...in the comfort of your own apartment.
You might think that if you are illiterate in Japanese, that you couldn't take full advantage of this fact in the comfort of your own apartment. You might think you'd have to actually go outside on the streets of Tokyo to get the feeling one gets when trying trying to read Kanji. Well, you would be wrong. About the comfort part, I mean. Especially when there is an air conditioner in your apartment generating a blast of air as cold as when you open the door to a sauna with the heat turned up to 'inferno.'
Those of you that know me know that I am not a big fan (!) of air conditioning during the summer. This is due, in part, to the fact that the A/C is set to 'Arctic Winter' in my office. After a full day of Arctic Winter, I'm ready to enjoy some solar heating.
Here in Tokyo, just about all of the office buildings that I have entered have their air conditioners set to 'Lets not tick off the global warming alarmists'. If you enter these office building while calm, cool and collected, then you will remain that way. However, if you have walked on the streets of Tokyo for more than five minutes, especially during the rainy season, it will take until lunch time to feel calm, cool and collected - and that is if you've brought a change of clothes.
This past weekend, I was ready for some really cool air. and thought that turning on the air conditioner in my apartment would be a good idea. There is a display on the remote and I counted 13 buttons on the remote control, but none on the air conditioner itself. I did figure out a way to turn on the air conditioner and one button for changing the temperature. With the setting at -5 degrees Celsius, the air conditioner was pumping out air that felt like the afore mentioned 'inferno' setting. But, that was the best I could do, aside from getting the air conditioner to beep and flash alternating green, yellow and red LED lights. The Kanji characters did not help me in the least. And, unlike in Japanese restaurants, where there are pictures of the food on most menus to help you decide what to order, there was no picture of a snowflake or a cold breeze, or even a flame. Nothing. I suffered in silence, and in the comfort (!) of my own apartment.
Armed with a camera, I took a picture of the remote control and asked two people who were fluent in Japanese and English to help me understand how to use the remote to cool off. I had to be sure that I was getting the proper information, so one interpreter was not sufficient - not during the rainy season, at least. It turns out the blue button I used to turn on the air conditioner was the 'heat' button. The really critical button is the 'shift of operation' button and the 'power of breeze' button were also very helpful. The temperature was not -5 degrees Celsius, but I was able to remain calm, cool and collected while actually getting some sleep last night.
Tonight I'm going to experiment with the 'health cool' setting. I hope it doesn't make me (Pocari) sweat like I've been working out at the gym.
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4 comments:
This is the coolest post yet. I'm gonna show it to Rose.
Even when I have traveled to Europe it is universal that red is hot and blue is cold. So how and why the Japanese switched these symbols around is very strange. I think that the owner of your apartment building must have bought the units from K-mart! If you check closely and you are fluent in Kanji - you will see that the unit was made in Iceland - where they never have use for cold and therefore this was likely a feature upgrade to the unit for shipment to Japan. Probably was a last minute call by the guy putting the feature on. My father once built a house where the plumber did the hookups when he was totally drunk. SO the water was hot in the toilets and everything was reversed. I think you must have got a relative of that plumber - or maybe somebody who drinks on the job . . .
My first time laughing out loud from reading one of your posts! Speaking of the "inferno" setting -- I experienced a similar treatment at the racetrack during the Belmont Stakes. People kept asking if they could take mini baths in our ice buckets and it was only a balmy 97 degrees. I also pretended to understand everything the gentleman speaking to me in French was saying! At the end of the day, it took me 2.5 hours to drive home. I could have galloped home faster on Big Brown -- poor horse. Luckily I had no time to place any bets. About next year? I have to give it a good think.
Cheers!
OK lemme ask you one thing--you are a MAN who asked someone else for instructions in another language, no less????. OK--fess up--it must've been WOMEN you asked because every MAN I know would be near death before asking another MAN for ahem help. My husband would've come home with roasted chestnuts before asking for that H word from anyone!!!!
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