it's that time again

This Sunday is the Tokyo governor's and city council races...thank goodness there weren't too many noisy speaker campaign roaming around our neighborhood.

Sunday is expected to rain so the turn out might not be too great.

Still, I hope since everyone has been paying more attention to politics during this pandemic, I hope more people will turn out to vote.

Japan is still very old school, they have to write the name of the candidate that they want to vote for and each ballot is counted by hand...

Have a nice (safe) weekend.

love technology

Yesterday, it was raining heavily and the wind was howling.

While I was in the kitchen, water started "pouring" out of the air conditioner (a/c)!

I quickly turned it off, grabbed some towels and a bowl and then went online to figure out what to do.

Love the internet!

The website I found told me it that there may be a couple reasons why water was coming out of the a/c...

1. The drain hose was clogged...(I think) this is where the water that goes through the a/c to cool the air gets disposed of...on our lanai it makes a little trail of water...

2. The cooling unit inside of the a/c was clogged...

I started with reason 1...but first I had to figure out what the drain hose looked like...thank goodness for online photos!

I then went outside (in the rain) and looked at the drain hose...yup, it was buried in a little pile of dirt.

I took it out of the dirt and positioned the hose so that it wouldn't touch the dirt any more.

Then I turned the a/c (holding my breath) on again (with the bowl and towels still under it)...no drips!

So far this seems to be doing the trick!

I'm glad that the water that fell didn't damage the microwave.

And glad that the electrical outlet isn't near the wall where the water fell.

Also very thankful that this didn't happen when we were not at home (I sometimes set the timer to turn on the a/c to cool the room before we come home)

Glad the rain has stopped (for today) though it will rain again from tomorrow...will clean the dirt off the lanai...

baby steps

Starting today in Japan, plastic shopping bags will cost at least 1 yen (I have seen some shops say they will charge 4 or 5 yen, there was even a shop that was going to charge 15 yen).

This is to decrease the amount of plastic in our garbage.

Apparently though, if your plastic bag is made from 25% or more biomass, you don't have to charge for the bag...of course, a lot of businesses are trying to get on board with this type of bag...I personally don't think they should allow this type of bag, and should go "cold turkey".

Supermarkets in the past would give you 2 or more points on your point card as an incentive to bring your own bags, but I think with this new charge rule, they will probably do away with the point incentive.

I am trying to "train" Satoshi to carry a bag around with him too because he will pay for a bag rather than carry one around.

Me, I'm a penny pincher when it comes to bags and have used washable shopping bags for awhile now, so I am not too worried but will have to remember to carry more than one when going out.

Are you washing your shopping bags?  I wasn't but with COVID-19 I now wash them along with the handkerchief mask that I use that day.

During our "lockdown" I only went to the grocery store once a week but now go three times a week.

With this new plastic bag rule, I hope it will make a difference as to the amount of plastic in our garbage.

joshitsu

I found a lifesaver button on our air conditioner remote (red arrow on photo)...it is called joshitsu.

Joshitsu means dehumidifier and makes the room comfortable when the humidity is evil.

Our air conditioner in Osaka did not have this button (at least I don't think it did)

The nice thing about this button is that you can control the temperature too.

We are forecast to hit 32C (89F) with high humidity today...eep!

Hope you have a nice weekend.

cheese paste

Found this cheese paste at the supermarket recently.

Camembert cheese combined with butter to make this creamy paste.

The texture is similar to a thick fondue.

We first tried it on crackers similar to Ritz crackers but it was better on bread (toast).

I've put the other half in the freezer for us to enjoy another day.

What have you been enjoying lately?

this and that

How is everyone holding up?

We are doing fine.

The weather is wonky..days that they forecast to be rainy, turn out to be sunny...the temps are sometimes cool...

Satoshi just got word that they will have pay cuts...boo!

For his company, Japanese domestic travel is a large part of their income.

Still grateful that he still has a job and hope that domestic tourism will pick up so that their pay cuts won't last too long.

Be well everyone.

amazing

On one of my trips to the market, I noticed this building that had a grape vine, climbing up from the ground up to the 3rd story. 

So cool!