Pushing random buttons

Rice cooker or space evacuation pod?

We are very fortunate because Jin has loaned us a rice cooker and hot water maker from the lab. John says that he watched the crestfallen faces of the students as Jin packed them up.

Washer/ dryer

Our apartment also has a new modern washer/dryer combo- this is a novelty to me, it has one bin and supposedly can both wash and dry.

Microwave. If I push the big
red button, it goes and the white
one with the red circle, it
stops.

We have a microwave, and little air conditioners in each room. The stove top has two burners, one with a sticky uppy thing in the middle that should never ever be bent (ours came bent) and is for an unknown purpose. We also have an electronic wall switch to turn on the hot water. All of these appliances have multiple buttons, power settings, and timers. The washer has several water settings and spin speeds, plus buttons to turn on the air dryer function. Even the toilet has two settings for flush power.

I can read none of these buttons.

I managed to grab Jin for a second as he bustled us out to go shopping yesterday to try and explain the washer. I’d heard nightmarish tales of Japanese laundry machines. I thought we were getting off easily since we didn’t have a two bin type where you had to manually close valves and fill tanks and it can take hours to do one tiny load. Jin peered at the controls and muttered. Finally he pointed and said
“This button is automatic setting. You don’t worry about the other ones, just press that.”
“Really? Just this one”
“Well, ah, yes, but you have to push this one to turn on the machine first, and this button is the dryer. Don’t push that. ”
“Wait- this machine is the dryer, too?”
“Yes, but only for not natural fabric.”
??????????????
“It isn’t hot- just air –it goes for a long time. It is OK for nylon things”
Ah. Comprehension. A super long spin cycle/ air fluff combo. Ingenious, really, as is the rice cooker that you can fill the night before to have hot rice waiting for you in the morning. If you eat rice for breakfast, that is, and can understand which buttons to push, which I haven’t yet.

On Sunday morning when I finally try the washer, after purchasing detergent, laundry line and clothespins, it seems pretty straight forward. But I can’t really remember which button I was supposed to push, which I didn’t need to worry about and then there was that dryer feature. Hummm. When in doubt, push random buttons. And, it worked. Sort of. But, it didn’t seem to be working correctly, so I pushed more buttons. Hummm. That seems like a lot of water. Don’t want a flood. Better start over. More buttons. Finally success. Clothes agitating, bubbles forming. But it doesn’t drain. A watched washer doesn’t drain? I push more buttons. I try the forbidden dryer buttons. Success! It drains. But wait, did it rinse? I start over. I must have hit the automatic feature because the machine does a few dry heaves then settles on an intermediate water level. It fills, agitates, seems to stop. I push the off button then restart and do the dryer buttons. It works, and I leave it on dry for a long time. Finally after the laundry lines are up, I stop it and hang out the clothes. I put in another load and push the automatic button, and figure I’ll be here a while. I am distracted by the kids and find to my intense delight that Jin was right and if I am patient, the machine will wash, rinse and spin all by itself, without me having to push any more random buttons. I enter the Zen state of laundry. Except I am out of laundry line space and clothes pins, so I have to try the dryer again. Luckily, I have kind of figured that out.

The hot water maker

Multiply the above by all other appliances, and you will see what I have been doing with my time. Have had success so far, but I can’t say it is replicatable yet. The air conditioner remains stubbornly truculent. Microwave needs constant vigilance. I can only make rice right now, not in the future. But, so far it is looking good. I have even managed to translate some of the buttons on the hot mater maker!

Hoping for the best in Hamamatsu.