Voltage in Japan is 100 volts, Hong Kong is 220 volts and Australia is 240 volts.

This is not a problem until whatever appliance that is being used needs a bit of real power to perform optimally.

I knew the voltage was significantly lower before I moved to Tokyo however I didn’t really consider the impact. I figured I’ll have another set of power adapters and that would be about it.

This wasn’t well thought through.

I really like my electric toothbrush. It feels like I have always had my teeth cleaned at the dentist. In HK, one charge would last for nearly a week, brushing twice daily.

It now lasts one brush.

My kettle takes roughly 1.5 hours to boil a cup or so of water (while not technically boiling, it’s useable after about 20 minutes). I’ve gone off tea temporarily…

If I want a slice of toast, I put the bread in, wait 10 minutes for it to pop up again, and put the bread, back down to go again. This is repeated four times and it’s then warm and has the texture of stale bread. Still tastes good with Vegemite.

I haven’t even tried my vacuum cleaner.

My options are now to buy a transformer or new appliances.

The transformer is fairly expensive and needs to be based on the watts of the appliances I want to use. I need to work out what they all are and hope they are fairly close to the same. I have a feeling the vacuum cleaner probably is massively different to anything else except for possibly the kitchen mixer.  It’s a hardcore mixer. I like to bake.

It could mean I need two transformers.

I may spend next weekend doing a cost benefit analysis after firstly confirming the wattage and then the rough costs of replacement appliances. Seems wasteful though because I like the appliances I have and saving them for when I move to a country that has matching voltage is wasting space in the meantime.

I can see I’m leaning toward the transformers (that’s very difficult to type without following it with “robots in disguise“).

* Thanks to Something for Kate for the title to this post.