In case you can't see the key, areas in dark blue are extremely sparsely populated (50 or fewer people per square kilometer), with the light blue being sparsely populated as well. That's a HUGE chunk of unused or unusable country! As a result, the cities of Japan are extremely densely populated. There's a huge population to take care of in a tiny space and that creates a strain on the whole supply and demand system.
Japan, as best I can tell from my study, has always lived conservatively. Space is always used efficiently and in creative ways, even in the ancient castles. Children are and were taught to eat every last grain of rice. They have embraced "waste-not-want-not" from the beginning and passed it down as a key societal value through the ages. It's really remarkable to see the million ways that the Japanese thrive on a limited and diminished supply of resources.
That being said, as admirable as it is, it comes as quite a culture shock for foreigners. Some of the changes were easy and intuitive, others less so. So today I'm going to show you a few of the scores of rules that make sure that there's enough to go around.
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Resource #1: Space
Space is a premium. Japanese homes are smaller - significantly smaller. Stores are significantly smaller. And so on and so forth. This means that not only living areas, but things necessary to daily life, need to be compact. Every little detail counts.
Take for example, my pans. We bought a set of three pans, and it came with one handle. The handle can lock on to any of the pots and easily be transferred, even while cooking over the heat on the stove. It's amazing how much space I have saved in my cabinets by just taking the handle off! It keeps them nicely organized and stack-able as well.
The beds, of course, fold up too. At night, our futons take up probably 3/4 of our bedroom, and we get almost all that space back to use in the daytime.
Before
After
A good percentage of the doors are typically of the sliding variety. Closets are designed to utilize every inch of vertical space available. Everything folds up, from tables to clothes lines to chairs and so on and so forth. Appliances are smaller. My refrigerator is only chest-high and my microwave doubles up in function as an oven. My vacuum cleaner and broom have detachable and fold-able handles. Seriously everything is analyzed and designed with the goal to be as practical as possible while also taking up as little space as possible, and it's amazing!
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Resource #2: Electricity
You pay more for utilities here because they want to encourage less usage. You use what you need and only that or you will literally pay the price.
One major way they save on electricity is doing away with centralized heating. It's really kind of clever. As nice centralized heating is, think of all the heat in your house that you're NOT using right now.
We have a heating and A/C unit, but it only reaches the living room and bedroom and only when we manually turn it on. It's expensive to run. Basically, if you're cold, put on a sweater and huddle under the blankets and/or the kotatsu. They sell small kerosene heaters that are more energy efficient, and those are popular as well.
This thing is definitely designed to give you the most bang for your buck, but unfortunately, there is still more buck than bang.
In the summer, plug in a fan and open the windows. Wear less clothes. Eat ice cream, or hang out at the local supermarket, which, if it's big enough, will have centralized A/C.
But the principle is always the same: the heating/cooling unit is the last resort after all other methods just aren't enough. Heat or cool yourself, not the room you're occupying.
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Resource #3: Gas
The water heater and stove are powered by gas. In all instances, whenever you don't want water that is whatever the temperature of the pipes are (hint: cold), you need to manually turn on the gas from a switch in the living room.
Honestly, it would be much more convenient if this switch was in the bathroom but it's not... (EDIT: Actually there is a switch in the bathroom I was just blind and couldn't read it. My life is now approximately 16% easier.)
If you forget to press this button before you take a bath or shower, you are in for a very rude and cold surprise. And yes, this has happened to me. (EDIT: NOT ANYMORE now that I found the bathroom switch!!!)
All sinks are run by the water heater, which means that even if you want to wash your hands in warm water, you need to turn on the gas. As you can probably guess, I've gotten used to washing my hands in very cold water rather than walk across the house to turn the gas on and then back to the bathroom to finish washing up. Also, the washer runs on cold water (more on the washer later). I also found out that this is why the dish washing gloves I bought were so heavily insulated...
Cold water is your friend in Japan. You get used to it. It's not so bad after about a week.
So the main gas line stays off most of the time except when you shower or bathe. There's a secondary line that powers the stove. This can stay on most of the time, but we are encouraged to turn it off if we leave the house for more than a day or so. In short, I've never tinkered with a gas switch in my life until now, and now I do it several times a day.
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Resource #4: Water
Japan is surrounded by water, 100% of which is useless. No one wants to cook, bathe, or wash with sea water. This is called irony, friends.
Japan is actually pretty rich in freshwater bodies and rainfall, so there's not a shortage per se, but again, there's a huge population and everybody needs water every day.
Baths are a huge part of Japanese society and (surprise!) they take a lot of water. Japanese baths are actually deep enough to cover your body with water and it's wonderful. The Japanese have cleverly preserved their traditions and implemented brilliant water-saving mechanisms. The tradition is that you do your washing in the shower and then use the bath solely for relaxation instead of cleaning. By the time you get in the bath, you should be clean. So since you're clean, you can reuse that water for 3 or 4 baths thanks to a re-heat button. You cover the tub and wait until you or another member of the family want to make use of that water again! I draw the line at approximately three baths per fill-up (or three days, whichever comes first). But that's triple action for the water we use.
Yeah...the concept of reusing bath water - especially for different people - kinda weirded me out at first. But it totally works. While kinda gross in theory, is not gross at all in practice. I surprised myself by totally getting over any misgivings after about one or two baths.
The washing machines are small and specially designed for water conservation. Some machines actually have a hose you can use to transfer your used bath water to wash your clothes. Reusing to the max for the win! That makes up to 4 times that you can reuse one bathtub full of water - and possibly more. Water does get old after a while.
And as proof that you can save water in the most wild, wacky, unexpected, and clever of ways, I present to you my toilet.
So the flush-dial goes two ways - hilariously labeled "big" and "little" (I'm not making this stuff up). So if you just need a little water, you can do a mini-flush. That way you're not using extra water power when you don't need it.
Also, you'll notice the faucet atop the toilet bowl? Genius. Sheer and utter genius. When you flush, the sink starts automatically and runs for a good while. You use this water to wash your hands. BUT THAT'S NOT ALL. The water falls into the toilet bowl and refills the water tank, meaning the water you used to wash your hands will also be used to power your next flush.
Also that orange thing? It's full of toilet bowl cleaner. When the water from the faucet hits it this little gizmo releases a few drops of amazing orange-scented goodness that falls straight into the water tank, the practical upshot of which is not only a nice smell, but that the water you use to flush is infused with cleaner that leaves the bowl sparkling. (Also cleanliness bubbles in the toilet water. I'm not clever enough to make any of this stuff up.)
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Resource #5: Garbage (I guess it's a waste product, not a resource.)
This one hurts. A lot. It's the one that baffles the heck out of foreigners (like me). It's so good for society but so bad for forgetful 'lil me.
Big city, lots of garbage. It's just simple math. Add in "no room for landfills" and it has the potential to be a societal catastrophe.
I expected items to be packaged using fewer materials, and in some instances I was right, but not as much as I thought. For instance, you buy a shampoo bottle the first time, and then buy refills for it that come in bags so you can reuse the bottle. That's one way to save. However, we still have gotten packages in boxes that were way too big for the item and filled to the brim with packing peanuts. Still, packaging here is probably overall more resource-efficient than America. And I'm probably missing other ways because I don't fill up the trash can nearly as often, I've noticed.
So there are a few rules for getting rid of your trash. Every living area is slightly different. These are ours:
Did I say a few rules? Sorry, I meant a HOLY COW MY HEAD HURTS ton of rules.
The biggest principle is division. Thankfully, most of the trash you accumulate in Japan goes under the category of "combustibles" (guess what they do with those?). If you can incinerate it, you can toss it without a second thought (sort of...see below). However, recycling for several types of products is not an option, it's mandatory and punishable by fines. PET bottles (plastic soda bottles, etc.), cardboard, and tin cans MUST be sorted and recycled accordingly. They also encourage you to separate out papers, newspapers, and books. If these items are found in your combustibles, you are in trouble.
And how can they tell? Clear garbage bags are mandatory so they can check you easily. No more using super-market bags as cheap substitutes for trash bags. You also can't double bag in ANY instance, even when it's as small a thing putting your hamburger wrapper and ketchup pack in the McDonalds bag and throwing them away together. Only one exception - you can put rotten food/vegetable peelings/etc in smaller, but still clear bags and seal them. This helps with smell for sure. You can dispose of non-clear bags, but they must be empty and wadded up tightly. They seriously are checking and people do get called out.
So separate your stuff. Public trash cans are few and far between, but when there are some they look like this.
Look before you toss.
So now you have nicely sorted piles of garbage in clear bags, now what?
Well, each is disposed of on a different day. For us, combustibles come on Wednesdays and Saturdays at about 8:00 A.M. You CANNOT "take it out to the dumpster" because there is no dumpster! It is YOUR trash and YOU have to keep it in YOUR house right up until the designated pick-up time and then you must promptly take it to the designated place. (I suspect this sense of personal responsibility - as well as the manpower required to sort it - is why there are so few public trash cans.) You cannot even take it out the night before. If you forget, your garbage starts to stink and you're stuck with it in the hallway. It's happened. A lot. Especially since I like to sleep in on Saturdays. I got unlucky in that way... I have to wake up at 7:00 A.M. every Saturday to take out the trash. Not a party.
So that's the basics. The bigger the stuff is, the harder it gets to dispose of. I think you have to schedule a pick-up time or something. Maybe even pay a fine. You can't just throw out that old toaster. It's HARD to get rid of old and used stuff. And it's downright weird when I break a sewing needle and have to ask my husband how to throw it away. I used to not have to think about these things!
So in short, garbage is rough. But it's what's necessary for society. There is no space in Japan for landfills. This is just a way that Japanese citizens have stepped up to keep from being drowned in garbage. And it's really smart. Downright brilliant, really. But it's also really hard to get used to.
But I have been reminding myself all day that tomorrow is garbage day and I have my alarm set. I'll be all right.
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