the fan (part 2)

So the management company called us last Monday and sent a guy to check out our fan last Wednesday

(They said that it would take about an hour)

What I was impressed with was this...this thing that has tape (green) attached to plastic film

He used it to cover areas that he didn't want to get dirty

Then he took the fan apart, measured things and took photos of things

He said that easiest way to fix it would be to get a new motor for the fan

If they cannot find a replacement motor, then they have to install a larger model, which means that we won't be able to use the shower area for a week!

Plus the panel with the on/off switch would need to be changed and we might also need a new breaker.

The second idea sounds too time consuming, so I'm hoping they can find a new motor...please send us good mojo...

the fan

In the part of the apartment that we have our bathtub & shower, there is a fan above

Well, when we moved in, the people that are supposed to clean before new tenants move in, did what I feel was a kapulu (half-a**) job (remember we found someone’s shoes?!) so it was already gross

Of course I made matters worse because I didn’t clean it either

So there was lots of “stuff” in between of the blades…eww

Well, the other night, the fan stopped working

So I put on a mask and started scraping out all the “stuff” from between the blades with a wooden chopstick

Even after doing all of that, it still wouldn’t work, so Monday morning, I emailed our building management and they called

Tuesday, a guy working on another project in our building came to take a look

He took photos to send to the higher ups and will get back to us as to what will happen

Hopefully they will be able to repair or replace the fan soon, not sure how much the fan helps but I would hope that it does keep the mold at bay.

bruh

so the knobs on the closet doors in our apartment entry way are old

dunno if it is as old as the building (40+) but they are old

and because they are plastic, well, they were already cracked when we moved in

the other day, when I opened my closet door, part of the base cracked off 

so I removed it and took it to the DIY shop to find another knob

I found one, but not the same color as the door

my plan is that whenever we move, I put back the cracked knobs on the closet door, and take the knobs that I bought with us...

I wiped the door, but the ring doesn't come off...boo!

and guess what?! "someone" still hasn't noticed that I changed the knobs..ha!

drip coffee holder

sometimes these drip filters do not fit directly on the rim of mugs.

I've often used the plastic cone style filter to stretch the drip filter over but most times the width is too large and the "legs" of the drip filter cannot "stretch" far enough to "hang onto" the filter with the weight of the heavy saturated coffee grains

Anyway, I found this gadget at the 100 yen store that is adjustable 

You place it over the rim of your mug and then just place the drip filter on top

I think it works best on the type of mug on the left rather than the American type mug on the right.

p.s. these coffees that we got in Iwate were delicious

latch bolt

Always learning something new...

The word I learned was "latch bolt"

Our latch bolt hasn't been working...the dead bolt is the "lock" on the "top"

The latch bolt is the "bottom" one that is whitish

Satoshi hadn’t noticed that it wasn’t working, but it was working before I went to Hawaii, so we weren't too sure when it stopped working.

We emailed our building management.

Unfortunately, it was O-bon, they called us to find out more info, but won't be able to do anything until after the break is over...

UPDATE: they are coming on Tuesday to check it out...Hoping they will be able to fix it on Tuesday...

docomo hikari

So...we got new routers for wifi from the reno guys...

I thought we could return our old router to Docomo...

We made an appointment with Docomo, to tell them to cancel our Docomo wifi...which is called Docomo Hikari

I dismantled the router, put it back in its box and carried it to our appointment

The guy at Docomo, was the same condescending guy as when Satoshi bought his phone..sigh

He told us, he cannot cancel our wifi, we would need to call the Service center...and he gave us their number.

So we went home and tried to call the Service center with our landline...but our phone was dead

(After dismantling the router, I had plugged the phone into that dark beige area in the photo)

Panicking.. I put the router back together, plugging the phone into that tiny slot to the bottom left that is marked with the kanji "hikari"

Doing all of this, we were able to call using our landline...whew!

When we finally got in touch with the Service Center, the woman on the other side kindly explained that Docomo Hikari is not only wifi but also telephone lines

Our landline and wifi was a fiber optic type...

She then explained that if we cancelled and only wanted phone line, we would have to have them come in to set up an "analog" style phone line (the dark beige area) and our phone number would change...sigh

Since we didn't want to have to change our phone number, we decided to just keep the fiber optic line...though if and when we need to move, we'll definitely get rid of it.

We learned a lot from this experience...small kine stressful, but grateful it all worked out. 

dish basket

Finally giving up these plastic baskets that we use to dry our dishes in.

I think MIL had given them to Satoshi when he lived in Hawaii.

We brought them back to Japan when we moved in 2001, they are a p.i.t.a. to clean, too many grooves and nubs....

As a replacement, I bought two of this type of dish dryer, from MUJI.

I also bought the plastic tray thingy to catch the dripping water because MUJI only sells the type of tray that needs to drain near the sink and I don’t have that kind of space, Daiso had them but 200 yen each.

I measured before going out to buy the basket & tray.

And checked again before buying, cause I have been known to measure and then after buying it doesn’t fit

I decided to keep this thing, so that I'd have somewhere to dry our utensils.

Though I might get the matching cutlery basket from MUJI, since it looks like it dries things better (no “walls”)

I also have this over the sink type of basket, I brought with me when I moved to Japan.

Super easy to clean and it is pretty sturdy.

To throw out the plastic baskets, we had to buy 2 seals...300 yen each because each is longer than 30 centimeters.

life hack

How many zip ties have you cut?! I have cut quite a lot.

I learned that if you squeeze the top with a flat nose plier you should be able to release the end of the zip tie and use it again.

Cool yeah?!
 

cycle tree

Most times you'll see mountains of bicycles parked nearby the train stations (this was actually orderly, a mild version)

(This one has a small fee, if it were free it would be krazy packed)
 

Nearby though, I saw this neat thing called Cycle Tree, where you drive up to the elevator door.

Punch in a code

And it "sucks" your bicycle in and parks it for you.

I'm sure there is a larger fee, but thought it was cool that you didn't have to park it yourself

13524

Went looking for Global knives with V & A yesterday.

According to A, the Global items only sold in Japan are only sold at Yoshikin in Roppongi.

After trying (many times) to figure out which way we were supposed to walk, we found the shop!

Then we went to check out Starbucks Reserve Roastery in Nakameguro.

There are 6 of these Reserve Roasteries in the world (Seattle, Shanghai, Milan, New York, Tokyo, Chicago, Mumbai)

Scan the QR code (on the building next door to the Roastery) to get a number on the waiting list.

Do not wait around the Roastery, wait for an email to let you know your number is called

Once your number is called, grab a seat if you plan to eat there.

(the waiting list number is only to get you into the building!)

If you see a tiny reserved sign on the table, it means that someone is already reserving their seat.

Then stand in line for drinks and food.

Alcohol beverages sold on the 3rd floor and also has some food items.

Tea type of beverages sold on the 2nd floor and also has some food items.

Sandwiches, coffee drinks (non-alcohol) and other items seemed to be sold on the 1st floor...

It would've been nice if instead of just a wait list to get into the building, they actually secured some seats for you too.

We were lucky to snag a table up on the 4th floor, it was a beautiful day, so it was nice to sit outside.

I tried their Arriviamo Espresso Tonic...1700 yen (tax included)

For the espresso tonic, you can choose the coffee you want them to use, I chose the Tokyo Roastery Microblend which supposedly had floral and citrus tones.

Super refreshing!

And their olive tomato foccacia...630 yen (tax included)

loved the crisp edges of the foccacia!

It was my first time checking out this Starbucks.

This shop has been crowded ever since it opened in 2019, so we've never been.

The food items are apparently made by Princi Bakery, an Italian bakery.

Not somewhere to go every day but a nice place to take guests from out of town.

Definitely be prepared to wait

Thanks for today V & A, sorry we got lost a couple of times, hope you enjoyed this adventure as much as I did.

Yoshikin

5-17-1 Roppongi, Axis Building 2F

Minato, Tokyo

Closed Sundays & Holidays

Hours: 11:00-19:00

Starbucks Reserve Roastery

2-19-23 Aobadai

Meguro, Tokyo

Open daily 7:00-22:00

byura gomu

When I came to Japan back in 2001, I learned that an eyelash curler was called a byura (be-you-rah) in Japanese

Apparently the guy that invented the Japanese model, named it so.

It supposedly meant bi-ura (behind the scene of beauty)

I was looking around for the gomu (rubber thingy) that needs to be changed every so often.

Not sure how long ago it was but I couldn't find the right size and was cutting the rubber thingy that I had bought to fit somewhat.

Recently I went to Hands (previously Tokyu Hands) and asked if they could order the right size for me, and was told that in order for them to do that, I would need to order 3 packages! I don't change the rubber thingy too often so I didn't want to have 9 of them around...

Then I looked at the maker's website, but they were gonna charge me more for the shipping than for the actual item.

Finally I found out that Yodobashi Camera could order it for me and they were even going to give me a discount! whoo!

Oh and nowadays no one uses the word byura because when I asked the person at Hands she started to bring me to the dental section...they just call it ailasshu ka-ra (eyelash curler)...ha!

egg poacher

After seeing this on a television show, I wanted to get it and finally found it at different location of Seria.

It is supposed to make "perfect" soft poached eggs, or what Japanese call "onsen tamago"...like the photo on the package

In Japan, you often see these types of eggs served with bento or at ryokan (Japanese inn), when you crack the egg into a bowl, the soft poached egg just slips out, the whites are really soft and the yolk is oozy and they are often eaten with a shoyu based sauce.

Put the gadget into the sink, add your eggs and fill the gadget up to the line with boiling water

I tried to measure the amount of water before doing this, but it started releasing the water as I was refilling my cup...anyway, I think it uses about 4 cups of water

As soon as you put the hot water in it starts releasing the water, so make sure to put it into the sink before starting!

There is a teeny hole at the bottom that slowly releases the hot water...it takes about 13 minutes.

After the 13 minutes, remove the eggs carefully from the gadget, it's HOT!

Crack the egg, like it was raw, and it should just slip out

I think my eggs were too small or maybe the 13 minutes was too long or maybe a combination of both because I had to use a spoon to get these out of the shell. 

The yolks were not oozy like most onsen tamago I have eaten in the past.

Will need to tweak the time with the size of the eggs, I think.

But I like that you don't need to fiddle with them over the stove to poach.

The Japanese have gadgets for everything.

ps this is Made in Japan & BPA free

I think the hole is 1/10 of a centimeter

This is the inside "filter"

It is removable so you can wash it.

The poacher can hold 745 milliliters (3.14 cups)

gotoku

Since moving to Tokyo, I realized I had not used my Bialetti

So I decided to use it the other day and then realized that the "spokes" of this gas stove burner must be larger than the one I had in Osaka because the Bialetti was too small to sit on the “spoke” looking thingy

So after scarily balancing it and making some espresso, I looked online to see if I could find an “adapter”.

And in the process learned a new word...gotoku

It literally means 5 virtues and also means tripod/trivet

When I looked at Hands (previously Tokyu Hands) website, they had it in stock...1650 yen (tax included)

So I put one on hold to be picked up at their store in Kawasaki

And within one hour I got an email saying that my order was ready for pick up...love technology!

The trivet is ceramic.

The smooth side is what the pot sits on when using.

The "rough" side is what secures the trivet to the "spokes" of the gas burner.

I'm glad I'll also be able to use it for smaller pots as well as the Bialetti.

gadgets

I told you about the dokodemo cap...

Well, the 100 yen store came out with something better.

Instead of having to cut a corner to “fit” the round cap...

Just cut the top off the bag and secure the "wings" around the sides of the bag.

The clear plastic cap on the top of this gadget is secure and fairly airtight.

Super easy and no fussing.

In case, my explanations weren't too clear...here's what the package shows

Japan has gadgets for everything.

 

gadgets

I was looking for this at the Daiso stores around our area and finally found it at the Daiso near my dentist's office.

It magnifies your smartphone screen, so you don't need to sit too close to watch videos.

It costs more than 100 yen though, 220 yen (tax included).

Worth it.

AND "someone" already has taken it for himself...

guess I gotta go get another one...