Live from Japan!

Before moving here, I never really knew what illiteracy felt like. I knew that it would be frustrating at times, but I never really thought about how deeply it would affect my existence in the world. Obviously, after only a few weeks here, I have found out that it is frustrating on many levels. Illiteracy is a pervasive annoyance that never seems to go away. Print is everywhere, it is inescapable, it is even on my washing machine.

Doing the laundry seems like it should be one of those intuitive, simple tasks. After all, I have been washing my own clothing for many years and haven’t ever had a problem. Now, all of a sudden I am faced with a Japanese washing machine that completely confuses me. There are numerous pictograms, which are designed to help in the understanding of the machine, but it doesn’t really help me. I still remain as perplexed as ever.

Fortunately, we have had the help of Aaron’s supervisor, who has so kindly given me lessons in making the washer go. I now know what to do, I can set it to one cycle and one cycle only. I have no idea whether that cycle is normal or delicate, but it definitely washes the clothes.

Aside from the illiteracy aspect of clothes washing, there are a number of other changes to get used to as well. First and foremost, the washing machine is outside. It is on our back balcony, right outside our tatami room. The washing machine has a special little cover to protect it from the elements. Speaking of elements, I have no idea how we will wash clothes in the winter, I imagine we will cross that bridge when we come to it.

When we want to do laundry we, first, take the clothes outside. Then we plug the washing machine into the outlet. And last we turn the water on. I put the clothes in, add the detergent and a little sofuto (fabric softener) and perform a little hocus pocus (pushing buttons until the thing starts to work).Once the laundry is finished, I have to go back outside and hang everything out to dry.

Dryers are very rare in Japan, from what I have heard they exist only in laundromats. As a result, everything here is line dried. Until we discovered the sofuto, our clothing was quite crispy. Now it is not so bad. Also, as hot as it is here, clothing dries seriously fast. Just a few hours and it is done.

I am really glad that we live on the third floor. My laundry is relatively sheltered. Very few people see my skivvies when they are hanging on the line, and for that I am quite grateful. It is so strange to me that people on the first floor apartments have to hang their underwear, among other things, in plain view. I really wonder if panty snatching is a problem here in Japan?

Anyways, if you’d like to check out more pictures of our apartment, I have uploaded a full set to our Flickr Account. Check out our place!