When I was growing up in Kentucky, every Monday was laundry day in our home.  My Mom and I would take all the dirty clothes to the basement, sort them by colors, and then begin to wash them in the washing machine.  If it was a sunny day, we would take the clothes outside and hang them on the line to dry.  I still love the smell of freshly dried clothes, sheets, etc.

If the weather was rainy on laundry day, the clothes were hung in the basement on clothes lines.  It usually took a day or less for them to dry thoroughly. Clothes that required ironing, such as Dad’s good shirts, dresses, or pillowcases, would be dried, then sprinkled with water and rolled up.  On Tuesday these items would be ironed.  This method worked for us during my childhood.

While in Japan this past summer, we needed to do laundry often due to the hot, humid summer weather. We often stayed with Bethany, my oldest daughter who lives in Tokyo.  She has a washing machine on her porch and no clothes dryer.  I found out that this was not at all unusual in Japan.  Most people do not have clothes dryers, only washing machines. Dryers take a lot of electricity, and there are millions of people in Japan.  If all of the people in Japan had dryers, electricity consumption would skyrocket, so it makes sense that most people hang their clothes outside or on lines inside their homes.

Not all washing machines are on the porch, but since Bethany’s apartment is a little older, the plumbing was outside for the washer and saves space inside the apartment.  It doesn’t get very cold in Tokyo during the winter, so outside plumbing works fine.Space is very important in living quarters with almost 14 million people in Tokyo.

My Dad grew up in East Tennessee, and it was not unusual to see a washing machine on the front porch in certain parts of rural Tennessee. I just didn’t expect to see washing machines outside in Japan! When doing laundry at Bethany’s apartment, I was transported back to my childhood days of laundry day.  The only thing that was a bit different was going on the porch to wash the clothes, and then using special laundry hangers to dry the clothes inside.  If it was a hot, sunny day, we took the laundry hangers on the porch and attached them to special poles on the porch especially designed for drying clothes and holding the hangers in place.

There are laundromats in Tokyo, but it was more work and expense to take the clothes to the laundromat.  We adjusted to doing laundry in the apartment, and became quite adept at the Japanese version of laundry day!