After I pointed out to Sasaki-san the installation problems with the oven and stovetop, he called the gas contractor and we met again on Saturday.
This time Yoshida-san from the gas company arrived with a man I imagine is his top-tier senior installer. This guy looked like a rockabilly star dressed in black work overalls complete with sunglasses covering his (possibly hungover) eyes as he worked. I liked his style.
I also liked that he assessed the situation, consulted with us on what he could do, then took the entire assembly apart and fixed it. Now the appliances are aligned correctly and the gaps are where they belong. He didn’t use a single manual. This guy had deep product knowledge and activated features the other installer didn’t.
Well done. Thank you for fixing it!
I had posted about my installation fail to a Facebook group, Building and Renovating in Japan, which loves drama and often has good suggestions and always a wide variety of opinions and experience. But in this case, one of the comments seemed completely wrong-headed. “Make sure you get them to sign something that says it is incorrect.”
What?! In Japan, signed statements are a weird “angry foreigner” thing, and only raise hackles. Maybe that’s effective in the city where contractors are interchangeable, but that isn’t how it works when you have ongoing relationships with the people you hire. I simply furrowed my brow and pointed. Then I asked what to do and it got fixed perfectly.
Japan Too Long (IYKYK)
