The short version: four categories run your rubbish - 燃えるゴミ, 燃えないゴミ, 資源ごみ, 粗大ごみ - on days set by your city. The card in your mailbox is a 不在票, and the word you need on it is 再配達. The notice taped inside the lift is usually 断水, 停電, 点検 or 検針. About sixty words cover the entire paper life of a resident.
The airport was survivable. The convenience store was survivable. You found a flat, you can order food, you have started to feel like this is going to be fine.
Then, on an ordinary Tuesday, three things happen. A neighbour looks at the bag you just put out and says something you do not catch. A small card is sitting in your mailbox with a phone number on it and a date that has apparently already started counting down. And a laminated notice has appeared inside the lift with a red border and your building’s name at the top.
None of this is in your textbook. It is not conversational Japanese at all - it is written, compressed, deadline-bearing Japanese, the register that runs the country’s admin. The good news is that it is even more repetitive than signage, because your building, your city and your delivery company will use exactly the same words for as long as you live there.
Paper 1 · ゴミThe four bins, and why your neighbour is looking at you
| Word | Reading | Meaning | What it asks of you |
|---|---|---|---|
| 分別 | ぶんべつ | Sorting by category | The single most important word on the calendar. 分 divide + 別 separate. |
| 収集日 | しゅうしゅうび | Collection day | Paired with a weekday: 毎週火曜日 = every Tuesday. |
| 指定袋 | していぶくろ | Designated bag | In many cities rubbish must go in the official municipal bag, sold at supermarkets. |
| 集積所 | しゅうせきじょ | Collection point | Also called ごみステーション - the netted spot on the street corner. |
| 朝8時までに | あさはちじまでに | By 8am | Typical deadline: put it out on the morning itself, not the night before. |
| 古紙 | こし | Waste paper | Newspapers, magazines - usually tied with string, not bagged. |
| 段ボール | だんボール | Cardboard | Flattened and tied. Its own category almost everywhere. |
| 缶 / びん | かん / bin | Cans / glass bottles | Rinsed. Often collected on the same day, in separate containers. |
| ペットボトル | — | PET bottles | キャップ (cap) and ラベル (label) removed - they are plastic packaging, not PET. |
| プラ | — | Plastic packaging | The プラ mark printed on wrappers, trays and caps marks this category. |
| 有害ごみ | ゆうがいごみ | Hazardous waste | Batteries 電池, lighters, spray cans スプレー缶, fluorescent tubes. |
| 回収 | かいしゅう | Collection / take-back | Supermarkets run 回収ボックス for trays, milk cartons and batteries. |
粗大ごみ: the one with a procedure
Oversized waste is the only category that cannot simply be carried downstairs, and it is where most newcomers get stuck. The sequence is fixed:
| Step | Japanese | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 申込 もうしこみ | Book a collection by phone or website. You are given a date and a reception number (受付番号). |
| 2 | 粗大ごみ処理券 しょりけん | Buy the disposal sticker for the quoted fee at a convenience store or supermarket. |
| 3 | 記入 きにゅう | Write your reception number or name on the sticker and attach it to the item. |
| 4 | 当日 とうじつ | Put it out on the assigned morning at the assigned place. Done. |
The card in your mailbox, line by line
Every Japanese delivery company uses a slightly different layout for the same nine fields. Learn the fields and every carrier becomes readable.
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 不在 | ふざい | Absent - 不 (not) + 在 (to be present). The 不 prefix negates everything: 不便 inconvenient, 不安 anxious, 不明 unclear. |
| 置き配 | おきはい | Leave the parcel at the door. Now the default option with many carriers. |
| 宅配ボックス | たくはいボックス | Parcel locker in the entrance hall, opened with an 暗証番号 (PIN). |
| 持ち戻り | もちもどり | Taken back to the depot - what happened while you were out. |
| 代金引換 | だいきんひきかえ | Cash on delivery - 代引き for short. Have the money ready. |
| クール便 | クールびん | Chilled or frozen delivery: 冷蔵 refrigerated, 冷凍 frozen. Cannot be left at the door. |
| 午前中 | ごぜんちゅう | Morning slot - literally “within the a.m.” |
| 受取 | うけとり | Receipt / collecting the item. 受取人 = the recipient. |
| 印 / サイン | いん | Seal or signature. A 印鑑 stamp works, and so does a signature. |
The post: envelopes, stamps and one piece of etiquette
| Word | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 郵便局 | ゆうびんきょく | Post office. 郵便受け = your letterbox. |
| 切手 | きって | Postage stamp - literally “cut hand”, from an old word for a ticket. |
| はがき | — | Postcard. 往復はがき = a reply-paid double postcard. |
| 封筒 | ふうとう | Envelope. 定形 = standard size, 定形外 = oversized (costs more). |
| 書留 | かきとめ | Registered post - tracked and signed for. Official documents arrive this way. |
| 速達 | そくたつ | Express post. 速 fast + 達 deliver. |
| 料金不足 | りょうきんぶそく | Insufficient postage - the reason it came back. |
| 転居届 | てんきょとどけ | Change-of-address form. Forwards your post for a year. |
| 宛先 / 差出人 | あてさき / さしだしにん | Addressee / sender. |
The notice taped inside the lift
These follow a template so rigid that once you know the eight nouns, you can read any of them in about four seconds: what is happening, when, and how sorry they are about it.
| Word | Reading | Meaning | Does it affect you? |
|---|---|---|---|
| お知らせ | おしらせ | Notice / announcement | The heading on almost every one. |
| 各位 | かくい | To all concerned | Formal “dear residents”. 入居者各位 = to all tenants. |
| 断水 | だんすい | Water supply shut off | Yes. Fill a bottle the night before. |
| 停電 | ていでん | Power cut | Yes. Note the 日時 (date and time). |
| 点検 | てんけん | Inspection | Sometimes. 消防設備点検 (fire equipment) needs entry to your flat. |
| 検針 | けんしん | Meter reading | Usually not - they read the meter outside. |
| 工事 | こうじ | Construction work | Noise, scaffolding, or a blocked entrance for a period. |
| 期間 / 日時 | きかん / にちじ | Period / date and time | The two lines to actually read. |
| 管理会社 / 管理人 | かんりがいしゃ / かんりにん | Management company / caretaker | Who to contact. 大家 (おおや) is the landlord. |
| 回覧板 | かいらんばん | Circulating notice board | Read it, stamp or tick it, pass it to the next flat. |
| 駐輪禁止 | ちゅうりんきんし | No bicycle parking | Bikes left there are removed and impounded. |
| 更新 | こうしん | Renewal | Lease renewal - usually every two years, usually with a fee. |
Four sentences that solve most of it
ゴミは何曜日ですか。ごみはなんようびですか。Which day is the rubbish collected?
これは燃えるゴミですか。これはもえるごみですか。Does this go in the burnable rubbish?
再配達をお願いしたいのですが。さいはいたつをおねがいしたいのですが。I’d like to request a redelivery.
明日の午前中にお願いします。あしたのごぜんちゅうにおねがいします。Tomorrow morning, please.
Notice the shape of the third one: …たいのですが, trailing off without finishing. That unfinished ending is not hesitation - it is the standard polite way to open a request in Japanese, and it is covered in full in the guide to sentences that never finish.
Why this layer decides whether you feel at home
There is a particular loneliness in the first months abroad, and it is rarely about grammar. It is the feeling of being administratively illiterate - of knowing that a piece of paper in your hand is telling you something important and being unable to reach it. It makes an ordinary Tuesday feel like an exam you did not study for.
What changes that feeling is not fluency. It is about sixty words. And unlike conversation, this vocabulary never varies: the same notice, the same slip, the same calendar, month after month. It is the highest-return set of Japanese a resident can learn, and it is the one nobody teaches.
1. Read the paper in your hand. Kanjijo’s OCR scanner reads a photo of the slip, the calendar or the notice and returns readings and meanings for every character - the deadline included.
2. Keep it. Anything you scan can go into the SRS engine with an exclusive mnemonic attached, so 不在, 保管期限 and 検針 become words you recognise instead of words you decode.
3. Review without deciding to. The home and lock screen widgets show due cards on the screen you already check constantly, and the interactive test widget quizzes you in three seconds without opening anything.
4. Then handle the phone call. The conversation and shadowing tracks drill exactly these exchanges out loud, and dictation trains the half that actually matters on an automated redelivery line - catching what is said back to you.
And when you want to go beyond survival, the whole course is already there: full N5–N1 kanji, vocabulary and grammar banks, JLPT reading and JLPT listening practice, and mock JLPT tests.
- OCR scanner for notices & forms
- Home & lock screen widgets
- Interactive test widget
- Exclusive kanji & vocab mnemonics
- SRS spaced repetition
- Full N5–N1 grammar bank
- JLPT reading practice
- JLPT listening practice
- Mock JLPT tests
- Conversation & shadowing
- Dictation training
- Zen design
Quick reference
- 燃えるゴミ / 燃えないゴミ / 資源ごみ / 粗大ごみ
- Burnable / non-burnable / recyclable / oversized. Categories and days are set by your city.
- 指定袋 · 収集日 · 集積所
- Designated bag, collection day, collection point. Put it out on the morning, not the night before.
- 粗大ごみ
- Book (申込) → buy the 処理券 sticker → attach it → put it out on the assigned day. AC units, TVs, fridges and washing machines are excluded.
- 不在票 · 再配達 · 保管期限
- Missed-delivery card, redelivery request, the deadline after which it returns to the sender.
- 置き配 / 宅配ボックス
- Leave at the door / parcel locker opened with a PIN.
- 行 → 御中
- On a reply envelope, cross out 行 and write 御中 (company) or 様 (person).
- 断水 / 停電 / 点検 / 検針 / 工事
- Water off / power cut / inspection / meter reading / construction. Read the 日時 line.
- 更新
- Lease renewal - typically every two years, usually with a fee.
Related Reading on Kanjijo
Frequently Asked Questions
燃えるゴミ (もえるゴミ, also written 可燃ごみ) means burnable rubbish - food waste, paper scraps, tissues and small soiled items. The standard companions are 燃えないゴミ or 不燃ごみ (non-burnable: metal, glass, ceramics, small appliances), 資源ごみ (recyclables: cans 缶, bottles びん, PET bottles ペットボトル, 古紙 waste paper, 段ボール cardboard) and 粗大ごみ (oversized items). The exact categories, the collection days and whether you must use a 指定袋 (designated municipal bag) are decided by each city, so the authoritative source is always the calendar issued by your local 市役所 or 区役所.
The slip left in your mailbox is a ご不在連絡票 (ごふざいれんらくひょう, missed-delivery notice). It carries a tracking number (お問い合わせ番号), the depot (営業所) and a 保管期限 - the date after which the parcel is returned to the sender. To book a new delivery you request 再配達 (さいはいたつ) by QR code, website, app or automated phone line, choosing a 配達日時 (date and time) from fixed 時間帯 slots such as 午前中 (morning) or 14時〜16時. Many carriers also offer 置き配 (leave at the door) or delivery into a 宅配ボックス, the parcel locker in the entrance hall, which is opened with a 暗証番号.
粗大ごみ (そだいごみ) is oversized waste - furniture, futons, bicycles, larger appliances. In most municipalities anything above roughly 30 centimetres counts, though the threshold is set locally. It cannot simply be left at the collection point: you book a pickup (申込) by phone or website, buy a 粗大ごみ処理券 (a disposal sticker) at a convenience store or supermarket for the fee quoted, write the reception number on it, stick it to the item and put it out on the assigned morning. Certain appliances - air conditioners, televisions, refrigerators and washing machines - are excluded entirely and handled under a separate recycling law through the retailer.
検針 (けんしん) means meter reading - someone will come to read the water, gas or electricity meter, and the notice states the date. It belongs to a small family of building notices worth learning together: 断水 (だんすい) water supply shut off, 停電 (ていでん) power cut, 点検 (てんけん) inspection, 消防設備点検 (fire equipment inspection, which usually requires access to your flat), 工事 (こうじ) construction work, and 各位 (かくい), the formal to all residents opening. Most such notices end with ご協力お願いします or ご迷惑をおかけします - a request for cooperation and an apology for the inconvenience.
Because it never appears in one. Textbook Japanese is built around conversations, while this layer is written, compressed and nominal - 不在, 再配達, 保管期限, 検針 are labels on forms, not sentences anyone speaks. It also arrives without warning and usually with a deadline attached, which is the worst possible condition for learning. The practical fix is to read it on the spot with an OCR scanner, then send the characters you scanned into an SRS review queue so the next notice is simply readable - the vocabulary is small, closed and repeats for as long as you live in Japan.
Stop being administratively illiterate
Kanjijo reads the paper you cannot: an OCR scanner for any notice, slip or form, exclusive mnemonics for every kanji and word, an SRS engine that times each review for the moment before you forget, and home, lock screen and interactive test widgets that keep it all in front of you. Plus the full N5–N1 kanji, vocabulary and grammar banks, JLPT reading and listening practice, mock tests, conversation, shadowing and dictation. Free on iPhone.
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