The grocery store that is closest to JCMU is called Caines Mall. Inside Caines mall there are two stores, Caines and Besia. Caines is a Home Depot like store, and Besia is more like a Meijers. Outside of the ‘mall’ is a separate building housing the Caines Electronic Store (at least, that’s what I think its called…its Caines then the kanji for electronic then another kanji I don’t know). Anyway, on a previous trip there I had marveled at all the crazy randomly tiny Japanese appliances. So on a recent trip (where I had to buy a new three to two prong adaptor for my computer, since my old one was causing my socket to make horrible, potentially dangerous sparking noises), I brought along my camera to document the weirdness. Heres the evidence:

This is a Japanese dishwasher. As you can see, it sits on top of the counter top. As you can also see, it holds about 4 dishes before its full. This dishwasher costs about $741 by today’s conversion rate. Why would you buy a tabletop dishwasher for $700+? Not sure….

This is a Japanese oven. It is the size of a microwave and also sits on top of your counter. Why there aren’t appliances that go under your counter, I’m not sure. This oven costs about $663. You can’t bake very much in this oven. Maybe this is why the Japanese have picked up every American holiday except Thanksgiving….

Here is a short video I took of a Japanese toilet. When I get back to the states and move into a new house, we WILL be getting one of these. You might think it sounds silly, but having a toilet seat that warms up……is really nice.