This week it got cold. Like winter cold. Like toodamncold.
Now as you may know, I live in southern Japan, so the winters are mild. even in December and January, i can rarely expect it to drop below freezing, and even more rarely can i expect snow. Well this week it has been below freezing and it snowed. Still, this should be no big deal, as I am used to Boston and Chicago winters, where the temperature is zero and the windchill is ten below. but the problem is that there really is NO insulation in this country. My walls are only a few inches thick, and on top of that, about 30% of the wallspace in my apartment is occupied by single-pane windows or sliding glass doors. There are a number of home-brew, ghetto solutions, namely taping plastic up over the windows and doors, but it hasn't come down to that yet (In other words, i havent ridden my bike to the mall where i can look for a kit or forraged through the dumpster for large sheets of plastic).
So what does all this mean in the here and now? it means i caught i cold. Between not sleeping enough, spending all of last weekend sleeping on the floors (friday night with the window open, thanks laura) and having friends over last night for a sukiyaki party, which led to Tuesday-night drinking and smash brothers rage... somehow i caught a sore throat and the sniffles. Well go figure. that's what i get eh?
The point is, tonight i am staying home from my Japanese class, because the last thing i need is an expensive, freezing cold commute for a class that will ensure that i dont get home till 11. Instead i have been updating flickr with Osaka pictures and set up my kotatsu.
I was planning on butchering my basil plant to make pesto tonight, since as the temperature drops, so will its life expectency, but i realized that i did not have pine nuts on hand, and riding my bike across town to the grocery store would probably defeat the purpose of me "resting up and getting better."
So that means it's pizza again! this time ordering was (relatively) a breeze. She already had my information so all i had to awkwardly stumble through was pizza selection, crust width, etc.
it comes in 10 minutes and every time they bring me a new 300円 coupon with my reciept (and wow, i just realized how bad [good] the exchange rate has gotten. i should start sending money home). This time the delivery man used ultra-polite subservient japanese and bowed deeply (90-degrees!) after giving me my change and my cheesy gold. I could get used to this.
Oh, I also judged a debate contest last week.
Showing posts with label kotatsu. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kotatsu. Show all posts
a table that is more than a table
I just set up my kotatsu for the first time and OH MY GOD.
this is amazing.
for months my kotatsu sat in my living room, functioning as a mere regular table. i ate on it. i put books on it. I used my laptop on it. But now in Fukuoka, it's starting to get cold. Well as cold as it does get down here in Kyushu. Winter temperatures drop to around freezing, and snow is rare. sounds mild, but Japanese homes have NO insulation, which means if it's 32 degrees outside, it's 32 degrees inside, too, unless you do something about it. Japan relies on space heaters instead of insulation and central heat.
A kotatsu is a square table with a space on the underside for an electric heater to be screwed in. Additionally the tabletop is removable so that you can sandwich a blanket between the table fram and the tabletop surface. brilliant. So now i am sandwiched between a blanket on the floor and a blanket at table-level, with all this delicious heat being trapped inside and warming happily. To sweeten the deal, when i took off the tabletop to put the blanket in, i found that it is reversable. All this time i had been using white and now i have switched it to sexy black.
Icing on the cake? i'm using the internet for free, eating a bowl of spicy curry, and sipping a an autumn ale. Mochi for dessert.
Lovin' it. Now if only i didn't have to wake up in 8 hours.
This is my kotatsu:
I'm now eating a kotatsu mochi and am gonna fire up the wii for 15 minutes or so of kotatsu smash brothers before i crawl into my cold, unheated bed. I can see why people like to sleep in here.
this is amazing.
for months my kotatsu sat in my living room, functioning as a mere regular table. i ate on it. i put books on it. I used my laptop on it. But now in Fukuoka, it's starting to get cold. Well as cold as it does get down here in Kyushu. Winter temperatures drop to around freezing, and snow is rare. sounds mild, but Japanese homes have NO insulation, which means if it's 32 degrees outside, it's 32 degrees inside, too, unless you do something about it. Japan relies on space heaters instead of insulation and central heat.
A kotatsu is a square table with a space on the underside for an electric heater to be screwed in. Additionally the tabletop is removable so that you can sandwich a blanket between the table fram and the tabletop surface. brilliant. So now i am sandwiched between a blanket on the floor and a blanket at table-level, with all this delicious heat being trapped inside and warming happily. To sweeten the deal, when i took off the tabletop to put the blanket in, i found that it is reversable. All this time i had been using white and now i have switched it to sexy black.
Icing on the cake? i'm using the internet for free, eating a bowl of spicy curry, and sipping a an autumn ale. Mochi for dessert.
Lovin' it. Now if only i didn't have to wake up in 8 hours.
This is my kotatsu:
I'm now eating a kotatsu mochi and am gonna fire up the wii for 15 minutes or so of kotatsu smash brothers before i crawl into my cold, unheated bed. I can see why people like to sleep in here.
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