This new apartment has a lot of new-fangled gadgetry in it, being a modern, all-electric dwelling. Even the toilet seat is electronic, with controls for a heated seat as well as bidet and washlet (though that feature is actually common in Japan). The living room floor is heated from below; the bath room has advanced ventilation to allow for drying clothes 24/7; there’s a color intercom with the building entrance, audio-only with the front door, and emergency call buttons in the bath and toilet rooms. The intercom also alerts you when a parcel has been delivered for you and is waiting in a locker downstairs. There’s even a garbage disposal in the sink, something I never heard of in Japan before. That along with fiber-optic to the wall, ethernet ports connecting the various rooms, and a 60-amp breaker to allow for all of that–though we did actually manage to trip a breaker circuit in the kitchen during the housewarming party (we ran two microwaves in the kitchen at once).

The finishing touch is the induction-heating (IH) stove. I had never even heard of that before, but I guess it must be catching on in Japan, as I am seeing a lot of pots and pans made for IH in stores now. Though, of course, that’s likely because (a) I’m looking for it now, and know what “IH” means, and (b) it might be a bigger seller in central areas like we’re in. All I know is that, despite initial worries as to how well it would work, I like it, a lot.

Until now, I had just used “gas konro,” or gas-fueled stoves, with grill burners–a very common item in Japan. The disadvantages are clear, however–mostly in that such stoves collect grease and gunk like there’s no tomorrow. Forget about keeping them all that clean. They also take up a chunk of counter space, which is at a huge premium in Japan–most kitchens have maybe a few square feet of countertop on which you can prepare meals.

The IH stove is a joy in comparison. First, it’s flat and glass-smooth; if you spill something, just wipe it off. Cleaning is a breeze. And when not in use, it serves just fine as extra counter space–you just have to overcome your natural aversion to putting any items you feel like on a stovetop. Once you do, you find that you have tons of counter space–a luxury in this country.

Operation is simple, though we had trouble figuring it out. You switch on the power, pop out the control panel, and push a button for the right “burner” you want to activate. The button pops out and acts as a dial to control the temperature of the stove. We haven’t figured out those other buttons yet.

In order for the stove to work, there needs to be a pot or pan made of an IH stove–in effect, conductive-metal bottom, made flat enough to trip the sensor. Without that, nothing happens–no heat.

My worry was that such a stove probably would offer only feeble heat–but I was dead wrong on that count. It actually heats a pot or pan a lot faster than a simple flame burner does. Lights on the stovetop show the temperature setting:

The readings are in Celsius; it goes from 140˚ up. I love the scale: 180, 190, 200… Tempura!

Another light shows which burners are hot–and they do get physically hot, and take time to cool off afterwards–another lamp indicates that cooling-off is still in progress, so don’t touch.

The down side: we had to toss a half dozen otherwise-good pots and pans… and I still haven’t found a good pot for cooking popcorn. I found a nice steel pot, but it’s the silver-in-and-out type which gets nasty black stains if you try cooking popcorn in it. I need an IH pot with a nice, teflon-coated interior.

And we should start using that toaster underneath–we’ve neglected it, using the toaster function in the microwaves instead. I bet it’ll work right nicely.