This is mainly just a vent and to see if there’s someone who might have some tips.
I’ve lived in Japan now for about six months, I’m in the Nara Basin area. I’m living in a dormitory setting on the fourth floor, so communal bathroom and kitchen and a small private room, maybe 15m sq. The window usually stays closed as I have a minisplit in the room and the heat is killing me. The walls are concrete, not drywall, the floor is a thin kind of heavy duty carpet. When I leave the room the minisplit is turned off, otherwise it’s on.
I pick up after myself, wipe down my desk and working area before I go to bed at night, and otherwise just try to keep things as tidy as possible. Once a week I do a thorough room cleaning/bedding wash/putting my bed pad outside, and during this time the shelves I don’t usually use throughout the week are *covered* in dust. If I don’t use a glass or something throughout the week, I need to rinse it before I do or just wash it again because of the dust.
I feel like I’m going insane. I’ve checked the minisplit filters, they’re fine but it’s not like they’re helping to catch anything either. I vacuum the carpet every two weeks. Where the fuck is it coming from?? Is this normal?? I had a full two bedroom apartment with forced air HVAC back in the US and never had this much dust. I’ve had to start taking allergy medicine even outside of peak pollen season.
I finally broke down today and ordered an air purifier because I simply do not have the time to wipe everything down every single night which seems to be the only other option. I’m honestly very confused. Has anyone else had this issue? Is this expected?
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It’s pretty much the same here in the Greater Tokyo Area. Shudder to think what it’s doing to my lungs, tbh.
Tokyo is pretty dusty yes, if you own a car it gets covered very quickly in this yellowish dust after 1-2 days.
Also in Nara. We also get ridiculous amounts of dust in our detached house. I don’t remember us having this level of dust when we lived in Osaka. My partner is actually having the same problem, with her allergies going nuts year-round now. I have no idea where it’s coming from.
If everything’s closed, it’s mostly your skin and clothing
Air quality in Japan is not that great (Japanese government doesn’t care so much about air pollution – the big thing is water pollution here).
Get a basic robo vacuum for like ¥20,000 and have it scoot around your apartment once every day. Total game changer quality of life investment.
I read this like 6 times and I can’t figure out what a minisplit is.
Air purifier is a big help as well, especially in smaller apartments.
Welcome to Japan. The dust here is incredible. I have two air purifiers and their filters are a complete warzone. It certainly helps, but it’s not enough by any means. There’s still fucking dust everywhere. I run a Braava regularly and vacuum daily to try and keep up with it.
When I lived in Canada, even in houses with carpeted floors it took a lot longer to accumulate dust. In Tokyo I’m wiping up dust nearly every day.
The air here is not that great. Just look how fucking dirty the rain is. Look how much of that black dust builds up on your balcony rail. I can’t believe people clip their bedding and towels to that shit to wipe their face and sleep in it. It’s actually so disgusting.
I would order an AQI meter from Amazon or Aliexpress. They usually cost between 5000-10000 but well worth it.
> forced air HVAC
I suspect the lack of central HVAC is a big reason for all the dust in my apartment vs. anywhere I lived in the US
The theory is that Japan has high humidity. Dust absorb more water, become heavier than air then fall to the floor.
Where as in other places, such as Hokkaido, the dust keep floating and will blown out when you open/close doors or windows.
Do an experiment, turn your aircon on for a week, see how much dust you accumulate, compare to normal aircon usage.
China
I feel you! I’m in Tokyo and I bought massive blue air purifiers to help get rid of the dust. It doesn’t.
By the way, just as a note, if your vacuum doesn’t have a hepa filter then it will probably be throwing out dust unseen to you as you vacuum.
Have you looked inside the aircon at the spinning fan? There may be a build up of dust and mould on the fins