Hotter Isn't Better: The Japanese Soak Most People Get Wrong (The Japanese Method)

In Japanese homes, we don't scrub some kinds of dirt. We soak it. Oxi-zuke, the oxi soak: one spoon of oxygen bleach (sodium percarbonate) in warm water, twenty minutes, and the grey moves out of the cloth and into the water. In this episode: what the powder really is; why boiling water is the wrong water; the basic soak; seven jobs (kitchen cloths, yellow collars, white shoes, smelly towels, the hidden bath pipe, plastic boxes, the sink drain basket); and four mistakes, starting with the one Japan's washing-machine makers warn about. 0:00 The grey water trick 1:08 What the powder really is 2:24 Hotter isn't better 3:42 Job 1: kitchen cloths 4:16 The basic soak 5:14 Job 2: yellow collars 6:11 Job 3: white shoes 7:08 Job 4: towels that smell 7:52 Job 5: the hidden bath pipe 9:56 Job 6: plastic boxes 10:33 Job 7: the sink drain basket 11:18 4 mistakes (one is the washing machine) 13:16 Emiko's rule