Here are my Five Japan Gripes, what are yours?

I realize that I have been in Japan for quite a while. What was supposed to just be a one-year stay has become four, mainly because I like it here. I always enjoy talking about the rosy side of Japan. This time, instead, here are five gripes I have about Japan:
1) Wi-Fi. Why is free wi-fi so limited in Japan
2) The struggle to buy clothes that fit. Is my butt too big? Am I too tall? What?!? It would be nice to shop freely, but not country's perfect I guess.
3) The standard apartment is not tall people friendly. When I first got here, I couldn't tell you how many times I almost took my head off my shoulders on during the groggy, morning walk to the shower
4) Key money. Jesus H. Christ! If you're thinking of changing apartments, it might be a good idea to have a little money (i.e.-a lot) saved up to pay the raping fee...er...key money fee. There are apartments that don't require it, but there are a lot that do.
5) Where are you Papa John? I want more good pizza in Japan. Pizza Hut gets the job done when I really need it. But I want my Papa John's Pizza!
How about you? What are your 5 biggest Japan gripes?

Donald, I hear you!

thejapanguy said:

The struggle to buy clothes that fit. Is my butt too big? Am I too tall? What?!? It would be nice to shop freely, but not country's perfect I guess.

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Uniqlo has changed a lot for the tall. For me XL or XXL is too wide, while sleeves are still too short. Must be my freakish anatomy. What also grinds my gears is that it's almost impossible to find shoes larger than 28cm (yes, I know there's specialty shops). With the strong yen, I order from the UK.

thejapanguy said:

The standard apartment is not tall people friendly. When I first got here, I couldn't tell you how many times I almost took my head off my shoulders on during the groggy, morning walk to the shower

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Amen to that too. The door frames in our house are 180cm in height, I measure in at 191cm. Humble posture becomes a necessity.

thejapanguy said:

Key money. Jesus H. Christ! If you're thinking of changing apartments, it might be a good idea to have a little money (i.e.-a lot) saved up to pay the raping fee...er...key money fee. There are apartments that don't require it, but there are a lot that do.

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Legalised rip-off. Equally unpleasant: the biennial "contract-extension fee", koushinryo...

That's it pretty much. There's road congestion, packed trains, the neighbourhood gomi nazis, but all in all, the rosy aspects do prevail.

Unable to buy roses on Valentines day around 5.30 because either the shops are closed (2 of them near my station) or being too expensive (700¥ for 1 rose).

Agree with the Wi-fi... Japan would be a better place with it, let's just hope the Asahi vending machines will come soon!

In no particular order:

1) People who check their keitai during the middle of a movie while at the cinema. They may be sitting 20+ rows away but I can STILL catch the glare, very annoying...

2) Getting on a train or subway and finding a seat in an almost entirely deserted passenger car only to have the next person who gets on to come sit directly opposite me... call me anti-social but I like my personal space (unless she happens to be cute).

3) Local politicians and their annoying slogans repeated ad nauseam driving around my house using megaphones at eight in the morning and on the weekends no less... during election time.

4) Lack of certain foodstuffs from back home: Real hot dogs (not those skinny half sized pork wieners they try to pass off), real pepperoni slices on pizza (save your squid, corn, mayonnaise, etc and gimme the good stuff). Certain soft drinks like Vernor's Ginger Ale. Real Macaroni and cheese, the list goes on... Thankfully Costco and FBC (Foreign Buyer's Club) help a lot.

5) The lack of real manly sandwiches. If I want a sandwich I don't want some dainty triangle shaped finger food with a few thinly sliced cukes and some egg salad in-between the bread. I went to Subway the other day and bought a couple footlongs... came out to about $13 USD per sandwich with today's conversion rate. Oy vey...

Iron Chef said:

1) People who check their keitai during the middle of a movie while at the cinema. They may be sitting 20+ rows away but I can STILL catch the glare, very annoying...

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Interesting I never really had this, although I rarely go to the cinema.

Iron Chef said:

2) Getting on a train or subway and finding a seat in an almost entirely deserted passenger car only to have the next person who gets on to come sit directly opposite me... call me anti-social but I like my personal space (unless she happens to be cute).

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Where do you usually sit?

Iron Chef said:

3) Local politicians and their annoying slogans repeated ad nauseam driving around my house using megaphones at eight in the morning and on the weekends no less... during election time.

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Whaa, I hate these and I am glad that they are only near the station at my place and that I have to walk 15 minutes... I kinda of like the yukayakonkon song [video=youtube;f_F0l69Q5GY]

I live about a 3 minute walk from the local train station. If I lived farther away I suppose I would have less of those annoying candidates in my ear. Is that a kerosene truck? The ones down here have a different tune than the one in the video but they sound nowhere near as good lol. The abura truck in my neighborhood has a catchy tune also, I will have to try and find a vid for it if I can.

1) Wi-Fi. Why is free wi-fi so limited in Japan

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... You are right. I am frustrated too.

2) The struggle to buy clothes that fit.

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... Cannot be helped as Japanese are different size from Westners. Even if same height, you are bigger shoulder, longer arm and leg. So when I go to the West, I usually don't buy dress shirts and pants because of the same reason as you.

3) The standard apartment is not tall people friendly.

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Agree. Still rabbit hutch, but it's OK for average Japanese.

4) Key money.

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... This is changing slowly because supply is more than demand nowadays.

5) Where are you Papa John?

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Papa John may be a pizza restaurant. I have to admit that some of Japanese pizza is weird, such as Ebi-Mayo.

Gotta agree with you guys on:

1. Apartment height too small. I'd always have cuts on my head where I'd smashed my head (Got used to it at my own apartment after a while but going to friends' places I'd forget)

2. Annoying politicians, God, I would make a point of not vote for those idiots who do that, why so early????
In fact I spent some time out in the countryside with a Japanese friend and his family and they would have a tannoy blasting out local news every morning for about 15 minutes, it was around 7am and I could never get back to sleep.

thejapanguy said:

5) Where are you Papa John? I want more good pizza in Japan. Pizza Hut gets the job done when I really need it. But I want my Papa John's Pizza!

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I just can't believe pizza is that expensive here... and I'm glad that my wife always makes her own pizza's.

Davey said:

I just can't believe pizza is that expensive here... and I'm glad that my wife always makes her own pizza's.

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What do you cook the Pizza in? Do you have an oven or do you use one of those oven/microwave units? I think a regular oven is something I would miss quite a bit living in Japan as I like to cook and bake quite a bit. I know you can buy them but space is the issue.

180cm door frames? Wow I'm 196cm definately would decapitate myself would definately be screwed trying to buy clothing too... Hearing people say about the Wi-Fi does surprise me a little (I've never been to Japan) but from all I've heard from friends who have (Japanese and otherwise) the cities sound so high tech and advanced I imagined there would be wi-fi everywhere.

Maybe I should move there and open up a pizza place for you guys?

Davey said:

I'm glad that my wife always makes her own pizza's.

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Oh! Your own homemade pizza is always the best! Treasure your wife dearly.

I'm surprised about the wi-fi, but I was suspecting before, about the hight of rooms. What is average hight for a Japanese person anyway?

MadRabbit said:

What is average hight for a Japanese person anyway?

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It generally seems to be a bit shorter then persons from Western countries but you see tall Japanese as well. Both of my brother-in-laws are fairly tall for example and one of them is taller then I am (though I'm not that tall at 5'9"). The other is about my same height I believe.

thejapanguy said:

I realize that I have been in Japan for quite a while. What was supposed to just be a one-year stay has become four, mainly because I like it here.

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That does sound soooo familiar! *g*

What? Only 5??? That's tough!

1) INSECTS and other "animals":
I guess it depends on where you're originally from, but I've never seen cockroaches before for example!
They do exist in my country, but you'd only find them in veeeery dirty places.
I hate all the critters here in Japan. They're huge, disgusting and dangerous. Pluse, there are just too many of them!
I've had spiders that were bigger than my hand, bats who came INTO my apartment, dropping their poo everywhere, super loud frogs for months robbing my sleep ......
And don't get me started on "suzumebachi" the killer hornets and "mukade" ....
If they were only disgusting, ok, but some of them could actually kill you, not funny!!!!

2) Japanese summer:
I HATE Japanese summer!!
Even after many years here I couldn't get used to the heat and humidity. That plus all the insects (see point #1) really kills my summer mood. While it's my favorite season back home, I really would love to leave Japan during the summer time - every single year!

3) Shoes:
I'm female and my Japanese shoe size is 27. Go figure!

4) The gargabe system:
I think that separating garbage is a good thing, but the Japanese exaggerate!
It depends on where you live in Japan. My current city isn't all that strict, but my previous one was!!
So annoying! Especially when the garbage bags start piling up in your little 1-room apt. shoebox!

5) Being a foreigner:
I don't want to be Japanese, don't get me wrong, but the treatment you get as a Western foreigner is really annoying!
All the staring and all the other stuff (I'm not using the trend word "microaggressions" .. oops, now I did it ...). I hate being in the center of attention anyways. It can be very tiring and annoying.
As I've always only lived in the Japanese countryside it's much stronger than in bigger cities, too!