Laundry Day, 4 Months On

This morning I was thinking (I say "this morning" because it was shortly after I rolled out of bed, around noon-forty-five) that I've been here nearly four months now. That's an eighth of my intended stay in Japan, not to mention about the same amount of time I had spent in Nagoya as a student.

The really amazing thing is, my washing machine hasn't quite ruined any pieces of clothing yet. I'm tempting fate a little here, since my washing machine is currently running and its malevolent circuits might somehow be able to tap into my computer, detect this shameful indictment, and thence do everything in its power to shred or bleed or stretch to uselessness my nice green sweater. But anyway, laundry has never been my favorite chore, although it certainly involves the least amount of labor for me. Like most chores, I put it off for as long as possible. My university buddies probably have some incriminating testimonies on that account.

Laundry takes on a different character, though, as the seasons change. Since it's now winter - bollucks to your Gregorian calendar, Western Japan's autumn season lasts approximately 18 hours - I'm reminded of warm, fluffy clothes piles fresh from the dryers in the basement of my dorm or my parents' house. I don't get those in Japan. Much like oven fairies and building insulation, Japan doesn't believe in dryers. At least not for small-town gaijin like me. I've heard on the news that the dryers them rich city-folk can afford have been causing house fires, so perhaps I'm better off relying on the sun and the wind.

Thing is, a typical laundry day four months ago looked like this: no sun, sh*t-tons of rain from the most recent summer typhoon, temperatures just barely low enough for me to want to stand up.
Coincidentally, today's laundry day looks like this: no sun, sh*t-tons of rain from the most recent low-pressure-zone moving in from China (dammit, China, you ruin everything!), temperatures just barely high enough for me to want to get out from under my covers. Actually, the outside air temperature is probably a few degrees higher (Celsius, mind you; a few degrees makes a big difference) than my apartment's room-temperature. Figure THAT one out.

However, laundry day in winter does have one redeeming feature - it's a great excuse to use my air-con (10-second Japanese with Nikki: air-con = air conditioner, which the Japanese think is the English term for "small electric wall-box which makes warm or cold air"). I want clean, dry socks for work tomorrow, so I guess I've just gotta crank that baby up to 25 and blast my apartment all day.

Whoops, there's the "O HAY GUYS ITS 3 PM LOL" air-raid siren (those scared the crap out of me for about the first week I was here). That means only about an hour and a half of grayed-out-ambient-cloudlight left. I've gotta get some milk and bananas, and possibly apples for baking adventures later this week.