The Fridge Incident

Day 24 Thursday2nd September

Dusty carpet

Today Shizuka decided that the carpet in the master bedroom is not up to her exacting standards. It looks ok to me but what the hell would I know? She decided to call a carpet company to get a quote to replace it.

This morning I noticed that the fridge is not working properly. Its cold in the freezer but not up top in the fridge part.  At this point I should probably relate some background detail on the fridge. When we arrived here we found a nice looking Panasonic fridge freezer in the kitchen. I open the door to check it out and then closed it as fast as I could. There was still food in it and it did not smell too good. I made a snap decision to get rid of it. Then we found out how much that would cost. Y20,000 is how much it costs. Apparently the gas must be evacuated. This must be done by a qualified and licenced professional no doubt wearing a white helmet. The fridge issue was revisited. Shizuka drew the short straw. On exploring the fridge she found that the food inside was mainly in jars and bottles and that there was nothing badly decomposed. Mercifully the freezer was empty. So then, nothing nasty like rotten meat or veggies. It didn’t smell great so we dragged it outside and stripped everything out of it. All the shelves/compartments were scrubbed with detergent and then water blasted. We put a charcoal anti odour thingy in it and let it sit open for a few days. We then plugged it in and it worked great and it smelt OK. All was good until today when I went to get some cold water from the fridge and found that there is an error code showing on the onboard computer and of course it’s not cold. A call to Panasonic was followed by a visit from a humourless technician. A quick scan of the fridge computer showed that the fan that pushes cold air into the fridge has died. I enquired as to the price of replacing the fan. The tech’s facial expression was one of shock shortly turning to disbelief when he figured out that I was actually suggesting that he repair this fridge. “Why don’t you just buy a new one?” he said. We explained the ridiculous financial cost of pursuing such a course. “But it’s 6 years old” he stammered. “ Have you got a fan in your truck or not?” I asked. Reluctantly he went to check. Miraculously he did indeed have one. I enquired if this was a common failure item which he vigorously denied , claiming he had never replaced one before. Yeah Right!! You just happen to have one in your van by pure coincidence. By now he’s figured that this crazy foreigner is serious about repairing this thing so he gets to work. After less than a minute there’s a sharp exclamation from the technician. I look over to him to see him standing well back from the fridge with a look of absolute horror on his face. What’s the problem now? He points out to me some tiny black dots on the inside of the fan housing. Apparently what we are seeing is cockroach shit. “Now what do you want to do?” he demands. “Just fix the fucking thing” I think to myself.

OK. Let’s assess the problem.

The infamous fridge

Are there cockroaches in it now? Answer. No.  

Is there any damage to the wiring? No.

Is the computer OK? Yes.

Is there any sign that the insects have actually gotten into the food compartments? No.

So what the hell is your problem then? Answer. This fridge has cockroach shit in it. You can’t possibly use it now.

How about we just clean it up? His response is that he doesn’t know how to do such a thing.

I then demonstrated to him the strange method of cleaning a fridge with a cloth and hot water. 2 minutes later there are no black dots to be seen. Rather than being impressed by this bit of gaijin ingenuity he just looks appalled. Without any further protests he fits the fan, replaces the cover and plugs the fridge into the wall socket. Success. At Y12,000 it’s not a cheap fan but it’s a fraction of the cost of replacing the whole thing. I bet when he got back to the office that technician would have greeted his colleagues with the words “you won’t believe what I just had to do!”

 The carpet guy showed up at 5PM exactly. How do they do that? I just can’t get my head around the concept of a punctual tradesman. It’s like Tomato ketchup and icecream. These things just don’t go together. He looks at the carpet and tells Shizuka that there’s nothing wrong with it. I like this guy! He says that he can replace it but that it would just be a waste of money. He proposes to come and clean it with his cleaning machine and while he’s at it he will wax the wooden flooring in the rest of the house. We agree on a price and he says he will come on Monday at 9 AM. I do believe he will too.