How to: Use an airconditioner in Japan
Sun 17/Aug/2014 0 5233
In Japan, the airconditioning is something that you can't live without during Summer. In Japanese, the airconditioning unit itself is called "eakon" (エアコン, eakon), and the remote controller is called "rimokon" (リモコン, rimokon). The remote control is usually mounted on the wall near the airconditioner unit or hidden behind curtains in hotels.
However, these remote controls do have buttons with Japanese descriptions. Below you can find the most common descriptions and their meanings to help you prevent using the heater instead of cooling!
Basic remote controls:
| Japanese | Hiragana | Translation |
| 入 | いり | (Turn unit) On, In |
| 切 | きり | (Turn unit) Off |
| 冷房 | れいぼう | Cooling |
| 暖房 | だんぼう | Heating |
| 除湿 | じょしつ | Dehumidify (may also see this as ドライ) |
| 自動 | じどう | Automatic |
| - | おやすみ | (Good) night, timer |
More advanced remote controls:
| Japanese | Hiragana | Translation |
| 温度 | おんど | Temperature (Celsius) |
| ハイパワー | - | High power, it will blow on high speed. |
| スイング | - | Swing (the fan will swing up and down) you might also see swing as 上下風向 (上 - up 下 - down) |
| 風向 | かざむき or ふうこう | Direction of the "wind" (the fan) |
| ランドリー | - | Laundry option, you can use this if you want to dry your laundry in the room. |
| 省パワー | しょうパワー | Energy saving mode |
| 風量切換 | ふうりょう きりかえ | "Wind" (fan) strength, amount of air flow |
| 送風 | そうふう | Ventilate, it will not turn on the air condition function but just blow air. |
| 強風 | きょうふう | Strong, high (fan, wind) |
| 弱風 | じゃくふう | Weak, low (fan, wind) |
| 微風 | びふう | Very low, breeze |
| 静音 | せいおん | Quiet mode |
| 運転 | うんてん | Operate |
| 運転モード | うんてんモード | Operation mode |
| タイマー | - | Timer |