Laundry + daily life
So last weekend I went to Nagoya to visit my uncle and his family. Even though their family is completely Chinese, it's funny to see how based on where you live, you look like the locals. For example, my cousins who live in Taiwan look like their Taiwanese; my brother looks like an ABC (American Born Chinese) and my cousins in Japan look soooo Japanese. Nagoya was an adventure. Ate lots and lots of good food such as unagi don (eel rice) and pasta. I've also learned that in order for me the survive, I need pictures on my menus. Not being able to see pictures is horrible because it would be almost like drawing a lottery. Haha.
Orientation for the school was horrible. The placement test was really something. It was split into 3 parts: easy, a little hard and hard. The easy section was easy, but the little hard section completely killed me. I always thought that since I'm already in third year level Japanese, the highest one at my school, I would know a good amount of Japanese. However, this is completely not sure. The "a little hard" level was bringing up phrases that I had never heard before!! Yappari, my friend who had come to Japan before was right. You think you know a lot before you come, and then once you do, you realize there's oh SO MUCH more that you could never imagine.
Yesterday walking back, I decided to pick up my copy of Sakura Girl!!!! I haven't opened it yet, though I remember they announced something special for those with a cell phone. I guess we'll find out soon!!! :)
Anyway, so to the main topic of this post. Laundry.
Japanese laundry doesn't make sense to me. For some odd reason, the norm in Japan is to not use driers. Instead of using driers, they hang it up on string to air dry. My friends did laundry last week and spent 100 yen x 4 to try to get their laundry to dry. This equates to 2 hours of drying, but it still did not end up drying everything. Learning from their mistakes, I decided to try and figure out a better way to do things. After washing the clothes, I popped it in the drier for 30 mins and then took it out to hang dry. By the way, Japanese washing machines are so tiny that I had to use 2 machines! Haha. Anyway, so after that, I took it out to hang dry and then 24 hours later, I put it back in the drier. Most of the clothes were already dried by then, just a little damp in some areas. After another 30 mins of drying, the clothes came out, a little drier and smelled a little nicer. I guess it worked out okay, but basically, $4/load. Use laundry machine sparingly. Haha.
So this is what doesn't make sense to me. If you hang dry your clothes all the time, don't your clothes get hard? As in, doesn't it feel like cardboard rubbing against your skin? Also, since Japanese people like to wear nice clothes, I'm pretty sure drying the clothes somehow will not make the clothes feel as good to touch. Or am I just missing something here that I need to get for my laundry. Haha. You guys must understand, in the States, I just put everything in the drier and everything came out smelling nice and feeling good against the skin. So what should I do now?
Also, in the summer when it gets all muggy and moist, and especially during rainy season, why would they still decide to hang dry their clothes??? Wouldn't it take longer to dry because of all the moisture in the air? And since it's wet, would mould start growing on it?? (Speaking of which, I think there's already mould starting to grow on my tatami!!!)
Anyway, the score for my Japanese level comes out I think today or tomorrow. Looking at my schedule of very limited classes I can take, looks like Tuesday will be the worst. Class from 9-6:15pm with a 1 hour lunch break and 15 mins between classes. We have to take a total of 6 classes here in order to fulfill the minimum requirements of units for the semester.
I also met more Japanese students who volunteered to help us today with alien registration. That of course was epic fail because the offices were too crowded and they couldn't handle that amount of students (~75). So then we were told to come back tomorrow or asap and then register. It was stressful enough trying to fill out all the forms, but to see that we'd have to wait until another time is very annoying. We have a busy schedule everyday, but hopefully we get it done soon.
Tomorrow is nomihoudai (all you can drink) with the volunteers and other friends! :DDDD Can't wait!
Orientation for the school was horrible. The placement test was really something. It was split into 3 parts: easy, a little hard and hard. The easy section was easy, but the little hard section completely killed me. I always thought that since I'm already in third year level Japanese, the highest one at my school, I would know a good amount of Japanese. However, this is completely not sure. The "a little hard" level was bringing up phrases that I had never heard before!! Yappari, my friend who had come to Japan before was right. You think you know a lot before you come, and then once you do, you realize there's oh SO MUCH more that you could never imagine.
Yesterday walking back, I decided to pick up my copy of Sakura Girl!!!! I haven't opened it yet, though I remember they announced something special for those with a cell phone. I guess we'll find out soon!!! :)
Anyway, so to the main topic of this post. Laundry.
Japanese laundry doesn't make sense to me. For some odd reason, the norm in Japan is to not use driers. Instead of using driers, they hang it up on string to air dry. My friends did laundry last week and spent 100 yen x 4 to try to get their laundry to dry. This equates to 2 hours of drying, but it still did not end up drying everything. Learning from their mistakes, I decided to try and figure out a better way to do things. After washing the clothes, I popped it in the drier for 30 mins and then took it out to hang dry. By the way, Japanese washing machines are so tiny that I had to use 2 machines! Haha. Anyway, so after that, I took it out to hang dry and then 24 hours later, I put it back in the drier. Most of the clothes were already dried by then, just a little damp in some areas. After another 30 mins of drying, the clothes came out, a little drier and smelled a little nicer. I guess it worked out okay, but basically, $4/load. Use laundry machine sparingly. Haha.
So this is what doesn't make sense to me. If you hang dry your clothes all the time, don't your clothes get hard? As in, doesn't it feel like cardboard rubbing against your skin? Also, since Japanese people like to wear nice clothes, I'm pretty sure drying the clothes somehow will not make the clothes feel as good to touch. Or am I just missing something here that I need to get for my laundry. Haha. You guys must understand, in the States, I just put everything in the drier and everything came out smelling nice and feeling good against the skin. So what should I do now?
Also, in the summer when it gets all muggy and moist, and especially during rainy season, why would they still decide to hang dry their clothes??? Wouldn't it take longer to dry because of all the moisture in the air? And since it's wet, would mould start growing on it?? (Speaking of which, I think there's already mould starting to grow on my tatami!!!)
Anyway, the score for my Japanese level comes out I think today or tomorrow. Looking at my schedule of very limited classes I can take, looks like Tuesday will be the worst. Class from 9-6:15pm with a 1 hour lunch break and 15 mins between classes. We have to take a total of 6 classes here in order to fulfill the minimum requirements of units for the semester.
I also met more Japanese students who volunteered to help us today with alien registration. That of course was epic fail because the offices were too crowded and they couldn't handle that amount of students (~75). So then we were told to come back tomorrow or asap and then register. It was stressful enough trying to fill out all the forms, but to see that we'd have to wait until another time is very annoying. We have a busy schedule everyday, but hopefully we get it done soon.
Tomorrow is nomihoudai (all you can drink) with the volunteers and other friends! :DDDD Can't wait!