

I'm willing to bet more than 50% of all surveys taken in Japan are answered untruthfully.

I came into that realization when I held a survey at my company (without my name being disclosed) and received different results from when I personally talked to those who were being surveyed. Many people have lots to say behind the company's back but can't seem to have the guts to let them know even if these survey's show them as anonymous.

If this guy is what these women claims he is, then why in the world is his manager still with him? Seems like an attempt to ruin his career. Either that or he has the worst luck with women. I won't believe it until there is concrete evidence which none of these accusers seem to have.

If they do find him guilty, hope he pays the respected fines and takes his sentence. Till then, not guilty until proven.

With measures such as bigger payouts to families with children and providing homes for hundreds of thousands of such households,

I understand what you want to do, but how are you going to do this? What are the plans?

Kishida's plan would see the government earmark about 3.5 trillion yen annually for the next three years for child care allowances and support for those taking child care leave.

However, the government has yet to outline exactly how it would fund the measures, stoking fears of runaway debt.

If you have a solid plan, there should be no issue in funding such a plan that most would see as beneficial.

The government will raise more from social insurance premiums - a move that could backfire on corporate efforts to hike wages - while also curbing increases in social security spending.

Wow

It was "inappropriate" to criticize the government for pushing back a decision on funding sources, Kishida said.

Sensitive much?

The government will also urge companies to allow employees to choose more flexible working styles such as taking three days off a week, according to a draft of the package seen by Reuters.

Yeah yeah, I already heard about this. The question is what are the plans? How exactly do you plan on doing this? Will this end up being another Premium Friday stint?

@Aly Rustom

I have no idea why you have so many downvotes when all you are doing is sharing your experience. Thanks for sharing them with us! I might consider buying a small home gym to reduce monthly overheads.

I don't even know how the rest of the people here are dealing with things.

This has been on the top of my head for quite some time now...

Time to see more and more people unsubscribe from things like gyms, hobbies, for example. What a nightmare this economy has become...

J Kids are just like any kids around the world, full of life, energy,laughter and questions, until they get fed into the system. Look at the 18 to 21 year olds that come out the other end.

I don't know about the 18 to 21 years olds, they seem to be having the most freedom of their entire lives by expressing themselves with fashion that would otherwise be seen as immature after a certain age based on societal norms, dyed hairs, skipping school, etc. It is the 22 and up you are thinking about, you know the ones in generic black suits and generic dark hair styles that society enforces if you want to be a shakai-jin?

No one will say their honest opinions when leaving a company so as to not leave on a bad rep and bad terms. Even annual satisfaction surveys are never really telling the truth. This is why it takes companies years before they realize what is causing the high turnover rate, and either they choose to ignore, or finally do something about it and retain their good employees.

An interesting take on this issue if anyone is interested:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kq2KNNd-LcM

In conclusion, there is no single answer to the falling birthrate, hence addressing only a select few areas by throwing money at it will not make a significant improvement on this topic.

This is a scam.

Health insurance premiums are deducted automatically from salaries, pensions, or directly from bank accounts; but if I want to avail myself of the benefits I have PAID FOR, I have to go cap in hand to the yakuba and ask Pretty Please?

Credit card companies and the like, not to mention the current health insurance card people, seem to have no problems sending out new cards when they're up for renewal.

They can't do this with the shiny-tinkly-bells-and-whistles-almighty MY Number cards because ... why?

They probably need to create useless tasks for the government employed people working at city halls which can otherwise be automated more efficiently. Need to keep them occupied because government workers have secured jobs and it is extremely hard to fire the. They probably also want a new picture of you every five years.

SO they said, now you gotta come to city hall and take more pics........

Free of charge. Thanks.............

They should pay you for wasting your time.