Energy/water use in Tokyo?

7 comments

1. Showering for 10-20 minutes seems normal.
   Hair dryer is dependent on how long your hair is.
   I only dry clothes outside. Washing clothes everyday is normal enough. When I shower I use a squeegee to wipe down the extra water in the shower room, but also keep the exhaust fan running to dry things out.

   Do you live in Tokyo? Such specific questions that mostly come down to personal preference and lifestyle needs.

2. I’m gonna take a wild guess, is this your first time living alone away from the family?

   —

   My background is I’ve lived in a tropical country where every day is summer.

   Shower for 30 minutes: we had people with long shower session, but 30 minutes JUST for shower (no teeth brushing, no applying conditioner that you need to wait for several minutes, etc.) is not normal.

   Use hair dryer for 30 minutes: you drying your bedsheet?? Because that is definitely not normal.

   Use dryer just for a couple of items: not normal for me. We have this thing called the sun. Or even when you live on the first floor and sunshine is blocked by the building next to you, that is not normal.

   Laundry every day: if there are at least two people living together, then it is normal.

   Also back in the tropical country I mentioned before, people do shower twice a day. How do you keep the bathroom dry? Well, when things get into contact with water they’ll become wet. Either you accept that fact or you simply wipe it every time you use it.

3. How to life.

4. Keep the fan in your bathroom running constantly.

   Try and cut down your shower time. Don’t brush your teeth in the shower. You are wasting power and water. (Wasting and running up bills!) In the summer you can run water over yourself for 1-2 min. Stop it. Soap up. Strat the water again.

   Use a squeegee to wipe away excess water and get 3 or 4 ¥100 towels from Daiso. Pat down/dry off the corners, surfaces and tiles in your bathroom. This will prevent mould. It might take you 5 more minutes to do this. But it helps with cleaning time, no issues with getting a deposit back and your health will love you.

   It takes me about 3 days to get enough dirty clothes to load my washer. My washer is cold water only. So I run a shallow bath of 60 degree water with a few drops of clothes detergent in it and throw the dirty clothes in for a bit, swill them round with a stick and wait until the water has gone cold. This helps make the clothes cleaner.

5. >shower for 30min + use hair dryer for 30 min

   Like letting the water run the complete 30min?
   Definitely not.
   Taking 30min inside the shower room for like washing, conditioning, oiling or whatever else included? A bit on the long side I think but sure, definitely possible.
   30 min for dryer seems a bit long. My wife has very long hair and hates letting it dry by air so always uses a dryer after showering and including taking breaks due to it being too hot, she takes about 15-20mins.

   >use clothes dryer for just a couple of items (underwear and socks)

   Using the dryer for small batches instead of large clumps does dry them faster and the dryer will not take as long, so if it’s not just 1 pair of socks and 1 underpants or something, don’t see a problem. But honestly, especially in summer, hanging clothes outside to dry is so quick, there should be no need for a dryer.

   >do laundry every day in Tokyo?

   Depends on how many different clothes you wear in a week I guess, we wash maybe 4 times a week, sometimes 5 times with just 2 people.

   >And if you do shower twice a day, how do you keep the bathroom dry?

   We keep the shower room ventilation on mostly 24/7 and additionally wipe the shower room with one of those window wiper type of things so the water doesn’t stay on the walls and everywhere for long.

6. My shower time is about 15 mins, my sons take about 20 mins.

   We don’t shower twice a day, that seems excessive. I only use a hair dryer sometimes in winter (I’d die using one in summer 😱).

   Also we just leave the shower window and door open and the window in the small change room before the shower (脱衣所). It’ll dry in due time even during rain season. That works despite my older son showering in the morning and the rest of the family (3 people) showering at night. Of course if you have a unit bath with tiny or no windows that’s always an issue and you will have to fight with mould. Then again if you life in Japan, you can’t entirely avoid mould anyway, I just keep wiping it off with alcohol twice a year and that kinda lasts.

   We dry your clothes outside (veranda), only during rain season our house if full with hangers and drying racks.

7. OP has a posting history of asking weird shower length / timing questions 😂