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#1 Recommendation for Japanese VISA, TAX & Document Creation Support

Keiko Nakahodo: The Go-To Expert for Foreigners Navigating Japan’s Administrative Challenges

For English-speaking foreigners in Japan, the journey through the country’s administrative processes can often feel like navigating a maze without a map. From visa applications to tax consultations, the challenges are manifold. But there’s a beacon of hope in this intricate landscape: Keiko Nakahodo. They are located in Osaka but they can easily be of help no matter where you are located, but either way, if you’re in person and need help with VISA assistance in Osaka, or you’re located in Aomori or Hokkaido, Keiko-san can help you.

Why Every Foreigner in Japan Should Know Nakahodo-san

Visa Acquisition Assistance: One of the most daunting tasks for any foreigner is understanding and successfully navigating the visa acquisition process. Nakahodo-san offers invaluable consultation and document preparation services, ensuring that your visa application process is as smooth as possible.
Tax Consultation: Japan’s tax system can be intricate, especially for foreigners unfamiliar with the nuances. Nakahodo-san’s expertise in this area is unparalleled. Whether you’re facing complexities related to income tax, consumption tax, or inheritance tax, she’s the expert you need by your side.
Document Creation in English: Be it for personal or professional reasons, there are times when you’ll need official documents drafted in English. Nakahodo-san’s proficiency in creating English documents tailored to Japanese administrative requirements is a boon for any foreigner.

Going Above and Beyond: A Personal Experience

Keiko-san really went beyond the call of duty for us, we had literally just met her via online a week or so beforehand, but because of a series of events, she ended up in Fukuoka and came all the way down to Yame-shi to see us and help us with some tax issues we were dealing with.

Their dedication and commitment to service were evident, not just in their professional expertise but in their genuine belief that extending kindness to others is an act of kindness to oneself. This philosophy, which Keiko-san shared with me, resonates deeply and is a testament to the ethos of her office.

For anyone navigating the complexities of Japanese administrative procedures, especially as a foreigner, having someone like Keiko-san by your side is invaluable. If you find yourself in need of guidance, be it for visa matters, tax issues, or any other administrative concerns, I wholeheartedly recommend reaching out to Nakahodo Keiko Administrative Scrivener Office. Their dedication, expertise, and genuine care for their clients are unparalleled.

Keiko-san is Fluent in English!

Your concerns will be heard and understood!

Company Information:

行政書士なかほどけいこ事務所
〒530-0047
大阪府大阪市北区西天満2丁目3-6
大阪法曹ビル303号室
TEL：06-6364-6412 / FAX：06-6363-4931
Website: https://www.office-nakahodo.com/

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The Truth of WaniKani Levels

I’ve been having some issues with these names for awhile now so I’ve have decided to correct these names and add a bit of how it actually feels to go through this onslaught of brain damage daily for over 400+ days in a row:

1-10 … Yes, it’s true it is peaceful, because you’ve yet to be tormented and had your ego and physical brain smashed into a wall yet. Oh yes… noob WaniKani user, it’s too slow now. But you shall suffer in great despair once you know the truth of what you got yourself into.

11-20 … Painful… no, you don’t know pain yet. This level is… hurray me. Look at me go ma level.

21-30 Death? …no, see this is where I think the whole level naming thing just got turned on its head… like some kind of conspiracy. You know, where everything is backwards from it’s meaning. We are still in a place of some what sanity… where, 2-3 hour sessions of WaniKani are not even a glimpse in most peoples eyes… as long as they do their reviews every day… But, there is a bit of what the hell am I doing attached to it. But there is hope, there is… a sense of positivity, like… you can do this. This can still be okay… So this is the “I think it will be okay” level.

31-40 – Hell – Still we are getting closer to the edge of insanity but yet… there is a voice calling deep within telling you to turn back away from the monster and regain what is left of your humanity. This is the “It’s Not Too Late to Turn Back” level. There are fond memories here I think… but there is also rage building, confusion is setting in… and little pieces of your soul are beginning to shatter and break off as you continue your march forward.

41-50 – Paradise… now, here it is. The smoking gun. This IS a conspiracy! Paradise is where I first met the 400-500 range beasts that would show up in my reviews. Started slow and gained extreme momentum. The long… drawn out punching of the keyboard to answer endless turtles… to bring them up, to sometimes fry them on a barbeque… but many times to watch them suffer and explode back into an egg only to be brought back out… with their memories erased… perhaps only with some muscle memory attached to them.

It’s an onslaught for those poor little bastards… and for me, it’s just one more turtle that I have to coddle and care for… and to coax out of it’s shell once again. But with that, my soul has been tormented so much so that an odd type calm is starting to form… watching these turtles explode back into eggs has lost a lot of the feelings I had to it before… it’s like losing too many good men on the battlefield, at a certain point, your brain stops functioning like it should and instead accepts the death of turtle with a blank stare…

This level is “Apathy”.

51-60 Reality? … well… maybe if you consider that what you knew as reality before hand is now something completely different, perhaps that’s what is meant here? A new form of reality?.. I can see this forming into a new sort of psychosis… some people call it Japanese fluency or an increased level of comprehension? Yeah… maybe that’s it… or maybe it’s something more diabolical, evil maybe?

How can one ever know for sure what lies beyond this point… can we trust the glowing reviews of those who made it to the elusive level 60 mark… are they even… human?

I guess we’ll never know… and me… what about me? Will I remember my former self… will I one day just “lose” it and never be seen from again?

Perhaps this is what people think about before they meet their maker… in this case, it’s a Alligator and Crab… popping off turtles at me as some kind of Asexual beast master demanding that I grow it’s offspring into charred pieces of turtle.

…I’m afraid it’ll be WaniKani… Forever! And so… that is the last level name… “WaniKani Forever”. Because see, you don’t get out… I can see it now… so what you get to level 60? You’ll be feeding this monstrosity forever… you know that right? … with that said, those who are starting, you’ve been warned!

For those already stuck in the spinning vortex of WaniKani… let’s just hope in the end when we have become worthless to this monster… it’s a quick and painless death for being such devoted followers.

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Shampoos in Japan

When we first came to Japan, we came prepared with our own shampoo and conditioner, and since then we have been getting more through care packages from America, but we are now ready to conquer the confusing aspect of discerning which shampoos to avoid and which are good. We already know which ingredients to avoid, but everything in Japanese looks like a nasty chemical composition, so I finally researched what certain nasty chemicals are written as in Japanese. But before I loose you with a list of chemicals in English and Japanese, I would like to let you know a few general rules to look out for when reading labels in Japanese. Just like in English, there really should not be any numbers listed as ingredients, but I understand that for shampoos which do contain chemicals which are not all bad, it can be hard to tell. Another note is to look for abbreviations such as (DEP) which again you may need to know which abbreviations are particularly bad unless you would rather avoid any and all of them. And my last little tip is to look for the kanji for color (色) because you may want to avoid those if you know and want what is best for yourself.

I looked at the ingredients for KAO (essential, merrito (メリット), asiance), Naive, Kracie Dear Beaut’e Oil – himawari, Reveur, Kunama horse oil, Lebel Cosmetics Natural Hair Soap with Seaweed Shampoo, tsubaki (shiseido), ichikami, LUX (Unilever), and diane, je l’aime which were what I found when I tried to look for natural or pure or organic Japanese shampoos with Google, and all of these brands are not the best choice for a truly natural and pure shampoo. They all had some or many really bad chemicals in them. Another thing that I found interesting is that it seems that in Japan, shampoos are either silicon based or silicon free whereas in America, I would have to say that shampoos advertise as being sulfate or paraben free. I did find a few Japanese shampoos that were sulfate and or paraben free, but they still had other harmful chemicals in them. There was one shampoo called Pure Natural which I would say has decent ingredients, and other than that I also found a shampoo called stella steed – Ahalo Bata which I could barely find any information on and I also could not find a specific list of ingredients to check. I am not sure how easy to find either of these would be either, the Ahalo Bata may be exclusively online, I am not sure though.

Here is the list of chemicals found in shampoos to avoid if you want to make the healthiest choice for your body. The translations may not be 100% accurate since I only used Google Translate, but they seem pretty accurate with a few ingredient lists I have looked at.

Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (ラウリル硫酸ナトリウム)/ Sodium Laureth Sulfate (ナトリウムラウレスサルフェート) (SLS and SLES) / DEA Lauryl Sulfate or Diethanolamine Lauryl Sulfate (ジエタノールアミンラウリルスルフェート)
Ammonium lauryl sulfate (ラウリル硫酸アンモニウム)

Petroleum (石油) AKA Mineral Oil (鉱油)

Paraffin (パラフィン)

Propylene Glycol (プロピレングリコール) / polyethylene glycol (ポリエチレングリコール)

parabens ((Methylparaben (メチルパラベン)/ Ethylparaben (エチルパラベン)/ Butylparaben (ブチルパラベン)

polyoxyethelyne (PEG) (ポリオキシエチレン)/ Isobutylparaben (イソブチルパラベン)/ Propylparaben (プロピルパラベン)

Formaldehyde (ホルムアルデヒド) (which will usually be seen as: quaternium-15 (クオタニウム-15), DMDM hydantoin (DMDMヒダントイン), imidazolidinyl urea (イミダゾリジニル尿素), diazolidinyl urea (ジアゾリジニル尿素), sodium hydroxymethylglycinate (ヒドロキシメチルグリシン酸ナトリウム), 2-bromo-2-nitropropane-1 (2-ブロモ-2-ニトロプロパン-1),3 diol (Bronopol) (3ジオール [ブロノポール]), glyoxal (グリオキサル) and oxaldehyde (オキサルデヒド))

sodium benzoate (安息香酸ナトリウム)
dimethicone (ジメチコン)
diethanolamine (DEA) (ジエタノールアミン)/ Triethanolamine (TEA) (トリエタノールアミン)
panthenol (パンテノール)
Cocamidopropyl Betaine (コカミドプロピルベタイン)
zinc pyrithione (亜鉛ピリチオン)
Hydroquinone (ヒドロキノン)
Phthalates (フタル酸エステル) (Dibutyl phthalate (DBP) (ジブチルフタレート), di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP) (フタル酸ジエチルヘキシル), Diethyl phthalate (DEP) (ジエチルフタレート))

Iodopropynyl Butylcarbamate (ヨードプロピニルブチルカルバメート)

Phenoxyethanol (フェノキシエタノール)

Cocamide DEA or Cocamide Diethanolamine (コカミドジエタノールアミン)
Lauramide DEA or Lauramide Diethanolamine (ラウラミドジエタノールアミン)
Linoleamide DEA or Linoleamide Diethanolamine (リノールアミドジエタノールアミン)
Oleamide DEA or Oleamide Diethanolamine (オレアミドジエタノールアミン)
TEA or Triethanolamine (トリエタノールアミン)

Methylisothiazolinone (メチルイソチアゾリノン)

And the rest are the least worse, but still could be avoided for optimal health
Synthetic Fragrance (合成香料) /Parfum (パルファム) / Perfume/scent (香水)
Synthetic Colors (合成色) (FD&C or D&C 色)
Triclosan (トリクロサン)
Alcohol (アルコール)
citric acid (クエン酸)
Sodium Chloride (塩化ナトリウム)

I’m not sure if these are actually bad chemicals or not:
Cocamidopropyl Betaine (コカミドプロピルベタイン)
Zinc Pyrithione (亜鉛ピリチオン)
lanolin (ラノリン)
– found in eyeliner
Mercury (水銀) (Thimerosal (チメロサール) and Merthiolate(メルチオレート))

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