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Around the House

1) French press:

My favorite because it serves two great ends:

1. The French Press uses coffee much more economically than a drip-style machine. From my usual 200g bag (organic, free trade naturally) I used to only be able to get about 5 small pots—about one week’s worth of coffee. Now with my French press, the same bag yields about a one-month supply, at between 2-4 cups a day! At 658 yen a bag, that saves me almost 2000yen a month on coffee!

2. Hand-power. Though I admit the effect is minimal, I do save energy by using raw muscle fortitude in place of electricity. I am a proponent of changing out any household appliances that could easily be wielded with man-power—sweeping over vacuuming, hang drying/clotheslining over machine drying, more to come on this topic of appliance efficiency.

2) Appliance efficiency:

Please take a second to think about what electrical appliances you own that could run on human-power. Small as it may seem, these changes can seriously mitigate the affect your lifestyle has on the environment.

• electric/disposable razors…switch to one that relies on hand-power and stays true to reusable blades.
• use rechargeable batteries...again, it’s reusable.
• broom sweep, ditch the vacuum.
• French press instead of conventional coffee maker
• refrigerator...the number of items we actually need to refrigerate is fewer than you would think. Fresh veggies (as long as you eat them within a few days), eggs, even non-homogenized milk is ok if left out. If we buy only fresh, local foods and reduce our meat intake, the need for a refrigerator is almost entirely unnecessary.
• also, on any vacations over 4 days, unplug your refrigerator—it will give you the chance to get around to that long-needed cleaning, and it really reduces your energy bill.
• electric toothbrush…again, hand-power can do the job right.
• don’t use the toilet seat warmer…do you really need it…did you have that at home?
• when you aren’t using electronic appliances (TVs, lamps, computers, etc), unplug them! Believe it or not, just having appliances plugged in uses energy, whether or not you actually have them turned on or not. (Again, the effect is small, but if everyone makes the same adjustment, the results would be unprecedented.)
• *Ditch the kerosene heater! It’s probably the furthest thing from sustainable in your apartment, and one of my biggest gripes about Japan for two reasons:
  1. It relies on imported oil
  2. It’s a method of suicide
  Think about it––back home you’ve heard of people sitting in their car parked in the garage, all doors closed with the engine on, or a hose from the tailpipe leading back into the car with the windows rolled up––this is carbon monoxide poisoning. A kerosene heater is like a Mini-Me to suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning. It not just about the environment, it’s about wanting to live a healthy life as well. And if you are teaching at a school that uses these death engines to heat their classrooms, please approach the teachers and let them know that it’s a serious health hazard that for some reason has gone uncorrected by the entire country for far too long.

Next topic is… 3) Compost: