“Rain, rain go to Spain don’t come back till washing day.” Chanting this is one of my earliest memories. This was probably induced by living on the Wets coast of Scotland where it rains every day and it is thus impossible to dry washing. My Mother must have taught me.

We always had one of these in the kitchen

I now realize that I got the lyrics wrong. Who would ask the rain not to come back, “till washing day?” You do not want rain on washing day.  It must surely be, “don’t come back on washing day.”   All these years of error.

Anyway this is a long preamble to the fact that Japanese washing machines only do cold washes.

My washing machine – only one cold water pipe. Lots of settings but none related to temperature.

I suppose this a good thing but sometimes when I have very besmirched jeans or the collars of my shirts are ringed with grime, I yearn to do a nice hot wash. I ask my Japanese friends what I should do. “Etto, just boil your jeans on the stove if you must and then for your shirts, just spend a couple of minutes washing the collar grime before you put them into the machine.” I suppose this makes sense.

The corridor to my bedroom is the best drying place. There  is a big window into the courtyard through which the sun streams.