Yep, gomi no hi. And in Japan, almost every day is gomi no hi! I’m talking about, of course, trash day…. But as anybody who lives in Japan knows, trash day is really trash day(s), because we have to sort our trash into many different piles and each pile is picked up on a different day. And maybe at a different place as well. When I moved into my house the landlord handed me a trash book. A few pages are shown in the photo below. It talks about all the different types of trash, how to sort it, where to put it out, what type of bag to use for each type of trash (they color code them), and where to buy stickers if you need them to take trash away that’s not on the list.
For me, Tuesdays and Fridays are burnable trash day, in the red bag, and put in the net in front of the house three doors down. Every first and third Monday of the month are cardboard day (and heaven forbid it falls on a holiday!) Wrapped in recycled string of course. And dropped near the park. Wednesday is plastic bottle day, along with glass bottles and aluminum foil- all in separate bags and dropped at the corner! Wednesday is also clear plastics day, in the blue bag, and that gets dropped in front of our house. And once a month, I can’t remember which day, is recyclables.
Trash data
At first it was a daunting task. But honestly, after 4 years I am almost used to it. Of course, every time you move it has to be learned all over again.
The town I lived in before, I had to write my name on the bag. And if it was not done properly, the garbage men would bring it back to my house so I could try all over again. There is really no escaping it. If you are going to live in Japan, get used to sorting, folding, cutting cardboard, bundling papers, and recycling.
Transition to Japan 