A Few More Unexpected Things About the Apartment
July 14th, 2007
- Bugs. After having opened the balcony doors for a certain period of time, we find ourselves besieged by one specific type of insect, a tiny, quiet, flying insect that slowly weaves around your head. People who have lived in Japan in the summer know what I am talking about. These things are relatively easy to kill–you can’t get them every time but more often than you could a mosquito or housefly–but there are so damn many of the things, they seem to keep coming and coming no matter how many you kill.
- Altitude. I knew we were high up, but did not expect the fact that riding the elevator up to our floor would be enough to make your ears uncomfortable. Luckily, I have the ability to open my eustachian tubes really easily and so can equalize fine. Sachi reports no discomfort herself.
- Garbage disposal. I’ve never seen this before in Japan, and it’s pretty easy here. There’s no external switch; you just put in the stopper for the drain and turn to the right. This drainstop-switch feature also guarantees that you won’t accidentally drop a piece of silverware, a ring, or your finger in the drain while the blades are going. Furthermore, it’s quiet and efficient.
- Cost-cutting. Sachi mentions that it appears the makers of the building did a good job overall but cut corners in a few places. One is the bath room mirror; aside from not having a defogging mechanism, it just seems kind of cheap. Another is the air conditioner in the living room. It’s cheap, not very strong (Sachi’s is way stronger), and just this morning started dropping ice and water on our TV set.
I’d invest in screens for the doors as quickly as possible. If one thing can get in, anything can get in. If we didn’t have screens, your brother wouldn’t let us open our windows because of the possibility of mosquitoes getting in.
I guess the situation with the air conditioner is going to require you to move your T.V. You can’t be too cautious about water on electrical appliances. I do wonder if perhaps the drainage isn’t set up properly for it. Are you going to complain and have it looked at by the superintendant?
We’re still going for the screen doors right away, but in the meantime we discovered that the flies didn’t get in via the windows most likely. Sachi noted that they seemed to “like” the plants… and when I examined the plants closely, the dirt was crawling with tiny versions of the bugs. It would appear that Sachi’s plants were infested before we moved here, and eggs have been hatching in the soil. We just bought some bug spray at Sunshine 60, and so will try to get them rid of bugs that way.
…or maybe we’re not going for the screen doors. It appears that, in their infinite wisdom, the people who designed this building did not allow space for screen doors–which means that to add them will require special construction, which will likely cost a very large amount, in addition to what the building managers say we will have to pay to compensate for the structural damage/changes. Very bizarre decision on their part.
Hopefully, the bug problem is fully a matter of the plant soil, and we can open the doors and windows without risk of bugs getting in….
I’ve heard stories around the campfire about garbage disposals with the lid-type switch in the U.S. They’re pretty rare, but you can get them in the U.S.
It sounds like the AC has a plugged up drain or isn’t level. It really shouldn’t dropping ice either. Air conditioning should be removing moisture from the apartment, not depositing it on your electronics!
You may want to consider alternatives to screen doors then. One possibility is attaching mosquito netting to the doorway in some non-destructive fashion (tape, velcro, a tension rod) and using it as a temporary covering during the warmer months. Of course, it won’t work very well if it’s windy because it’ll blow around. You can get netting from amazon.jp for about 5000 yen but they’re a lot cheaper from the U.S. I must say that not having screen doors really makes leaving the doors open less appealing.
I guess the fact that the bugs were in the plants is somewhat helpful but bugs will still fly in, particularly once the building fills up and other people who bring in their own crawling pests and open their windows start “sharing”. :-p
About the bathroom mirror not having an anti-fog feature. You can now buy window cleaner with anti-fog solution, as well, Tokyu (Tokyo) Hands has in the auto area anti-fog solution. The cheap and quick way is to put a small amount of shaving lotion or gel onto the mirror, wipe in a circular fashion with a cloth, flip the cloth and wipe until clear. This needs to be done every couple of weeks to be totally fog free.
Cheers, Steve
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I thought you were on the 20th floor. Dont even bother with screen anythings. I live in a 15 story bld and bug level is about 3 and 4th floor. Above that they are rare. Plus I live in inaka we have tons of bugs. You are in Tokyo. Get rid of the soil–re-pot and you should be good to go.
Steve: we got that. I’m not too impressed, myself; I have had great success just taking a dab of shampoo in my cupped hands under the shower stream for a moment, then throwing it on the mirror. After a minute, the suds have mostly fallen away and the mirror remains nice and clear.
Shari and Matthew: we’ll probably do the no-screens thing for a while, now that we’ve identified the bug culprit as being the plant soil. The spray seems to be working OK so far. There was a fairly big bug on the balcony just today–but it was probably blown there by the typhoon winds.