Details. Most Japanese homes have running hot and cold water. (What! Do you mean there was a time in the recent past when they didn't?) Until we moved to our house 16 years ago, our hot water in the apartment came from a heating element over the kitchen sink and another heating element attached to the bath tub. They were separate. When I moved to our house in Nikko I felt I was the very modern housewife because I now had running hot and cold water heated by kerosene. Since then we've even upgraded further and our water is heated by gas. With a flip of a switch (there is still a switch that I turn off at night and turn on again in the morning) I can get hot water in our kitchen, in our bathroom sink and in our shower and bathtub. Heaven!But... No hot water for washing our clothes. That is still in the baby stages in Japan. I don't think that many washing machines can get hot water. All clothing is washed in cold water and sometimes they don't get all that clean. There are times when you just need hot water right? Well, just on the other side of the laundry room (washing your face room) door is the bathtub. And that bathtub has been filled with piping hot water the night before! And Japanese bathing customs favor filling a tub with very hot water, family members taking turns using the bath water and leaving it clean for the next person. And there is a lovely little bathtub lid that is insulated and will keep the bath water hot (for the most part) until the very last family member has finished his or her bath. And then the hot bath water sits there.
Some inventive person said "Hey! That is hot water! And it is just on the other side of the door to the washing machine. And the clothes in the washing machine might like some hot water. Sooo. What we'll do is rig up a pump so that housewives won't have to use buckets and then the hot water can be put one more final use! Yes! That hose running from the washing machine across the laundry room floor, along the shower room floor, into the bathtub is a pump. More exactly it is a built in pump for bringing water from the bath tub into the washing machine. This little contraption is very ecologically sound but then again, it is a bit round-about.
So now I can get hot water to wash my clothes if Tetsu and I have taken a bath the night before. The washing machine even has a button so that I can wash clothes with bath water and rinse clothes in fresh tap water. (As you can see, we added some pink bath salts to our water last night but I rinsed in tap water so no, the clothes didn't turn pink.)Will wonders never cease!
8 comments:
It seems like Tomoko told me about this once. We are spoiled in the states with the conveniences that we take for granted every day. I am thankful for our abundance of hot water although I do most of my laundry in cold, at least a lot of it, but some is done in hot too.
I used to have a washing machine in Canada that would pump the used washing water out into a sink and then suck it back in for the next load...you always washed from whites to dark...in fact I still do that! :o)
I'm impressed that that cover can keep the water warm all night long. It does sound like a good way to conserve water. I used to wash my lights in warm water, but the last couple of years I wash everything in cold, and everything turns out clean.
Wow, I am surprised the water is still warm the next day!
They do things in strange ways in Japan. My late MIL used to have a washing machine with something called a water saver. It drained the wash water into a be laundry sink, rinsed the load in fresh water, and then for the next load sucked the sudsy water back into the machine to use, saving both water and soap. We Americans take some of our conveniences for granted.
I continue to love your blog and to learn new things about life in Japan. Living out in the country in the USA as I do we don't have city water. I have learned to be very conservative with water. I have a cistern that collects rain water from a roof. Also I love your new Wonky Quilt! Such a loving piece of work, congratulations on having finished it. I'm sure it will live on as a family heirloom so be sure and put a good label on it.
Jan in Oregon
I find it amazing that things can be so different in another country, we just take it for granted that there is both hot and cold hoses for the washing machine and we choose what we want to use!!
Your point of use water heaters in the kitchen and bath are beginning to be used in this country too, and seem like a much better idea than having a huge tank of heated water sitting waiting for someone to need hot water. Having said that, if you're going to install one in the bathroom and your washing machine is right there next door, it would seem funny not to plumb in a line from the hot supply to the washer area as well as the bathtub. Like a lot of your commenters I only wash in cold water. The laundry soaps are so much better than they were in the past, and we just don't get that dirty - no kids or messy jobs (although I can't seem to go in the kitchen without getting a spaltter on my shirt).
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