Winter woes

I live in southern Japan and am THANKFUL for that.  Even though it gets cold here, I can’t IMAGINE living farther north.  In truth it doesn’t get that cold here.  Last year we had a couple of days where the temperature was below freezing.  We’re at the same longitude as places in the deep south like Savannah, Georgia or Montgomery, Alabama, so by my standards the winter really isn’t that bad.  HOWEVER, (as I complained last year) Japanese buildings aren’t insulated, and the culture as a whole has the mentality of don’t-turn-on-the-heat-put-on-another-layer to save natural resources.  It’s difficult to escape the cold temperatures, and I’m constantly looking for a heat source….even if it means holding my computer charger for a few minutes just to warm my fingers.  In addition, generally only one or two rooms in a house are heated.  The rest are left the same temperature as outside.  Therefore, I can go from my living room/bedroom/office/multi-purpose room to my kitchen and instantly feel a severe degree difference.  It’s not uncommon to see my breath in my bathroom during the winter.  (THANK GOD FOR HEATED TOILET SEATS!!!  )  Even though the highs are in the upper 50s and lows in the lower 40s right now, it’s COLD.  As I’m writing this, I’m wearing four layers on top and two on the bottom, and I’m still not warm.  ……and this will be my life for the next four months.  I probably won’t feel warm again until April. 

This year there was a spoon in the persimmon seed.  For those of you who don’t know the persimmon seed legend, a seed will have one of three patterns: spoon, knife, or fork.  A spoon means you’ll spend the winter shoveling snow.  A knife means you’ll spend the winter cutting ice.  A fork means a light winter because any snow that falls on a fork will go right through the tines.  Guess what I found in the persimmon seed this year?  A SPOON!      NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!  I love snow as much as the next person and don’t mind it in the States.  Actually….I look forward to it!  Snow=the possibility of canceled school days, which makes me as giddy as a ten-year-old hoping to see my school name scroll across the TV screen.  The January before we left (Winter 2011) was WONDERFUL!  It seemed like each week a different cold front blew through, raking snow across the quad-state area and canceling school at least one of the five days each week.  However, whenever you live in a place where a) school is NEVER canceled, b) my daily source of transportation is a bicycle, and c) the outdoor temperature is often the indoor temperature, it makes me want snow and a heavy winter less and less.  It rained on Wednesday this week, and once the clouds cleared on Thursday morning, I could see snow at the top of Ichifusa!  I feel like that’s not a good sign this early in the season……..  I’m hoping and praying that if we do get snow, it will happen on a Saturday or Sunday…..a day when I can go outside and enjoy it and then come back inside and get snuggly.  Also, nothing is sadder than a foreigner trying to ride a bike to work through a couple of inches of snow.   That’s just pitiful!

With the lower temperatures, Ian and I have taken measures to stay as warm as possible.  We “winterized” our house—meaning we’ve gone back to living in one room.  It’s miserable and feels like living in a cramped cave.  Our living room is now our bedroom/dining room/office/multi-purpose room.  Instead of opening the curtains and letting fresh air in, we keep our heavy black curtains shut to let the sunlight radiate heat through them and also to block cold air from coming in our single pane windows.  Since windows here are ALL single pane without any form of insulation, it does work in my favor sometimes.  Finding a spot of sunlight and standing in it is one sure way to warm up.  In class I regularly make my way to the pools of sunlight and stand in them just to warm up for a few seconds.  During break time this past week (since the kids were busy with cultural festival activities) I went to the library, sat in a sunny spot, and read my book.  The sunny spots really do warm me up!  After eating a hot meal for lunch and spending break time in a sunny spot, I was feeling great today….until I came back downstairs to the teacher’s room.  It seems like once the sunlight starts streaming in, the Japanese like to close the curtains.  In addition, in the morning when the day is at its coolest, for the most part the windows are closed.  However, once it gets to be about noon and the chill is starting to fade from the room, all of the windows get cracked to let in a little fresh air.  BLARG!  I CAN’T WIN AT THIS GAME!!!

Which leads me to my next point.  Some days I’ll come home from work and Ian will say something like “It was really cold today,” or “I turned on the kerosene heater because I got a little cool this afternoon.”  I want to SMACK him after he says something like this.  Not only did he NOT have to get up early when it’s still cold, ride a bike to work in the frosty air, sit in a cold building in which the windows are still open, but he gets to control his own temperature.  If he feels the slightest draft, he can fix that.  If he wants to feel snuggly warm, he can do that…….whereas I’m at the mercy of the other teachers for closing the windows and turning on the heat.  On any given winter day I spend the majority of my seven hour work day as a human popsicle, and Mr. Ian gets to stay warm.   

Other ways to combat the cold—Ian got out our kerosene heater (which is VERY effective).  It makes the house snuggly warm.  I guess one of the benefits of living in a non-insulated drafty house is that we don’t have to crack a window to allow air to circulate the fumes of our heater…..it’s naturally vented out!  This makes me both happy and sad.    Ian also set up our kotatsu, which is a heated table.  A fire-proof blanket is placed over the heating element, and it creates a warm pocket of air under the table in which to place your legs…….or entire body…..whatever (see pictures below).  This is my favorite heating element because it feels SO GOOD.  It’s like living in a warm hug.  Even though our kotatsu is only the size of a small coffee table, I love to fold my entire body under it and just embrace the warmth.  Ian and I constantly battle over who gets more leg room under the kotatsu.          

 

Every night before I go to bed, I have a choice: would I rather sleep comfortably or stay warm?  Since I’m a pretty big baby when it comes to being cold, I usually opt for the latter.  We can leave our kerosene heater on, but it automatically switches off after three hours.  That means that if I turn it on when I go to bed at 11:30, it’ll cut off at 2:30, and by the time my alarm goes off at 7:45, the house will be back to ice cold.  The past couple of nights, I’ve slept under the kotatsu.  This means sleeping on the hard tatami mats (above, left).  Ian usually stays up later than me, so I always ask him to pull me out from under it when he goes to bed so that I don’t fry or something from sleeping under it.    Each time he wakes me up, I’m stiff from sleeping on the hard floor, but honestly I’d rather be stiff and warm than cold and comfy.  Is it sad that I have to make that decision…?  Last night, I pulled the futon to the very edge of the kotatsu, covered myself in blankets, lifted up one side of the kotatsu blanket, and nestled my back into it.  It was a sad way to keep warm, but it worked!   

There are only a few leaves left on the trees now, and the mountains are starting to look very spotty.  Ian and I joke that it looks like they have mange.    The majority of the mountains are evergreens, but there are vast pockets of bamboo, cherry, and other deciduous trees that shed their leaves and give the mountains that mange-y look.  This morning was our first frost.  I’m assuming that my tomato plant (that has grown rather well since I planted it in August!) will soon die and any green unripe tomatoes that didn’t have the time to properly grow will turn to mush.    I HATE winter.  I hate the cold.  I hate how everything dies.  I hate the longer nights and shorter days.  I hate pushing back the covers in the morning and being greeted with chilly air.  I hate the whiney sound our car makes because it also hates the cold.  I HATE winter and can only hope that spring comes early this year!  Here’s to hoping!