It is nice not to have the lights go out like they used to. No, I’m not talking about living in California or New York, but rather here in Tokyo, where power outages are very rare indeed. Instead, I’m referring to the low amperage allotted to apartments in Tokyo, and how my breakers used to trip all the time.

Used to be that whenever I had an air conditioner and the clothes dryer going at the same time, then SNAP! Out the lights would go. Time to grope my way to the breaker box and switch the power back on, then to reset half the clocks in the place, and fiddle all the other settings around the apartment which got wigged out.

Eventually, I got tired of this. I’m not a big energy hog, but there are times when I want to use more than just a few appliances at a time, thank you. And thirty amps just wasn’t enough. So I called up the energy company, and it turned out they can upgrade–though in my case, only to 40 amps. Good enough; I asked them to come over, and the electrician installed the new breaker in just a few minutes.

It costs a few dollars more a month (my basic energy usage hasn’t gone up in itself), but it is very nice to be able to run the nuke wagon with the TV and cooler going and not find oneself suddenly in a dark room.; I haven’t had a single breaker trip since the upgrade.