Fell in love with this toaster when I first used it at MONday apartment in Kyoto. Everything about it was great. Came back to the USA, bought one, and quite disappointed because it was different. #1 the water cup is plastic, the one in Japan is ceramic. #2 Japanese version has a place to hang the cup on the side of the toaster. #3 lastly, the customer service said that the Japanese version has one more thing that's removable for easy cleaning, but not the USA version. Didn't say this to them, but in my head I was thinking ```why did they make this part for the USA version not removable for easy cleaning? Because the US is "dumber"?``` Hah, no idea. Making it removable totally make sense for easy cleaning.
Anyway, might be better to just buy one while you're in Japan and use it here in the US. It has more premium feeling overall. Ceramic cup with a good weight to it. A place to hang the cup on the side of the toaster. And one more removable part for easy cleaning. The only thing is you need to use a voltage converter. And Balmuda does not recommend this. If you decide to do this, do it at your own risk.
I wrote this review 1 day after receiving the unit. Not sure about the durability of it yet. We'll have to wait and see.