Japanese furniture, flooring, and other things starting with F. Big question of the episode: Can you replace pleather with transparent tape?

Transcript

K: So, lately I’ve been thinking about furniture in Japan.

C: That is not what tabling the discussion means.

K: (laughs) Okay, I don’t know if that one’s funny or a surprise. What do you think?

C: I think it’s funny.

K: I think it was more of surprise with a ridiculous surprise.

C: Yeah?

K: Yeah. Because I often laugh when you say something ridiculous. (laughs)

C: Which is also funny.

K: Ridiculously funny. You’re ridiculously funny. I think we can both agree on that.

C: Thank you. Yes.

K: So, I’ve ben thinking a lot about furniture because 1) I need a new chair at the office, and I’ve been putting it off, but it sheds so horribly, and I feel just like oh my gosh, everyone must think I am so just hella ghetto because I have cello tape, scotch tape, on pieces of the chair that are shedding because it’s vegan leather.

C: It’s pleather.

K: Yeah. I call it pleather, but people like vegan leat- blegh, vegan leather better than saying it’s pleather. It’s plastic. It’s a thin film of plastic over fabric that gives it a leather look. And so… for me, I need to get a new chair, but instead of going and getting a new chair, I’m just putting tape where the pleather’s starting to fade. And in the United States, I would’ve used black electric tape, but I can’t find any black electric tape here, so I’m using clear scotch. Just plain old scotch tape.

C: Okay, so not even three minutes in, I have a digression this time. Usually it’s you starting them. You’re usually the one that falls for digression, but

K: What?

C: Yeah. It reminds me of when your bag fell apart in the Tokyo airport. Your pleather bag.

K: (laughs) That was horrible.

C: It was horrible.

K: It just happened all of a sudden, too. And I loved that bag.

C: But you hadn’t used it in a while. It had been in the closet. And we were taking a trip, so you grabbed it, you were like “this is going to be my carry-on.” 

K: Yeah.

C: And then it just started just shedding. It was like… it was like the old Peanuts cartoon. Just pig-pen levels of like stuff just flying off of it.

K: Yes. I was like “what is this?” Because it was just falling everywhere.

C: Just a rubbery black dust was covering everything in your bag.

K: Yes. 

C: So we ended up buying your current bag

K: It’s actually red. 

C: Right. But the outside was red, but there were black parts too because underneath the

K: Yeah it was striped and everything. Yeah.

C: So, we ended up buying your current bag at the Tokyo airport out of necessity because that bag was like a biohazard.

K: Yeah. And so I wonder if I should just scrub the pleather off of it because it’s still a good chair in all other respects.

C: I don’t know if there’d be anything left. I think what you’re looking for is reupholster it. Should you reupholster it.

K: No. I’m saying what I mean. I mean just peeling it off. 

C: Horrified look.

K: Yeah. I just want to peel it off, but right now I’m just using scotch tape because I was like “what is this black crap all over my floor?” Like every time I sit down, there’s black crap all over my office floor. So, Japan doesn’t really sell leather. It sells like leather belts, but it doesn’t – it’s not big on leather.

C: Yeah. For furniture and such.

K: Yeah.

C: I think because the moisture properties because everything in Japan – home furnishing-wise – seems designed to deal with either your apartment being too humid or too dry. There’s no happy middle. It’s