Japanese Appliances

For the record: Japanese appliances are lame. Now, considering the Japanese obsession with conservation and their tendency to small everything (small food portions, small cars, small apartments etc.) it would be silly to expect them to produce large, macho household machines. Still with the reputation they have achieved for high tech gadgetry you might think that even if small their stuff would be good. Alas, such is not the case.

The typical "range" is has two small gas burners with a miniscule smokeless grill in a tray underneath. Basically, the setup is a glorified camp stove.

Homes and apartments here are heated and cooled by small air conditioner units that sit in the windows. As a result, there has to be a separate heater in every room and it's impossible to achieve consistent heating. This problem is amplified by terrible insulation. They've got nuclear power plants and yet they can't figure out central heating and fiberglass insulation.

Their washers are small but bearable. Dryers on the other hand are small and worthless. My clothes are currently in the drier and according to the LED timer they will be done in a little under 6 hrs.

I could go on...

So far the only nifty appliances I've seen are microwaves that also work as ovens and refrigerators.