Here in Japan winters are a little tough
Now, the temperature itself isn't that bad
It's the end of February now and it's in the upper 40s
It doesn't really go below freezing that much
We don't get that much snow...
...at least in this part of Japan
So, that's really not that bad, but the problem is that...
...Japanese homes don't have central heating for the most part
So, when you come home expecting to walk into a nice warm room after being out in the cold
It doesn't happen
It's just as cold inside as it was outside
To some extent Japanese homes are built for this
They have doors in between all the rooms in the house
For communal areas there's sliding doors...
...so you can keep them open or take them off, if that's what you want
But generally they just heat one room at a time here
So that's a little more efficient
But, on the other hand, Japanese homes themselves are built really terribly
They have little to no insulation...
...the walls are paper thin, our front door doesn't even shut all the way
So, even when you are just heating one room, it's still really inefficient
For heating methods here...
...I guess the most normal method for at least an American would be using...
...the heating function on an air conditioner
But again there's not really any ductwork, at least in this part of Japan
So, you're still just heating one room at a time that way
They also have big kerosene heaters...
...which seems like the most common way of heating
They smell terribly...
...they spew out all kinds of fumes and stuff...
...so you have to keep the window open...
...and you have to air out your room all the time, which kind of defeats the purpose
of heating
And then of course you have a giant gas can sitting somewhere in your house...
...which seems kind of unsafe to me
But I dunno, I guess that it's fine here
Then we have the greatest warming invention of all time, which is the kotatsu
A kotatsu is a wooden frame with some blankets on top, and then...
...a tabletop on top of that, and underneath you have an electric heater...
...so you just sit underneath and you can do whatever you want on the table
And it just warms you up
And it's really comfortable...
...and really nice and it always makes me sleepy
And then we have electric blankets, of course
And electric floor rugs, which are nice
And of course tons of floor heaters
When I first realized how Japanese people heat their homes...
...I thought it was really dangerous...
...and I didn't know how more Japanese people don't burn down their homes
I mean, in America we don't even have all these things...
...we just have like the floor heaters, usually
And people still burn down their homes in the winter
Like, there's tons of people who do that, at least in my city, every year
And you don't really hear about that kind of stuff here
So, I don't know, I guess maybe us Americans are just more...
...we're not responsible enough to have these types of things
Oh, by the way, we have gas stoves here, too, which are great
My husband says they're safe, they always make me nervous, though
I mean, at least the last two times I tried to use it I somehow managed...
...to turn on the gas without starting a flame
So we just has gas spreading out into our kitchen... which was great
So, I just wanna say for the record I don't think any of this is a good idea
But yeah, it can be kind of cold here, especially if you're riding your bike everywhere...
...if you don't have a car, which is really normal, lots of people do that
Even if it's not that cold outside, when you're riding your bike and you're...
...going into the wind and stuff it feels really cold
Most Japanese people prepare for it by wearing lots of layers...
...like, sometimes even four or five layers
And if you're like a tiny, small Japanese person that's fine...
...or I guess if you're a guy
But if you're a woman who doesn't want to look bloated by wearing five layers...
...of clothes you're kind of out of luck
You either have to be cold or look like a mushroom
There's not really much space in between
But fortunately the cold weather season doesn't really last that long here
Like I said it's the end of February and we're already getting close to the 50s...
...at least in this part of Japan here
And even having a cold home all winter isn't the worst thing in the world
It's definitely preferable to not being here at all
And of course in Japan they still have flowers blooming all winter
Which is great
Even in January, February, December
I'm not used to seeing living things in the winter
So it's always a nice surprise when you go out...
...and they still have flowers blooming along side of you