Dear fellow Japan residents, I have a question about this osoji lark thing. This morning I vacuumed extra carefully and also polished my floors. Does that qualify as osoji? May I now sit back with a cuppa tea and ignore …
No? Damn.
To people who don’t live in Japan, osoji is the Japanese equivalent of spring cleaning, but it’s done just before New Year. It means, theoretically, that I have to move the refrigerator (proven possible in the past) and washing machine (proven impossible in the past) aside and wash the floor underneath; dust / wipe / vacuum / sanitize (and determine their blood group while I’m at it) (hey, this is important in Japan) cupboards; clean bathroom thoroughly, which means diving into the small drain in the floor, which is gross beyond description; clean balconies and wash windows and do you know how cold it is out there?!
It also means dusting and reorganizing and fondling my books. Hmm. Maybe it’s not a bad custom after all.
Japan residents, how do you do it? Launch a major one-day attack or do it incrementally? I tend to favour the latter.
I’m moving out next week so I have no choice but I don’t have “the fear” yet so I’ve done nothing. I’m just gonna do it all the night before I move out, I’m sure to my neighbours annoyance. 💀