OK, upon first moving here I was informed that Japan doesn't have garbage disposals in their sinks, meaning a "net" is needed. Well, me being lazy and dumb forgot about this and doing dishes the other day...discovered my mistake. Since I'm not used to this type of thing, I guess I don't know how to properly use it. What was inside was a thick plastic can/net thing...but I also found little green nets left by a previous occupant which are used for the same thing...the thing is I haven't a clue how to use them properly...if there is a way. Anyway, I threw the insert in the garbage and have to buy a new one soon. Once properly "disposed" of I am left with an open drain and the foul smells that escape it... My issue now is how often do these things need a good cleansing? Once a week maybe? I usually don't put "food" in the sink at all, but little bits must have washed down there whilst washing dishes. And being I don't use many dishes at home...I've neglected to keep up with the proper cleaning. Live and learn though, that was one aspect I wasn't properly informed about and have to suffer the consequences of. Anyone have a similar experience?
Never seen that in Japan before, I only ran into western style sinks. Buy a bottle of bleach and pour a quarter of it down the drain.
Yup, Japanese sinks need to be cleaned regularly. I'm a lazy bastard, but my sink smells OK. However, my neat-and-tidy girlfriend's sink stinks up the whole kitchen. I guess it comes down to how close the pipes are to ground level, among other things. It could also be the smell of the sewers/drains from under/outside the building, which you can't do anything about.
I live on the third (and top) floor of a small apartment building so that might be it...I had to put the drain plug on just to cover it up. They are doing drain construction outside of my apartment (and have been for weeks, pisses me off when they start at 8AM) so that's the most likely culprit.
Buy a plug. Put it in the sink hole. Take it out when you are done washing dishes to drain the water, then replace it. Make sure you scrape your plates/pots into the trash before washing up. Not too hard, I wouldn't have thought...
Easy. The plastic thing stays in, you wrap one of those disposable nets (green or blue or whatever) around it, they catch the nasty things and once a week or every two weeks you change the net. That's it. You can get the nets in 100 Yen shops, supermarkets, etc.
I have a metal one covering the sink hole, and when it's full I dump it in the thrash? But from the sounds of it I have a different type of sink, or I will run into the same problem as you have right now in the future, hehe. You should take care not to let the food wash down the drain though, but I thought that was the same with sinks all over the world.
Exactly, I remember stating above that I scraped excess food off IN THE TRASH. It's not like I dump my leftovers down in there. But my old one was plastic...and yeah no telling HOW OLD it was so it was nasty. I'll have to buy a new one of those and more nets it seems.
