Won't Miss #293 - Japanese dish soap

One of the things about living in another country is that you find that they balance the strength of various products differently based on their consumers' preferences. In most cases in Japan (but not all), that means that things are watered down or weaker relative to the U.S. Dish soap is a good example of this. It is thinner, doesn't makes suds as well, and requires more liquid to get dishes

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Won't Miss #259 - absurdly fussy shopping

I shop at a very cheap green grocer (Yutakararya). In fact, in terms of produce quality and prices, I'd say that they're the bottom of the barrel, but still good for basic daily fresh food needs. No one with two brain cells would expect to find perfectly shaped, premium fruit and vegetables there. It's not the sort of place where you find $80 (7,900 yen) melons gift-wrapped and swaddled in

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Won't Miss #252 - Japanese paper towels

I don't know why these seem to be named for cow usage.
Yes, I know paper towels are the spawn of ecological evil and I shouldn't use them. That being said, considering the fact that I can only do laundry in cold water, I'm not exactly in a position to be cleaning greasy rags or getting germy ones clean and sanitary. I really have little choice but to use paper towels for things like cleaning a

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Won't Miss #210 - Japanese laundry soap powder

This may be an issue for me mainly because I have always lived in Tokyo, but I have never had good experiences with Japanese laundry powder. There are several problems that I have with it. The first is that it doesn't dissolve in the cold water that you have no choice but to wash with. The second is that it always draws damp before I can use even a small box up. Invariably, I am left with large,

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Won't Miss #186 - bleaching everything

The Japanese are obsessed with keeping things clean and new looking. That means that they see ordinary wear or mundane staining as unacceptable. To this end, they seem to think pouring bleach all over everything is good. At my office, coffee and tea cups were regularly bleached en masse, as were tea pots. The office manager even tried to bleach dirty trash cans (which didn't work as they

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Won't Miss #175 - shopping carts for kids

In the U.S., there are big shopping carts and you can seat your kids in a section of the cart. There were no carts which are small and specifically designed for kids to push around and load purchases into when I lived in the U.S. In Japan, at least a third of the supermarkets I frequent have the equivalent of a cart which is pushed around or primarily designed for the kid to drive (often alone).

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Will Miss #171 - love of "Downy"

One of my students is always happy when she comes to her private tutoring session in my apartment just after I have done laundry. The reasons she likes this is that I happen to use Downy fabric softener (as it is cheap in gigantic bottles at Costco). She loves the smell of Downy, and she's not alone. An import shop not too far from my apartment has a huge sections up front of nothing but fabric

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