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  • 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

Here in Japan winters are a little tough

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