Do you think it’s better to block someone or add a note to them so you can still engage with their content? I’ve gotten into the habit of blocking people and I’m not sold on it being the best approach.

It’s worth it. I’m almost two years in Germany. Wouldn’t move back for a million dollars (although at 3 I could be bought). Work on the local language, volunteer or other community involvement activities, treat it like the new home it is. We’re fortunate to be able to move to a new country, try to be a part of improving it and earning your spot there. I’m even more fortunate to be white, male, straight etc - assuming you’re at least some of those things, do your best to counter the anti-immigration fear mongering that comes out of the political right. It effects you now, but more importantly it’s ramping up and it’ll effect people less fortunate far worse.

Hope you love it and welcome to Europe.

Just chiming in, I’m 28, American, immigrated to Germany. Can’t speak for Lemmy but I migrated from reddit when they shut the APIs down. Just want a shelf stable Aggregate site where I can stay up to date on my favorite hobbies and periodically connect with other humans. A healthy political debate is good every now and then but I’m also in the camp that the answers for our current problems are well researched and pretty fuckin obvious so debates have gotten… Idk stale.

Generally Lemmy feels like reddit but smaller, less polluted, but also less connected with every niche major update.

For these things I don’t think you have to prove anything, just a report to your govs food agency could prompt an inspection - or so I think.

Having no experience in the service industry I don’t have great advice so I’ll just say I’m sorry you’re going through this and I hope it gets better.

In gigs where politics matters more than output or social skills it can be hard to instigate change.

Is eating off of food a reportable offense to a health agency? That seems illegal or it should be.

I think the scenario I described applies to most Western countries.

Congrats on having rich renters then. If they’re wealthy enough to not take reduced rent then they are likely not your countries average renter.

Ya, seriously, their take is crazy. I’m a two income household, both software engineers, and to save enough money to afford the loan to buy the home would take us years. The cost of a mortgage right now is higher than my rent by a huge percentage and that still requires 20-30k of down payment.

Could we downsize to a 1 bedroom apartment, eat PBJs every night, and stick to cheap hobbies such that we could afford to start the loan in two years or something - yes. But why am I required to trade my youth for the ability to pay the bank the better part of a million dollars over the next 20 years of my life just so I can install a nice bathroom and AC and maintain the flat properly.

You are forming your opinion on a statistical anomaly worth of experiences. The reality is rent is priced fixed by very few algorithms - all of which by their nature drive the prices higher every year.

You are renting to people who choose to rent, the vast majority don’t get to choose. And even if they choose to rent, that’s because owning is too expensive in their eyes (money or time or paperwork or otherwise) - it does not mean they wouldn’t want to own if the cost was lower.

I can’t imagine anyone declining reduced costs unless phrased poorly or out of guilt.

You no longer have to give up citizenship to be a German citizen, and the US doesn’t require that either. A new law passed this year and comes into effect sometime around April I believe (still new to the exact legislation process in this country).

But yes, I would not encourage anyone to move to the US at this time. They are the largest proponent of late stage capitalism and those policies bring instability to the worker classes which begets authoritarianism. That’s rarely a good thing for anyone.

My friend and I moved to Germany last year. We met some Americans from st. Louis who moved the year before.

It’s anecdotal but not unreasonable to imagine some amount of brain drain is happening because of the instability in the US driven by late stage capitalism.

My last Japan trip was 4 or 5 years back and spent time in multiple big cities with an express train pass. I think I budgeted a grand for the flight, a grand in food and hotel and spending a week. But with inflation being what it is I’d want to rerun the numbers based off of what flights and hotel/hostels I could find and assume 1k for just food and fun per week. I think there are active data sheets online that talk about the average cost of eating out in Japan right now.

You want to visit for “a few weeks” so I’d say plan for 2k + flight + hotel/hostel + train tickets/pass. I’d bet you spend less than 4k total for that time.

I like to visit 1 major city every 4-7 days, I normally do travel in, 5 days, travel out. So two weeks would let me see 2 major cities and a couple day trips or 3 shorter stays at 3 major places. Some cities are cheaper than others which is something to consider and how you eat out also dictates your budget more than anything. You could eat in Tokyo for dollars a day at gas stations or you could splurge on sashimi every night and find yourself burning money by the fist full.

I’m a big foodie so that’s where the 1k per week comes from.

Without data, take media reports as sensational by necessity. France’s problems may not be as bad as they seem (I would assume they’re not) and France’s problems don’t automatically translate to other countries like Japan.

To wrap this back around to your main post, travelling to Japan shouldn’t induce fear at any step. It’s a safe country with low crime rates and few health problems for tourists.

This is a great write up, thanks for sharing!

Again, don’t be. I don’t have data off the top of my head, but I’d wager Japan has shockingly few cases of bed bugs in their tourist sector.

“Most countries” is a hell of a stretch in my opinion. I’ve traveled to something close to 20 popular countries and only needed a visa for China when visiting, Singapore when studying, and Germany when moving there.

Here’s the official list and I’d wager a guess that more than 75% of native US Tourist Traffic goes to these countries.

You shouldn’t be scared of hotels. If you’re getting a reasonable room you’ll have an entirely normal experience. If you cheap out, then you are taking a risk in exchange for money.

But if you’re going to travel internationally, you should default to not afraid. It is by and large safe out there. Be smart, but not media-sensitized.

Like I said, it’s got pros and cons. Hotels are good too.

Hey, this is an exciting first step in planning your trip. I’m 27 and have traveled a lot on my own and with friends, if you need any advice or have any questions feel free to PM me.

1. Get your passport - this let’s you leave your country and enter others. Depending on your country you may need to get a visa but assuming you come from the US you don’t need a Visa (if a passport let’s you enter into your native country, a Visa let’s you enter and stay in a foreign country under certain conditions).
2. Book a flight through something like Google flights, no need to go through any company besides the airline’s.
3. Book housing - if you’re going alone and packing light I would highly recommend a hostel. Hostels are shared rooms where you sleep in the same room, share bathrooms, etc. If you’re a light sleeper you may not like this, it will cause you to interact with other tourists which can be a pro or a con, and when you leave stuff in your room It’ll need a lock (no issues in my experience but I also wouldn’t bring 2 grand of electronics and lock them in the room). The main benefit is it’s cheaper for individuals. Eastern hostel culture is way better than western, and Japan has some of the best in my experience.
4. Pack your stuff. You need clothes, but you can do laundry there if that interests you so you don’t need too many clothes. You need a way to get japanese currency. My card let’s me pull money out of international ATMs, you can also bring US dollars and convert it there in the airport, but Japan mostly takes card in my experience.

That’s the bare necessity. I got to stop now but like I said, I’d love to help past that.

Depending on where you’re going transportation can be handled entirely by public transit. Don’t get a car.

I moved to Germany from the US this year. There is subsidized public transit, universal healthcare, minimum vacation time, a heavy union culture, strong renter-favored laws (although capitalist for profit housing is still an ever growing plague).

As others pointed out, the terminology isn’t a great tool for debate without an agree upon definition. But yes, I would move to a country that cared about people over profits.