Yet to find Silver Lining

I have somewhat settled in Tokyo with more than half my things still floating across the pacific.

According to studies by University of Maryland/BBC collaboration, a United Nations thinktank (forgot the name) and some big-shot Asian research center, the Japanese are the most pessimistic nationals in the world. This is not only about the economy, but outlook in life in general. Each study verified this individually with extensive studies and surveys, at different times.

Kind of brings you down if you live there, doesn't it?
Before leaving NY, I'm thinking, okay I'm going to find a silver lining in Japan.
But I have to get hit by these studies that a friend in Washington DC sent me.
The studies have been proven to me, much on an individual level after I have arrived, starting with neighbors all the way down to the potential babysitters I am interviewing.
I desperately need prozac right now. This feeling of depression is contagious.

There is so much I am confused, irritated, and plain dumbfounded about and on top of that, I found out I don't understand half of what the people are saying.
It's like I am in a foreign country.
Wasn't I fairly proficient in Japanese? I mean, I have a husband who speak to me in Japanese!

I found something similar to FreshDirect, delivering groceries on a 2 hour window of your choice, and I realized I made a mistake when checking off the desired delivery time.
So I called customer services to ask if I could change the timeframe and the girl says yes, and she walks me through the change, reconfirming every single order I made, thanking me each and every time for each of the 30 items I ordered, and then after I finally moved delivery time to 4 hours later, she asks me if I wanted anything else, I say no, and then she thanks me for calling and informs me that they won't be able to deliver on the requested date. I am like, so what were we doing for the past 20 minutes? Did I miss something? She said something about procedure, but I just didn't understand.

I'm told at Alex's summer camp that Alex NEEDS to wear socks with his water sandals. I asked why and was told it's dangerous without socks. I asked again recently and was told he can catch a cold without socks. I am ignoring the socks order, but am wondering if I am really hearing things right.

Now onto the bright side of things.
Although they lack a lot of organic stuff, the selection of heat and eat food is amazing.
If I go to a supermarket and wanted to get a ready-to-eat-after-nuking risotto, I can find 15 types of them on the shelf.

I have already conquered 5 flavors. Still 10 to go and that is just rissotto.
They also have curry with rice, short pasta, long pasta, chinese fried rice, rice porridge etc.
There is a perpetual curry fad in Japan, and there are many famous curry restaurants.
The restaurants hook up with manufacturers, and make their own branded ready-to-eat curry, complete with rice.
I have tried out 4 curries already, it will take until September to conquer all.
There is a whole aisle dedicated to this semi-junk dish (god knows what's in them to get that shelf life!).
Since curry is my favorite food, working from home and nuking my own lunch has never been better.

Then if we move on to the fridge/freezer section, there are numerous ready-made food; all you need to do is pop it in the oven.
I have been saved with the frozen "lunch bites" that they sell.
Chicken nuggets, mini-sausages, fried fish cakes, veggie patties, rice balls, pastas, veggie derivatives that are in bite size and ready to stick in the lunch box.
They are shaped in moons, stars, cars and flowers and for Alex, who is miserable in camp, these lunch are the highlight of his day.

I went to a "western" supermarket today (named so because they sell foreign imports) and found Huggies pull-ups with "cars the movie" design on it.
Although Alex has graduated his night time diapers a few months ago, his bed and waterproof liner are still crossing the pacific, and I can't afford to have accidents on the mattress we are borrowing right now, so I am having him in diapers. He's not happy with the Japanese one so I grabbed the huggies.
At the cash register, the woman announced cheerfully that it was $40.
WHAT?
It's 21count. Not like they have 60 in them.
It's less than $20 on amazon.
I was frozen there for a while.
I went back and checked the price; she was right.
And for your reference, a single bounty roll is $5, a bottle of San Pellegrino is $4, Frito-lay chips (large bag) is $10, a GE monogram stovetop with oven that yours truly had in her rental building is 10grand (not that they sold that there) and a pedicure is anywhere from $70 to $180 (and this is just a run of the mill nail salon).
Bloody expensive.

Where is my prozac?

Brand New Washing Machine

We got a new washing machine.
It's actually a washer/dryer.
It does 2 jobs at once, well ok, not at once, but in one cycle..
We bought it to save space and time.
We were wrong on both accounts.

The space issue:
When we went to buy the machine, the shop assistant insisted on coming to our house for "estimates".
We had no idea what they were trying to estimate.
They kept saying that they had to know if the machine will fit.
We we did our own measurements and it's not like that's rocket science.
We were having a hard time wondering why they couldn't trust our tape measure.
Since we were having trouble comprehending Japanese, we conceded and allowed them to estimate (it was free anyway).

They come a couple of days later and start measuring the apartment like crazy.
The door, the size of the handles, the elevator, the building entrance.
They measured everywhere but the actual area we were going to put the machine in.
They told us the door covering the washing machine area had to go temporarily.
Apparently, with the door there, the machine was not going to go through.
So that was what they were doing.
Japanese apartments are small but their fixtures are about the same as US.
So, door handles or the thickness of doors can hinder stuff getting inside.

We agree to removing the door.
The machine arrives; the door is lying in my son's room upsetting the boy dearly.
Ken falls in love with the machine.
He watches the front loader door open and close without any annoying sounds.
He watches the drum cycling to figure out how much the laundry weighs and to calculate the amount of detergent.
He touches the sleek lines, the soft shade.
Alex, now forgetting the door in his room joins Ken.
They are both mesmerized.

So the door, can we move it?
We try to put it back, but then realize that if we do, the washing machine will not open.
The hinges of the door touches the hinges of the washing machine and if we are not very careful every single time, the loader door will surely break.
We need to have the door opening from the left, not the right.
We figure we can just put the door upside down and connect it to the other side.
But we can't.
The state of the art door is way more complicated that we first thought.
So it's there now, leaning against the wall next to the washing machine.


The time issue:
What we completely failed to grasp was the weather in Japan.
Basically, it's humid.
Hot or cold, it's fairly humid.
So, drying clothes takes extra time.
If we try to dry clothes in the same drum that was for a minute ago washing them, it's going to take considerably longer because the machine needs to dry out the drum at the same time.

We look at the control panel that looks like an airplane cockpit.

There are so many buttons and displays we don't know what to do.

One American businessman I met a decade ago insisted that American machines don't last long not because of manufacturing inferiority but because consumers don't read the owners' manual. They just guess, press buttons and screw the whole machine. He marveled at how Japanese always read their manuals from start to finish.

I was wondering if that was still the case.
The control panel screams "read the owners' manual" but we just couldn't get around doing so.
So we blindly pushed buttons, and the machine gave us a time frame.
"2 hours 45 minutes".
Nearly 3 hours for what? For washing and drying?
Have I already screwed the machine up?

So that is how long it takes.
And washing machines here are small.
You can only do about 2/3 of the amount we do in NY in one cycle at best.
So while I was doing 3 loads in New York, I have to do 5 here.
That's nearly 15 hours of consecutive use.
If the machine breaks down, it's NOT because we didn't read the owners' manual.