Day 24

Who ever designed houses in Japan did not have the average american in mind. Take the kitchens for example: the counter (or actually the sink, their is no counter) only comes up to about the height of the bottom seam on my pants pocket. When one stands at the sink to do dishes, one must be careful at what angle one hold the plate, or one could soak oneself in the crotch repeatedly during a round of dishwashing.

Of course, while short counters are expected in a country where the average height for women in Japan is about　5 feet two inches, the kitchen cabinets are an enigma. The cabinets in our kitchen, and in most kitchens (all of the kitchens I have been in, or seen on television) start at the ceiling and come down to just about six feet from the ground ( I can just stand under the cabinets in our kitchen).　Even Melissa and I have to get a stool in order to reach the back of the cabinets. If a 5 foot 2 inch woman in japan tried to get into the back of the cabinet they would need a two foot step latter.

Another hazard of living in a traditional japanese home is that the doorways are all very low ( in the case of our house just under 6 feet tall). I know this measurement with precision because I am just under six feet tall and if I stand up in the door way, or if I am walking through a doorway without paying attention, my head makes contact with the door frame (the latter is of course more painful, and has happened a half dozen times since we moved in). As a missionary these low door frames were notorious for flooring particularly tall missionaries who werent cautious enough walking through their apartments.

I mentioned earlier that the kitchen has no counter space. There is a little , but it is more of a drying rack for dishes, and is actually part of the sink ( which incidentally is almost large enough for Callan to lie down in, and would be an olympic size pool for a new born). I wish we had a little less sink and a little more kitchen. Our stove is a two burner gas counter top stove that looks like a residental version of a coleman camp stove. The fridge, as I have mentioned before I think, holds about two days worth of produce, and is about four feet tall. We have a toaster oven, and a microwave that we think doubles as a mini conventional oven as well, but we havent tried anything out yet.

I should also mention the toilet. There is perhaps nothing that demonstrates better Japans dual preoccupation with being ultra clean and ultra hightech than the hands free automatic toilets that are very common in new and remodeled homes (including ours) and come complete with heated toilet seats, your choice of large or small flushes, and a remote control to boot. I will need more time than I have now to talk about that, so for now....Ja mata.