Home Electrical Appliances Shopping Craze
It is easy to forget that you have to purchase a whole new set of electrical appliances when you move to a foreign country. My husband and I never had to worry about it when we moved within the US. That may be why it slipped my mind. When we left the US, I wasn't thinking that we needed these things. The only electrical appliance we left was a vacuum cleaner. Or I should say I just forgot what new appliances I'd need in the country I'm originally from….
When we moved into an apartment in Japan, I noticed (or finally remembered) one big difference between US and Japanese apartments. There is no refrigerator! That’s right. You have to buy your own fridge in Japan while it’s standard for New York City apartments to already have one.
It's also common in Japan that apartment buildings outside of big cities don't have a shared laundry room, which means you need your own washing machine. I looked at the corner of the room where there's an already-built-in laundry machine tray, and sighed.
There's more. You can't even cook until you have your own stove and connect it to a gas cocktop…. I had totally forgotten, but as I recall now, it was the same way (I had to buy one) when I lived near Tokyo as a college student.
Hey, at least we brought our rice cooker. We had a very nice Japanese rice cooker which was a wedding gift from our friends. We wanted to use it in Japan too, so we packed it and brought it with a transformer. Turned out though, it didn’t work. I found out later that it is even dangerous to use a transformer for heavy duty appliances such as a rice cooker.
In a few days, I have a good shopping list of appliances. A few ceiling lights, A vacuum cleaner, a fridge, a washing machine, a stove, a rice cooker, a TV set, and a microwave. Small ones were added, too - a hair dryer, humidifiers (for each room) etc., etc.
OK, do we have everything covered? Wait, Japanese apartments and houses don't have central AC systems. It gets super cold in winter and super hot in summer. Yep, we need an AC unit for each room…. Yikes!
So off we went to a home electrical appliances store and had a shopping spree. I'm sure we made the lucky sales guy very happy. In the meantime, I was busy hunting for the best deal in each section and did some heavy negotiating.
So, these are the appliances you need to buy when you move to Japan. If you have a plan, make sure you factor those into your budget. Oh, by the way, I also suggest that you order some curtains before you leave so your privacy is protected starting the first night (especially if your apartment is on the 1st floor like ours was). We moved during the New Year, so it took extra time for my order to be processed. Eventually, we had everything we needed, and were finally settled into our new home.
We can't do without this anymore, especially with dog hair! ☟