Laundry night

It was that time already – I either had to figure out how to run the washing machine, or buy more underwear. Although the latter thought was appealing, I had to acknowledge that it’s not really a long term solution. So this morning I very carefully copied out all the squiggles on the washing machine and presented it to the secretary like a kindergartener with her first homework assignment. I’m not sure whether to be proud or insulted that she was amazed that it was legible.

After some discussion, we managed to get it translated to something I recognized as washing machine controls. Turns out that the option of “6” or “9” wasn’t wash cycle time at all, but a timer for how many hours in the future to start your laundry. The little pictures of the half full and full buckets did correspond to water level though, so there is some sanity in my world.

When I got home, I dumped in all my new towels and started her up (European washing machines look similar and essentially boil the laundry - since American clothes don’t necessarily take too well to the experience, I figured this was a safe first load). Turns out I needn’t have bothered - Japanese washing machines (or at least this one) wash clothes in cold water. And take 2+ hours to do a medium sized load, regular cycle (unless we mis-translated after all). It’s a pretty big bucket and not much water ran in though, so maybe the electricity costs are made up for in water savings.

By 11pm, I was the proud possessor of a washing machine full of clean, wet towels ... but now what? The drying rack in the bathroom is big enough for maybe 1 towel. And as I’ve already pointed out, there is no other furniture. Standing by the back door, eating a consolation fudgesicle, I made the somewhat belated observation that all the neighbors have drying rods stuck though what I thought were plant hangers outside their back doors. Apparently I need to go back to the home center tomorrow. Until then, I’m draping the towels over all the doors and going to bed, thanking my lucky stars that I didn’t wait until my emergency pair of underwear were gone.