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What is the most annoying thing about living in Japan?

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nhk9

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The thread is not about the country Japan or its people, just about what you think is the most annoying thing about LIVING in Japan either because you have to or you are just getting away from everything else back home.

I haven't had the chance to live in Japan for a long time, but from my travels I was just fed up with the constant bombardment of announcements from loud speakers. You hear the same music on JR station pretty much on every stop and train operators just like to keep on going with long explanations of routes that, most of the time, can be easily understood by simply looking at visual maps inside the trains/stations. Walking in malls and in busy districts, you always hear solicitors asking ikaga deshouka this and ikaga deshouka that or arigatou gozaimasu for virtually doing nothing. I think this part of living in Japan is quite annoying.

P.S. -- Japanese is a fascinating language with many beautiful expressions, yet when you go to places mentioned above, it seems like only a handful of expressions are actually used, e.g. shite itadakereba ureshii desu and go raiten itadaki makoto ni arigatou gozaimasu. Adjectives like ureshii that don't really say much are overly abused, to the point that other more colorful adjectives are being forgotten by more and more people.
 
It's a very similar topic to What do you dislike about Japan or Japanese people ?... For me most of the answers would be the same.

I really don't mind the announcements from loud speakers as it gives some life to the city.

The touts and solicitors annoy me moderately. Usually they leave me alone as I am a Caucasian. The only ones whose only sight makes my blood rush through my body uncontrollably are the Christian proselytisers in areas like Ginza around Christmas (now) who talk about the coming of Christ, jugement day, and blablabla. I can't believe that it is allowed to let those people proselytise with loudspeakers in shopping and business districts.

With time I got annoyed too at the lack of variety in Japanese language. You always hear the same few adjectives everywhere as if people couldn't make full sentences or think of something more interesting to say : Ooooishii ! Aaah kirei ! Samui ! Atsui ! Sugooooiii ! If you know these words you will be able to understand one fourth of a Japanese "conversation"...
 
Shop-keepers must all be tone-deaf!

I don't mind the spoken announcements so much but I hate the music. Especially
  • the stupid theme song that they always put on infinite repeat in 99 shop. The worst thing is that you won't be able to get it out of your head for hours afterwards. I wonder how they're able to keep the employees from going insane.
  • hearing J-pop played in traditional style restaurants. Totally jarring.
  • hearing Beatles played in any kind of shop. Get some new music already!
 
\

My goodness, I couldn't get ***enough*** of those train tunes, it's hard to believe that some people can't stand them! Even after a year of being back in America, I still remember those jolly old tunes for the daily stations I went to... and I loved it every time! I've even gotten to the point where I can play most of them on my violin, but I suppose not everyone has the same passion for the little jingles as I do~ﾂ?ｴ

But aside from that, I think they're also meant to act as an alarm to people that aren't listening to the automated voice, kind of like a "This is the tune for X City". Now that I think about it, foreigners who don't know English or Japanese could benefit from the tune as well, as it probably is a bit hard for them to understand the announcements.
 

Really ? It seemed to me that most stations had the same tune. It's more different lines (or companies) that have different tunes...
 
Maciamo said:
Really ? It seemed to me that most stations had the same tune. It's more different lines (or companies) that have different tunes...
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure that if you were to traverse the entire JR system that of course you would most likely come upon the repeats, but on one line they're all quite unique. I took the Kanagawa line just about everyday, and I got pretty good at memorizing the tunes while I was there. If you could Maciamo, please do me a favor today and (if you ride the trains)start your day with some of those great lil' melodies. ﾂ?ｴ
 
Junoir highschool and highschool cyclists! They never have a problem riding four abreast, they don't notice cars behind them trying to get past them soon enough, and when they do, they take their bloody time in getting out of the way. A few of them ride make nice wide turns into possible oncoming traffic on blind corners, and the expression on their faces is just a vacant happiness. Gah! Some of the old people can ride in the middle of the street like the street was entirely theirs, and while they are quicker to notice a car behind them, they are too old to move out of the way quickly. Yeah, the roads here are narrow enough without also competing with slow road crowding cyclists.
 
Those JR train tunes are great, especially when it changes to the hurry-up music It reminded me of the old computer game Bubble Bobble lol.

The most annoying thing for me was the endless wait at traffic lights, especially when in a car.
 
Gentleman10 said:
If you could Maciamo, please do me a favor today and (if you ride the trains)start your day with some of those great lil' melodies. ﾂ?ｴ
Click to expand...
It's more than one year that I have left Japan... Anyway I rarely took the JR - motsly the metro, which doesn't have melodies.
 
Maciamo said:
It's more than one year that I have left Japan... Anyway I rarely took the JR - motsly the metro, which doesn't have melodies.
Click to expand...

lol, just playing around man, all in good fun. So, if you haven't hear the themes yet, I suggest you go to your nearest JR station, and take a nice ride around Tokyo
 
Gentleman10 said:
lol, just playing around man, all in good fun. So, if you haven't hear the themes yet, I suggest you go to your nearest JR station, and take a nice ride around Tokyo
Click to expand...
Hilarious...
 


Maybe no passion, but I did enjoy listening to them at Tokyo Station. I was happy that I captured some on my camcorder microphone.
 
My fault !

The thing that drove me nuts , was never being good enough in Japanese to read a newspaper and signs(with Kanji), follow fast conversation of TV and radio, or express my complicated thoughts. A year and a half of so-so studying, just wasn't enough for me. Finding food I liked was hard, but again the problem was with me, not Japan.

Uncle Frank

☝
 
Using chopsticks in a restaurant and having complete strangers compliment you on it. @#$%^&*!!!
 
Agreed, having people complete strangers compliment you on how well you
use your chopsticks.
Have complete strangers compliment you on how well you speak japanese.

The ping pong sound every time someone walks in and out of a combini store.

The announcements and annoying tunes played in Supermarkets and Departments stores.

The weeks before local elections, when you have waaay too much noise pollution.

OOPs, just noticed it is supposed to be THE most annoying thing about living in Japan, oh well.
 
I tell Japanese that compliment me on my chopstick use that it's nothing uncommon, since we have a lot of Chinese restaurants in Canada, and that I've known how to use them since I was eight. At least they won't be so amazed or ready to compliment someone on their chopstick use the next time, and perhaps they'll pass on that bit of info to others they know (in fact most of them do).
 
Accessibility

Maciamo said:
Really ? It seemed to me that most stations had the same tune. It's more different lines (or companies) that have different tunes...
Click to expand...

Each station that has a jingle does have its own and for a very good reason: They identify the station to blind people.

One thing I did find very contradictory about Japan was there sensitivity to the blind. In almost all other situations very little consideration seems to be given to people with disabilities. But yellow sidewalk guides, braille notices and of course the station jingles are everywhere! Great.
 
ｆｏｒ ｔｈｅ ｃｈｏｐｓｔｉｃｋ， ｔｈｅ ｊａｐａｎｅｓｅ （ｎｉｈｏｎｇｏ）， ｅｔｃ．．． ｉ ｔｈｉｎｋ ｔｈａｔ， ａｔ ｔｈｅ ｂｅｇｉｎｉｎｇ， ｉｔ'ｓ ａ ｃｏｍｐｌｉｍｅｎｔ，ｓｏ ｉｔ ｍａｙ ｂｅ ｆｅｅｌ ａｓ ａ ｃｏｍｐｌｉｍｅｎｔ．．．ｉ ｄｏｎ'ｔ ｒｅａｌｌｙ ｕｎｄｅｒｓｔａｎｄ ｗｈｙ ａ ｌｏｔ ｏｆ ｆｏｒｅｉｇｎｅｒｓ ｄｉｓｌｉｋｅ ｉｔ．ｏｋ， ｉｆ ｙｏｕ ｌｉｖｅ ｉｎ ｊａｐａｎ ｓｉｎｃｅ 20 ｙｅａｒｓ．．．ｉ ｕｎｄｅｒｓｔａｎｄ， ｂｕｔ ｗｈａｔ ｗｏｕｌｄ ｙｏｕ ｓａｉｄ ｔｏ ｓｏｍｅｏｎｅ ｗｈｏ ｉｓ ｌｅａｒｎｉｎｇ ｙｏｕｒ ｌａｎｇｕａｇｅ ｓｉｎｃｅ ｏｎｅ， ｔｗｏ， ｍａｙｂｅ 4 ｙｅａｒｓ； ｉｆ ｉ ｓｕｃｃｅｄ ｉｎ ｉｔ？
 
If you are French, you have a good role model, Richard Collasse.
 
The crunched up mish-mash nature of an urban Japan devoid of a need for even basic greenery and open space. Preferably with greenery in that space.

But when you find some natural beauty in Japan, its impressive.


I dunno, I lvoed Japan, but I'm the kind of guy who likes countryside and old things, well, you know, places that look like they are fairly well aged and lived in, I like rooms in a home to look like people have lived there for a while, a bit of a human feel to it.

Most of urban Japan seems chaotic, as if it cant stand a house or apartment block standing for any longer then a few decades.

I dunno, I guess especially for many Europeans, we have grown up in cities and societies that have a pride and respect in their architechural heritage, so we appriciate cities with old buildings along with new, also in the UK its just somethnig people expect, to have a reasonable patch of earth to call their own alongside a house.

In Japan I actually started seeing homes with even basic gardens and areas of open greenery as unique rather then the norm.

I saw a home nearby my girlfriends building, it had a garden, lucky to even be half the size of mine, and my garden isnt big, and i remember thinknig "Jesus, the guy who owns that must be bloody loaded!".


Apart from that I mostly enjoyed Japan, I think aslong as I could live on the edges of a Japanese city I would be fine.

I liked Ome city, it was pretty nice, I remember going on a fairly long walk to a shrine for new years, it was set in a nice place, must have been right on the edge of town though.

Its where I first descovered Yakisoba.
 
i think, the inpersonal kind of life. that massive culture. well, i dont know much about livin in japan but i think that that would be the worst part.

also, i've never been in japan.
 
The usual things that bugged me back home bug me here, so thats nothing special, but the one unique thing that does annoy me about living in Japan is the complaints of other people about living in Japan - ESPECIALLY things which they do not understand, or language problems.

Its your responsibility to learn the language, be able to communicate, and to research and learn the how and why things are.
 
Since it's winter right now the most annoying things for me are: My school has zero hot water taps because heating is so freakin expensive and so I have to wash my hands in ice water. Likewise, I have to use my home boiler sparingly and often have to use cold water. And the complete lack of insulation, combined with huge drafty sliding glass doors means that my apartment is a refrigerator, even when I spend piles of money heating it.

The constant construction also bothers me. Roads are always being dug up and repaved so some utility can lay some new cable because they can't plan ahead or something. Apparently Japan pours 5 times as much concrete as the United States, and uses 50% of all the lumber produced every year. ﾅ津?窶堙ｨ窶堋?窶堙ｩﾅｽ窶佛陳ｹ窶堙ｰ窶佚･ﾂ静倪?堙可！ﾂ！

If you came to the US, would you feel happy if someone said that you use a fork very well, or if someone shouted "Wow, you're good at English!" when they heard you say "Nice to meet you."?
 
^^
he wouldn't say me that i use a fork very well because the most part of the population (human) use it. it's not the case for the chopsticks.
for the english, if i do an effort to speak it, i would not be ''very happy'', but i wouldn't be ''angry'' (i haven't got other expressions).
 
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