This will be my yearly complaint about the lack of central heating in most parts of Japan except Hokkaido (and I have only heard that they have it, I don't know how widely used it is). Probably, I wouldn't even notice if, when I turned on my natural gas heater in the morning, the thermometer didn't read 10 C. Come to think of it, it was probably just as cold in the morning in Canada. I just didn't have any numbers to verify the fact.

The nice part about my apartment is that I have a lot of windows. One wall is sliding doors to a tiny balcony, and the other window stretches all the way across the wall adjoining the sliding doors. It makes for a great sunny place, but is it ever chilly when it is cold! My gas heater pumps out a lot of heat if the door connecting to the other room is closed. I spend a lot of time huddled up in front of my heater like it was a cozy, blazing fireplace.

The two famous ways to keep warm in winter are hot carpet and kotatsu. Hot carpet is basically an electric blanket in carpet style. Kotatsu is a coffee table with a heater underneath and blankets covering the sides to create a kind of heated coffeetable tent. Winter and New Year's is the time ofKotatsu lifestyle. This consists of sitting at your kotatsu covered by the blanket, eating mandarin oranges (of course other snacks, but the oranges are the self-admitted stereotype by Japanese) and watching TV. Basically, you don't want to move from the kotatsu because it is chilly everywhere else.

So in order not to move around, several other neat things come in handy. The hot water pot. Plug it in, when the water is hot, push the plunger and a stream of water comes out to make tea. I am dying to get one of these things. The price varies from anywhere from 5000 yen to 20000 yen (50 to 200 dollars Canadian). I have no idea what the 200 dollar pot does that the cheaper version does not. Table top gas stove is also a nifty thing. Probably wasn't invented for kotatsu lifestyle, but it is great to have for nabe (like a soup) or sukiyaki (worth another entry) parties where everyone is sitting around a communal pot. Fortunately, I have the gas stove.

I used to have a kotatsu in my old apartment. I was sleeping under it (very bad for health because of dehydration) until I figured out that the reason that apartment was so cold was because there was a hole in my wall. I figure that the hole for air-conditioning hoses had been covered, but blew off in a storm. Now that apartment was chilly! I woke up one morning and found a cup of water covered in ice!

Japanese people always ask me how come I alway complain about the cold. I'm from Canada and Canada is much colder isn't it? Yes, but I can handle walking in minus 30 C from my house to the car and from my car to wherever I am going which is bound to be a comfortable 20 (at least) and I am free to wear toasty clothes and boots rather than business dress.

It's pretty much a shock to the system to go from a warm room into a room that is at least 10 degrees colder and then have to do your business!

Well, anyway, this is too long.
bye for now!