Trash Day, EVERYDAY!

First, an update --- we have internet!!!! I feel as if I have re-entered the 21st century. Woo HOOOO!

So now that we have been in our house "out in town" (as the people who live on base like to say) for almost 3 weeks, I have started to get used to some of the quirks of living in a Japanese home. Part of this has been cramming our stuff into a much smaller space than we are used to... Please witness the pantry / laundry room / cleaning supply closet:

Another part has been quickly learning some Kanji (the symbols used in one of the 3 written languages in Japan) in order to be able to do things like flush the toilet. And the toilets! WOW - they are works of art. So much attention has been paid to something most people try not to think about at all. [I feel this says something about Japan (and about the rest of the world), but I haven't figured out what.] Anyway, you don't manually flush these toilets. They are controlled by an electric panel on the wall. There is one button for pee and one button for poop, naturally. And there are many more options than just flushing. My favorites include the seat warmer and the boy and girl bidet options:

 
In addition, the toilets get their own rooms, which don't usually include a sink. But don't worry! There is a sink ON TOP of the toilet that automatically turns on as soon as you press the flush button. Efficient AND hygienic all at once. This country thinks of everything! Check it:

One of the other things that has taken me awhile to get used to is the trash separating. Let me just say up front that, for me, the trash seems like a full-time job. First I had to get FIVE trash cans for the different types of trash that have to be kept separately: Burnable, Non-Burnable, Plastic, Plastic Bottles, and Paper.

Each day of the week a different category has to be put out.

Your trash has to be in clear bags, and if you include something in one category that should be in another, they very politely bring your trash back to you and tell you to please re-do it, thank you very much.

The real estate agent gave me a BOOKLET on what goes in which category.

And it's complicated, too. For example, if you drink bottled water, first you have to tear off the label and unscrew the cap. The cap and the label go in "Plastic" while the bottle itself goes in "Plastic Bottle".

Anyway, this has been hard to get used to, but I have to say that it has made me a LOT more conscious about "refuse, reuse, and recycle". I mean, I would rather get big bottle of juice and portion it out to the boys in their reusable cups than have to deal with throwing away 8 million juice boxes.

In our AOB class, they told us that Japan's landmass is the size of California, but that only 17% of that land is habitable. In addition, there are 127,650,000 people living in Japan. That's half of the population of the United States living in a space 17% of the size of California. I guess they just don't have room for trash.

In conclusion, trash or no trash, I am pretty much over the moon to be in our house, using internet at my own kitchen table, and looking at pictures on our walls. CHEERS!