Doing Laundry Wrong in Japan
How daily activities highlight different thinking between me and my Japanese wife
Doing daily activities in Japan often highlights differences in thinking between me and my Japanese wife, Yoko. I wrote about how taking medicine is different. Some of our ways of thinking may stem from our cultural, gender, or personal differences. Doing laundry is one example.
Yoko and I often do laundry together in the morning. We have a typical Japanese washing machine that spins the clothes to remove the water. The washing machine is actually a washer/dryer all in one, but the focus is on the washer. The dryer takes about four hours to warm up 2–3 shirts and 2–3 pairs of socks. Forget about drying. The drying solution, and this is for many Japanese households, is to hang the clothes outside on long poles on the veranda.
When using our old washing machine, I pushed the power ON and needed to get to the “fast” speed. To do this I pushed about five times to get to the “fast”, and Yoko often yelled, “Push it slowly. You’re going to break it.” Of course, my answer was, “OK” as I continued jamming the buttons.
With the new washing machine, I only need to push three times: ON, our special wash, and START. So, now it is beep, beep, beep, instead of ON, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep and START.
The interesting part comes when I hang the laundry outside. Yoko often helps me. Typically, I hang the socks and underwear on small hangers and the shirts and sweaters on the clothes hangers. Yoko hangs the towels, pants, and undershirts on the bars outside. I start by putting the shirts on the hangers in the house. This is done roughly, just to get them on the hangers. I plan to straighten them out once I hang them outside. As soon as I hang a shirt up that is not yet straightened, Yoko will immediately point this out.
Yoko: The shirt is not straight. It won’t dry.
Scott： I know. I just put it up. I will fix it.
Yoko: I always have to fix these shirts because they won’t dry.
Scott: I will straighten out the clothes later.
Yoko: You can’t even do the laundry right. You need to straighten the clothes on the hangers, so they can dry quickly. You have arms tucked in and socks rolled up.
Scott’s comments
This conversation has been going on for at least 20 years. In the U.S., I just jammed all the clothes in the dryer. Here in Japan, either we are not listening to each other or Yoko has some strong beliefs about shirts being perfectly straight before they leave the house to be hung up outside on the veranda. In fact, even if the shirts are not exactly straight, most of them do dry, except for the long-sleeve shirts with arms not stretched out. I also agree that when I put up socks that are rolled up, they do not dry well. I need to be careful of socks and long-sleeve shirts.
Yoko’s comments
While I appreciate Scott helping with the laundry, he just has no sense of doing laundry. He practically destroys the machine by jabbing at the buttons. In fact, it did break once, and we had to have it fixed for about $60. Scott’s fault? I would say “yes”.
As for hanging laundry up, all he has to do is think. However, it appears he has some trouble with this task. He is a creature of habit and does not change. How hard is it to put a shirt on a hanger, shake it to straighten it out, and hang it up? He has a Ph.D. in Education, but he cannot do laundry.
Conclusion
I am not sure if the way we hang laundry is influenced by where we were raised, gender, or individual differences. Maybe all. We all have varied ways of doing everyday activities, such as laundry, so we need to be aware of these differences and accept them, as long as they are effective.
The author writes about miscommunication around the world with a focus on Japan, where he lives with his Japanese wife. Author of Snapshots of Yoko’s Intercultural Conversations: https://amzn.asia/d/50xaXTt
