It's cold here

It's not really that cold yet. I have to remember I'm a Chicagoan. In the winter of '95 it was -75 F with wind chill. That was cold!

Everyone who has been here a year has told me to prepare for old man winter. I felt this was in complete contradiction to all the Japanese who said it barely gets cold enough to snow in my area. I'm finally starting to understand what the other JETs were talking about though. The main problem is the lack of central heating. Even though it gets much colder at home most of us go from warm houses to warm cars to warm offices or schools. Here in Japan, I wake up in a cold house, ride to work on a bicycle, and then go to a school without heat. The teacher's room has heat, but the classrooms and hallways don't. Everyone is the halls is muttering "samui" (cold) all the time.

I purchased long underwear on Monday. I've been told it will become my second skin in coming months. The students have to wear their school uniforms everyday so they just layer up underneath. One of my co-teachers said they look quite puffy in the dead of winter. I'm also told those hot gel packs are quite popular here. Apparently the students fill their pockets with them on the coldest days.

The weather turned Monday afternoon. I was sitting in my apartment watching a movie (I had the day off because I worked on Saturday), and it began growing colder. I was already wearing a sweater so I went and put on a puffy down vest. It kept getting cold so I got a blanket. My nose remained cold, so I finally had to pull out a heater. My predecessor left me with four portable heaters and I also have the wall unit (which is supposed to be really expensive). I have a heated blanket, a heated floor in half of my living room, and a kotatsu: a heated Japanese table that you put your legs under to stay warm. I'm clearly as good as I can be with heaters, but it still doesn't completely solve the heating problem. It isn't wise to leave a heater running all night so waking up cold is pretty unavoidable. Maybe my big expensive heater has a timer on it...

Now the point: Japan is known throughout the world as a pioneer of new technology and various innovations, and yet central heating in uncommon. Please do not think I'm complaining. I like camping: I can handle turning on heaters and waking up cold. It's just one more thing you wouldn't expect from one of the most "modern" countries in the world.