आरोह अवरोह.....

Sorting garbage is one of the most important things to living in Japan. Japan has made almost every day a different kind of Garbage Day and there are so many different things to remember about every kind of garbage that you know this system wouldn't work at all in any other country.

Every area of Japan has completely different garbage days, division systems and garbage rules . Japanese Garbage is loosely divided into three categories. Burnable garbage (燃えるごみ moeru gomi) , unburnable garbage (燃えないごみ) and recyclable garbage (資源ごみ shigen gomi). On top of this, there are other special days for cans (缶), plastic (ペットボトル /プラスチック) , glass (瓶) and large waste (粗大ごみ).

At the last place I lived, here were the rules. 燃えるごみ is taken out every Monday and Thursday. 燃えないごみ is taken out every Tuesday and Friday. 資源ごみ is taken out every second and fourth Wednesday. 粗大ごみ is taken out on the last Thursday and the first Tuesday of every month. Easy, right? And you can't put your garbage out the night before. You have to put it out that morning before 8 AM. So if you want to stay at your friend's house on the last Tuesday of the month, you have to realize that your 資源ごみ will be sitting in your house for the next two weeks because you missed the day. If it's 8:02 AM, you missed the garbage day. Better luck in two weeks, man.

Another great thing is that the garbage must be put into different bags. These bags (指定ごみ袋 shitei gomi-bukuro) can be purchased at certain convenience stores. They are marked with the name of the type of garbage and they have a special color for each type of garbage.