cleanliness next to buddha-ness

[sukebekuro]

following upon my rant about japanese tv last night, i thought i'd say a few things about cleanliness, a subject that seems to come up everyday in my new life here:

*first of all, I hate the concept of the genkan; i'm not going to rock the boat about it in my house but i can't deny it bugs me, no matter how much of a gaijin that makes me sound like. and it's not like i want to wear my shoes in the house, 99.9% of the time i don't, but for that .1% time that I want to, I should be able to and not have to worry about it. what a PITA everytime i'm about to leave the house and realize I've forgotten my shades or an umbrella or the keys, if these things aren't in easy reach on the shoe-cabinet shelf, i gotta untie the laces etc....and anyway the genkan is filthy, and after removing my shoes i'm standing in that filth before I step up into the house, so what's the point? and am I the only one who gets peeved to find his/her shoes turned around facing out or arranged in some different manner? don't touch my shoes! the other thing is that no one ever seems to think it's okay to just say "fuck it" once in a while and break the rules, the house could be burning to the ground with a child trapped inside and they'll still take off their shoes before running inside to save the kid!

*i don't mind (too much) taking a bath in the same water that the other 3 members of my household have already used, i realize water here is expensive and it would be mendokusai to have to refill the tub everytime. However, and sorry to be a bit gross here, but am I the only one who wonders if the others are washing their butt cracks and other nether regions as assiduously as I am during the pre-bath shower? and another thing...

*wtf is up with saving this bath water overnight, and then using it via a pump to wash clothes with the next day, in a washer by the way that already has water saved in it from the LAST time the clothes were washed, two days prior. I haven't seen the bill but no water can be THAT expensive to necessitate these extreme conservation measures, can it? is my house an exception or is this normal here?

*naturally we don't have a drier and i'm not desperate to buy one, i don't miss home that much and besides where the fuck would we put it. BUT, don't try to tell me that hanging the clothes outside is somehow better for them. it may be better for the environment, I'll grant that, but considering the pollution in this place is it really doing the clothes any good to be hanging out there?

*speaking of hanging outside, this whole hang out the futon and blankets thing bothers me as well, can you picture some american housewife dragging the king mattress out onto the patio to air out? supposedly according to my nurse mother in law who should know these things our bodies perspire a glassful of water every night. okay fine, i can see why airing out might be a good idea....

*HOWEVER, if this is true, why don't they see that perhaps they should take their shower/bath in the morning instead of at night, i don't know but if i'm oozing a glassful of sweat each night I'll be damned if I'm not going to clean myself in the morning.

*speaking of baths, my in-laws think it's weird that I'll put on clean socks after my bath and wear them to bed, they think it's kitanai. huh? if the socks are kitanai, why the fuck are we so concerned about the shoes then? i don't get it.

*this isn't concerned with cleaning, per se, but it relates to that conservation thing: do all japanese obsessively unplug their appliances after using them or is it just my family? it drives me bananas that everytime i want to use the coffee maker or the microwave or the rice cooker I've gotta search for the plug dangling somewhere. Again I know this stuff ain't cheap but how much current can pass through the outlet when the device is turned off?

comments anyone, am I off-base here?

[Harvey]

And what the *HECK* is up with leaving the freakin window open in the bathroom... even in the middle of the *freakin* winter!?

Come on! My balls are cold enough already since the rest of the freakin house isn't heated! Close the window for dougs sake!!!

MAN!

[kamome]

I have to say I am IMPRESSED with this rant, because I have gone through the same thing, and I know how he feels.

*speaking of baths, my in-laws think it's weird that I'll put on clean socks after my bath and wear them to bed, they think it's kitanai. huh? if the socks are kitanai, why the fuck are we so concerned about the shoes then? i don't get it.

Not only do the Japanese think it's kitanai, they think it's "dasai". Here's a hint: NEVER go to bed with a Japanese girl while wearing your socks. I learned my lesson after being laughed out of the room once for doing that; it completely spoiled the mood. No matter how, um, excited things get, be sure to take off your socks before getting it on.

*naturally we don't have a drier and i'm not desperate to buy one, i don't miss home that much and besides where the fuck would we put it. BUT, don't try to tell me that hanging the clothes outside is somehow better for them. it may be better for the environment, I'll grant that, but considering the pollution in this place is it really doing the clothes any good to be hanging out there?

Alright, I have finally "solved" the washer/drier problem. If you have the cash (about US$1000), you can buy a washer that has a drier built in, so that it is a single unit that automatically switches to dry mode after the wash cycle is done. Granted, it takes much longer to complete the dry cycle--4 to 6 hours--but I just make Saturday mornings my laundry time and let it go through the afternoon. NOTE: NEVER hang your clothes outside on the balcony if you live in a big city. The pollution in the air will turn your fresh, white linens into soot-covered rags. Japanese companies apparently realize this, as at least one company markets a "heya-hoshi" (hang in the room) type of laundry detergent so that you can get that "outside fresh" smell without hanging your laundry outside.

*first of all, I hate the concept of the genkan

I have to say I'm with bikkle on this. The genkan is an awesome architectural device to keep the house clean. I now take my shoes off in the US as well, and even tried to maintain a make-shift genkan near the front door when I lived at home (ok, so I'm a f*ed gaijin). Of course, I do break the rules in my Japanese apt. when I have to run back in to get something I forgot (my keitai, sunglasses, a pen, etc.) But now, my genkan is like my desk at work: I keep alot of stuff there on the shelf for storage and easy accessibility.

*HOWEVER, if this is true, why don't they see that perhaps they should take their shower/bath in the morning instead of at night, i don't know but if i'm oozing a glassful of sweat each night I'll be damned if I'm not going to clean myself in the morning.

Yes, this is a disgusting habit among the Japanese. Have you ever smelled a train full of sweaty oyaji salarymen in the morning during rush hour? Ugh, talk about a gag reflex. The combination of their night sweat and dirty, unwashed nether regions creates a pungent foul odor that magnifies as the day wears on. Sorry for the nasty imagery.

Glad I got all that off my chest......

[kamome]

By far, the funniest emoticon I've ever seen. That's not in the list of available emoticons is it?

[sukebekuro]

Well, I actually like the genkan. Of course, I usually take off my shoes around the house back in the US too. As for not breaking the rules, you're a Gaijin for God's sake! Why don't you just leave your shoes on every once in a while to grab whatever you've forgotten? Trust me, it's very theraputic. BTW, don't do this around Japanese or more culturally sensitive Gaijin.

well, this is my point, I want to be able to break the rules around Japanese, what's the fun of doing it by yourself . Like I said, I don't have a burning desire to wear my shoes in the house, either here or in the US, it's just the idea that you can't, no ifs ands or buts. That's what irks me.

Even if you do wash the sheets (you DO wash the sheets, right?), there must be a certain level of accumulated seepage in the matress over months and years. Pretty disgusting if you really think about.

This made me think back a couple of months to when I was selling off my furniture in the states, including my bed which I had used for almost 3 years, of course never dragging it onto the firescape to air out. No wonder it was so fuckin heavy carrying it down the stairs. Little does the woman who bought it off me know that she really purchased a water bed of sweat. And yes, I do wash my sheets.

You have to let your feet breathe at night, after they carry you around all day.

I don't know, give me proper heating and perhaps I'd do otherwise. And anyway, my lazy deadbeat fucked gaijin ass ain't doing anything but sitting at the computer all day long, these feet don't need to air out.

Funny about the socks in bed re: getting one's groove on, I'm pretty positive I wore socks to bed the first time me and the missus visited a love hotel in Shibuya some 5 years ago, I guess there are some Japanese who don't think it's "dasai".

Not all Japanese do this, but I do know people in the US who also do this with smaller appliances (toasters, coffee makers, etc.). A a few years back, I saw a US news story on how leaving appliances plugged-in actually does use current and waste electricity. The story especially mentioned more obvious appliances like TVs or VCRs with remote instant-on functions, but I think they were talking about all appliances.

my wife must have seen the same story, cause she keeps saying the same thing. It just bugs me in my house because there's no consistency, as they don't unplug the tvs and various other appliances.

I think the consistency thing is what bugs me in general, being told on one hand that certain things that us gaijin do are "kitanai" but not stopping to realize and examine some of their own practices (such as the aforementioned lack of showering or hanging out the laundry to dry in polluted air) are just as kitanai.

Lest anyone think I'm going to have a nervous breakdown about this or any other bit of culture shock, i'm doing fine with this, obviously i don't stay up nights worrying about this shit, but I do observe and I do like to call it as I (and perhaps no one else) sees it, and besides, I need to vent, and can't to my poor wife who has enough to worry about running interferance between me and my mother in law.

[sukebekuro]

you got to step up out of your shoes into the house, without stepping in the genkan in your socks.

well, with lace-up shoes I'm afraid that's a balancing act I just can't accomplish.

speaking of this, this week went for a job interview, and completely missed the makeshift genkan (ie. a shoe rack in the hall)...I think about 5 employees stood up at once pointing to my shoes to alert me to my faux-pas.

I also get in sh*t if I put something on the floor of the car, that is the same as the ground.

sheesh, thank god my family doesn't seem to worry about that one!

[kamome]

They are totally into all this "keeping it clean" stuff, but they hardly ever use soap when washing hands, and no driers. After going to the "toilei" I think thats really disgusting.

You haven't seen the worst until you've gone into the men's bathroom at a train station. No handwashing at all. The floors in Japanese homes may be clean, but other surfaces are extremely suspect. If I can help it, I never touch any public surfaces with my hands (elevator buttons, subway straps, escalator rails, etc.) I've even invented new ways to keep my balance on the train without grabbing the straps. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I prefer paranoia to touching the residue of other people's bodily waste.

[cstaylor]

Vitamin C my man. Keep that immune system running at full steam.

[kamome]

Too late; I've been popping penicillin for a while now to try to knock out a case of bronchitis. I guess my paranoia doesn't protect me from airborne germs....