Haz vs Washer

Today, I translated the eight modes on my washing machine. Until now, I'd only ever used two: normal and gentle. And none of the others were in my kanji phrasebook, so I rolled up my sleeves, copied them onto a post-it, and set down with the online dictionary I use.

If I know the reading, I can use that to narrow it down. Otherwise it comes down to stroke numbers and the radicals that make up the symbol. However, one unfortunate side effect of living with a math major is that I've slowly lost the ability to count properly, leading to some confusing translations.

Japanese lesson of the day: The kanji for "dry" and the kanji for "virginal" are one stroke apart. My washing machine does not, in fact, have a "virginal" option.

It's that clean.

You're welcome. Now I need to go wash my dirty, dirty laundry.