Will Miss #515 - reliability of utilities

I've lived in my apartment in California for only 6 months, and have already experienced one utility-based problem. The water was shut off for a period of two hours to do some sort of maintenance. I was given a 24-hour notice of this fact 19 hours before the shut-off occurred and it was actually off for closer to 2 1/2 hours. This isn't such a big deal except for the fact that when the water did return, it came out sputtering and brown. It took a lot of allowing it to run and nearly two hours of time before it cleared up, and even then I wasn't sure that it was safe to drink.

It has been my experience both from my upbringing and my short return that things like power outages and utility interruptions are far more common in the U.S. than in Japan. Part of the issue is that the lines often cover more space and are underground due to the widespread nature of homes and services. Another, in my opinion, is that Americans are less diligent about maintaining such things. In Japan, the utilities companies react relatively quickly to small problems, and, on the rare occasion that there is a disruption, you are smartly informed both of the moment it goes off and the moment it goes back on. 

In 23 years of living in Tokyo, power flickered briefly a couple of times, but never went off for any length of time and water was only ever stopped when I had a question about the cost of my bill and they needed to check for leaks. The utilities there were incredibly reliable and I miss that. 

Won't Miss #439 - electrical current issues

When my husband and I first came to Japan, my mother insisted on giving us a gift to take with us. It was a talking digital clock. These days, electronic devices seem to be incapable of shutting up, but 23 years ago, that was an unusual gadget. We took it with us and plugged it in. It seemed to still work, but it kept losing vast amounts of time. It seemed that the power differences between Japan and the U.S. were just enough to make it run slow. Throughout our stay in Japan, we had to concern ourselves with the electrical current issues when buying devices from America, and we did buy computers (with English operating systems and keyboards and at cheaper prices) as well as specialty items which were uncommon in Japan (a white noise machine to mask our noisy neighbors).

I won't miss having to worry about the difference in electrical current when buying devices that are cheaper, more suitable, or only available in America.