Domestically challenged

The day after we arrived we had a morning meeting with the private kindergarten the kids are to attend to view the facilities, meet the teachers and get details on necessary supplies. All was going well, we were sipping tea in a civilized fashion, when our interpreter informed me that the next three pages of the information booklet were patterns for sewing all the special sized bags, pillow shams, placemats and washcloths the kids would need by Monday. It was Friday and we were jetlagged. I haven’t used a sewing machine in twenty years and I didn’t have access to one anyway. I was stunned by the school’s request. This was quite an expectation based on my western standards. They didn’t provide a second option whereby one could purchase these items at a store as the mothers and grandmothers were capable of making them.


In the age of female empowerment, is this binding housework or self-sufficiency and liberation from brand-product consumerism?

Lucky for me I met our neighbours that afternoon and her two eldest had attended Saiwa and her five year old still does. She still had the bags etc. she had made for the others and would lend them to us. I just needed to iron-on name labels written in Japanese. That was a task I felt I could handle. Or so I thought.

The labels began to detach after several washings. Perhaps purchasing the cheapest ones and not reading the Japanese instructions didn’t work in my favour.