At the intersection of Japan’s famously miniscule apartments and the trend toward living alone o-hitori-sama style thrives a market for the world’s tiniest appliances. Some of them are silly, some of them create more work than they save, and some are actually useful. Which are which? You decide!
The World’s Tiniest Iron
How long it might take to press an entire shirt with an iron that would fit in the palm of your hand is anybody’s guess, but at least it would be ironed perfectly, right down to the wrinkliest corner of the narrowest pocket. (Joking aside, if you sew, you know: this tiny iron might really come in handy when pressing certain miniature projects, especially if they’re made on…
The World’s Tiniest Sewing Machine
Whether you’re panic-mending a rip in your pants or whipping up a new cosplay outfit on your lunch break, the world’s tiniest sewing machine is a mighty midget that’s small enough to fit in your handbag, so you can sew anytime, anywhere.
The World’s Tiniest Dishwasher
Only the rarest Japanese luxury apartments come with a dishwasher (since traditional Japanese ceramics, lacquerware, pots and pans have to be washed by hand anyway) but if you’re an overworked o-hitori-sama who’s embraced a life of Nitori plates and Cup Noodles, you might prefer to deal with your three dirty dishes the automatic way.
The only downsides to the world’s tiniest dishwasher are that you have to fill it up with water like a coffeemaker, and wait, um, an hour and a half for it to clean your dirty plates, plus another hour and fifteen to dry.
And small though it is, the counter space next to the sink in a typical Japanese kitchen isn’t much bigger than a cookie sheet, so if you son’t have real estate grand enough to keep it next to the sink (so the hose can drain the dirty water), you’ll need that attractive bucket accessory too.
The World’s Tiniest Washing Machine
Not only is this the world’s tiniest washing machine, it doesn’t require any power but elbow grease to get the world’s tiniest loads of laundry spanking clean. Get your workout and clean clothes at the same time!
I suspect they might be a bit optimistic about the number of t-shirts and dress shirts that might actually get clean in a drum that’s not much bigger than a basketball (unless of course they’re baby t-shirts and dress-shirts) and they do gloss over the fact that draining the wash and rinse water is a process even more manual than the washing.
Does it beat swishing them around in your sink? You decide!
The World’s Tiniest Dryer
One thing Japanese apartments never have is clothes dryers. While many abodes now feature a spot to install a washing machine, few make allowance for a dryer (or any way to vent one), so everyone still lugs bulging IKEA bags of wet clothes to the local coin laundry every wash day.
Unless, of course you own the world’s tiniest dryer! It even comes with a bonus shoe drying attachment.
There’s only one teensy fly in the ointment: in order to clean out the lint, you have to take the entire thing apart.
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The last thing Birdie needs is to turn her life upside down solve a murder that was committed before she was born...
Birdie is a true daughter of the pleasure quarter, the chosen apprentice to Yoshiwara’s number one queen of the night. She’d rather do anything than derail her future life of wearing opulent robes and entertaining lords of the land. But when her search for the mother she never knew takes a dangerous turn, she finds herself with an impossible choice: betray her own flesh and blood, or live the rest of her life being hunted by a powerful man who won’t stop until they’re both dead…read more
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Jonelle Patrick writes novels set in Japan, and blogs at Only In Japan and The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had
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