Comments on: Automatic dishwashers: the square peg in the round hole of Japanese kitchens

By: Nells

Nells — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 06:52:49 +0000

As first stage on sale in our estate, our house had quite a few extras to entice buyers – and a dishwasher was one of them! Foreign guests are in awe of how small it is (maybe 1/2 the size of a US size one), but it is built in under the counter and works like a dream. It has pre-wash, regular, heavy, wash only, and dry only cycles. My friend’s apartment came with a similar style but hers pulls out like a drawer, rather then the traditional flip down door.
I use it all the time, depending on how many meals we have at home, sometimes twice a day. But it is smaller and does not use as much water as a US-size one.
My Japanese husband does not use it very often – mostly as he gets frustrated trying to load it. But my in-laws drove me crazy hand washing dishes and then loading into the dishwasher for dry-only cycle. Like, really? If you are going to spend all that effort to load it, let it pre-wash, wash and dry them. LOL
Also, re the comment on not having hot water for clothes washing, our newish (6 yrs) old washer-dryer in one has a built in water heater and will wash clothing on cold, 30c, 40c or 60c cycles. Love it!
And disappointment with a breadmaker? Are they nuts? Any appliance (dishwasher, washer-dryer, breadmaker) that lets me start just before bed and wake up to my chores being done can never be a disappointment! And yes, I have a Roomba too – two actually!

By: Trevor Hill

Trevor Hill — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 07:04:05 +0000

This is hilarious to me as an American. All my life (born in ’75), we’ve had dishwashers, washing machines, and dryers. Sometimes you may get a crummy dish washer in the US, but most of the time it’s good enough, and if your dishes are not really clean, you just try a stronger cycle or different detergent.

I don’t know how people can put up with not having these tools, but I guess they just don’t know any better. Someone should let it be known — you don’t have to hang-dry your clothes or hand-wash your dishes. Machines can do a good job and take it off your hands. I even have a robotic vacuum now, and it works great.

By: Philip Brasor & Masako Tsubuku

Philip Brasor & Masako Tsubuku — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 23:57:58 +0000

The hot water issue in Japan has a number of explanations. One that is often mentioned is the habit of using hot water from the bath for washing clothes. Another is the simple fact that until recently there was no way to easily connect a washing machine to the water heater in a Japanese residence. In America, at least, homes that were built in the last fifty years or so had facilities for connecting hot water directly to washing machines. In all of the places we’ve lived in Japan, only one had a faucet for the washer that could supply hot water. Some washers heat the water as it enters the machine, but in any case it’s only for washing. The rinse cycle is invariably cold.

By: J-J

J-J — Sat, 18 Feb 2012 17:24:30 +0000

On the note of washers/dryers, my former roommate, back in 2009, bought this wonderful single-unit washer/dryer. I neglected to ask how much it cost, thinking it’d be rude, but I’m sure it was rather expensive. At any rate, it was one unit that functioned as both a front-loading washing machine and a tumble dryer. I was blown away! Not only was it the coolest space-saving thing I’d ever seen, the dryer was the best I’d used in the entire time I’d lived in Japan! It actually *dried* my clothes, and not only that, they came out toasty and fluffy soft. For the most part I didn’t use the dryer, anyway (I air dry many of my clothes due to delicate nature and to improve longevity) but on the occasions I was in a rush and forgot to do laundry in a timely manner, it was nice to know I could pop in a load for 20 minutes and have it come out bone dry (unlike what I was used to at the laundromat, wasting 500y on 50 minutes in the dryer to have my clothes soggy, anyway).

The thing I do not understand, though, is how, given that Japanese are so concerned with hygiene, NONE of the washing machines anywhere have hot water cycles. It was the one thing I couldn’t get used to – I typically use cold water to wash regular clothes, warm for sport clothes, but underwear, I have been raised, ALWAYS gets washed in hot water. I would end up washing my underwear in two, sometimes three back-to-back cycles just because cold water didn’t feel clean, and even then I wasn’t comfortable with it. My washer at home even has a super hot (like 80 degrees) “sanitary” cycle, rarely used but still comforting to have.

By: Miko

Miko — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 07:58:03 +0000

Don’t forget that line-dried clothing often needs to be ironed too, so it could be a false economy in the long run (when you factor in the costs of using the iron and spray starch, etc). So-called “eco” washer/driers are expensive, but seem to be incredibly cheap to run – some cost only about 20 yen per load! I wish I had one. The only thing I really dislike about all these labour-saving devices is that they run on …. electricity. I’d rather not get too reliant on them for that very reason. Elbow power is free!

By: LeeAnn

LeeAnn — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 05:48:30 +0000

I never had a dishwasher in the US. I thought about buying one in Japan, but when I found out you had to prewash the dishes, I wondered what the point was. So I never bought one. Regarding clothes dryers, I think it’s a necessity. With all the rain and the humidity in this country, how can you dry your clothes without one? It takes forever to dry, and I don’t like hanging clothes in our already-tiny apartment. Btw, this has been a recent topic in our household.

By: Ἀντισθένης

Ἀντισθένης — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 04:16:40 +0000

The lack of space is the most sound reason for the relative lack of dishwashers and clothes dryers. The large number of dishes used for Japanese meals does beg for a machine, as does its greater hot and cold water efficiency. And clothes driers? Well, there are two to four months of the year when it is too humid for clothing to dry well enough to avoid mildew scents, and surely a dryer is a better solution than mildew, or having to use the ‘doraia’ function on your a/c for an entire room.