washing machine rant

Ok, it was inevitable that someday I would write about my number one complaint with Japan (come to think of it I actually have a few, but let me focus on this one for now). It was inevitable and apparently today is that day. In the train station there is a new commercial for washing machines on the big TV-screens. While riding the escalator, watching the commercial, I got the sense of this washing machine being a revolutionary piece of household utility, a shufu’s wettest dream, a result of cutting edge scientific research, resulting in an almost magical ability to clean clothes infinitely better than your ordinary washing machine. Oh tell me, I was thinking – what is so fantastic?

It was inevitable that some day I would write about this. Since I came to Japan I have been so frustrated by the cold-water-only washing machines that seem to be the standard household appliance in every little apartment. Taking care of our home, washing is a task I take very seriously, and when my wife is working for us at the office, I have been working with soap and brushes, soaking clothes, trying in a plethora of ways to make soba stained dresses clean, to get rid of foundation residue on white shirt collars and train dirt on white shirt cuffs. 

But now there seems to finally be an end to this, a solution to my problems. Oh tell me, I was thinking – what is so fantastic?

What was so fantastic? Well, it seems (if I didn’t get the message completely wrong) like the machine is able to run a 40 degree Celsius program. Oh how marvellous! How I am getting all excited! The stained shirts come out completely white, all stains gone! Amazing, wonderful, amazingly wonderfully fantastic. What an invention!!! (I hope my irony shines through.)

Coming from Sweden, being used to washing bed linen, shirts and underwear in 60 degrees, I have still not gotten used to the Japanese way of washing clothes. I can understand if there are environmental aspects of using cold water when washing clothes (but I still wonder if the total negative environmental impact is still not greater considering the chemicals that is being used to make the previously white clothes seem white again). But even if there are, I believe I could easily think of ten ways to better create a more environmental friendly environment here than what washing clothes in cold water contributes to. 

So while I was discouragedly smiling to myself when I saw the commercial, I was also filled with hope. Hope that one day, when our washing machine breaks down and it is time to buy a new one, one day there will be Swedish standard washing machines on offer for an affordable price (and then I will be left with one less grievance in Japan). But until then, I will keep on struggling with soap, hand dish detergent and toothbrushes.

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