Haruko Niitsu, who is called a national treasure in Japan for her excellent cleaning at Tokyo Haneda Airport, arrived in Taiwan yesterday to attend a forum on cleaning and give advice to workers at Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport).
Niitsu was born in Shengyang City in China’s Liaoning Province to a Chinese mother and a Japanese father. Her father was an orphan adopted by a Chinese father after the World War ll.
When she was 17, her family relocated to Japan through a program that helped people of Japanese descent residing in China return to their homeland.
Photo: CNA
Niitsu holds a license issued by the Japanese government to clean buildings and is a professional training counselor for more than 700 cleaning technicians at Haneda.
Because of the crew’s extraordinary work, Haneda was named the world’s cleanest airport by Skytrax in 2013, 2014, last year and this year.
She has also published several books teaching people how to efficiently clean their houses.
Niitsu changed into her Haneda uniform after arriving at Songshan airport and went directly to coach Sincere Group workers.
She first watched them do their restroom routine, including wiping the mirrors and countertops, scrubbing sinks and cleaning the toilets, and then demonstrated what she would do to make them cleaner.
The toilet seat cover, the seat and the rim under the seat should all be wiped as well as scrubbed, she said.
“You cannot clean these areas using a brush with a handle, because you will miss a lot of spots, such as the area inside the toilet rim. Smells would eventually come from these spots if they remain dirty, and because the air inside the restroom does not always circulate properly, the walls would absorb the odors and make the restroom smelly, so you need to find ways to clean those difficult-to-reach spots,” she said.
Niitsu showed her cleaning kit, which contains a small paint brush, several pencil-like sharpened bamboo sticks, wipes and other items.
The tools could either be bought or made, she said.
Niitsu, who is also known for her ability to use 80 different kinds of detergents, said her expertise comes from years of on-the-job experimentation.
“It all depends on the material of the item you are about to clean,” she said.
For example, to remove black spots on a stainless steel water fountain, she said that a neutral detergent must first be used to clean the surface, then an acidic detergent must be applied to remove the spots.
Compared with women’s restrooms, Niitsu said that it is more difficult to clean the men’s.
“Women are more aware of keeping the restroom clean, and the urine is less likely to splash out of the toilets, because they have to sit down. Men are less careful when peeing at urinals,” she said.
A strong continental cold air mass and abundant moisture bringing snow to mountains 3,000m and higher over the past few days are a reminder that more than 60 years ago Taiwan had an outdoor ski resort that gradually disappeared in part due to climate change. On Oct. 24, 2021, the National Development Council posted a series of photographs on Facebook recounting the days when Taiwan had a ski resort on Hehuanshan (合歡山) in Nantou County. More than 60 years ago, when developing a branch of the Central Cross-Island Highway, the government discovered that Hehuanshan, with an elevation of more than 3,100m,
Death row inmate Huang Lin-kai (黃麟凱), who was convicted for the double murder of his former girlfriend and her mother, is to be executed at the Taipei Detention Center tonight, the Ministry of Justice announced. Huang, who was a military conscript at the time, was convicted for the rape and murder of his ex-girlfriend, surnamed Wang (王), and the murder of her mother, after breaking into their home on Oct. 1, 2013. Prosecutors cited anger over the breakup and a dispute about money as the motives behind the double homicide. This is the first time that Minister of Justice Cheng Ming-chien (鄭銘謙) has
TRANSPORT CONVENIENCE: The new ticket gates would accept a variety of mobile payment methods, and buses would be installed with QR code readers for ease of use New ticketing gates for the Taipei metro system are expected to begin service in October, allowing users to swipe with cellphones and select credit cards partnered with Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC), the company said on Tuesday. TRTC said its gates in use are experiencing difficulty due to their age, as they were first installed in 2007. Maintenance is increasingly expensive and challenging as the manufacturing of components is halted or becoming harder to find, the company said. Currently, the gates only accept EasyCard, iPass and electronic icash tickets, or one-time-use tickets purchased at kiosks, the company said. Since 2023, the company said it
Ferry operators are planning to provide a total of 1,429 journeys between Taiwan proper and its offshore islands to meet increased travel demand during the upcoming Lunar New Year holiday, the Maritime and Port Bureau said yesterday. The available number of ferry journeys on eight routes from Saturday next week to Feb. 2 is expected to meet a maximum transport capacity of 289,414 passengers, the bureau said in a news release. Meanwhile, a total of 396 journeys on the "small three links," which are direct ferries connecting Taiwan's Kinmen and Lienchiang counties with China's Fujian Province, are also being planned to accommodate
RSS