Random Event Of The Day 6

It's all a bit tense here at the moment, so, might as well lighten things up with some good old Japanese randomness.

The power cuts, as mentioned in my post below, have been going on in various areas around Japan for the last few days. On Tuesday, the school I was at decided to carry on with normal lessons in spite of a three-hour cut planned in the middle of the day, which I think makes sense. What didn't make sense was everyone worrying that it was going to get too cold...it was so strange. All winter I've been going to that school, in freezing temperatures, snow a-falling outside, feeling like I was in the coldest place in the world and I can't ever remember anybody mentioning anything about the fact that the kids might be cold. It's an old building, the heating is so poor and, indeed, the room I teach English in has NO HEATING AT ALL. But a 3-hour power cut in not too cold weather and all anyone was talking about was how cold it was. "Mark, aren't you cold?" "Yes" I answered, stumbling, bewildered because I was thinking "I've been cold for 4 months and you've never asked before." Everyone worried a lot about the lack of heating (bear in mind the English room has no heating ever anyway!!) and one teacher even gave me an extra jacket which I felt was a bit rude to turn down so I was marching around school, pretending to look colder than I was, in a really nice white Zara long-necked jumper, poking out from underneath a GIGANTIC plastic navy tracksuit top...ironically this was all before the cut even started and...it never even happened! I think I was actually a bit hot in the end!

Me and My Kotatsu

"What is a Kotatsu?" I hear you cry! A kotatsu, not to be confused with the famous hot spring Kusatsu or the the delish pork cutlet and rice dish katsudon (not that I'm speaking from experience of course), is a short heated Japanese table that is used in Japan to keep warm during the winter. The Japanese winter is so so cold. Actually, I take that back...where I live, it's fairly similar to London I imagine, but it just feels ten times colder because the heating is so poor that you might as well be standing outside the whole time. To combat this, rather than installing good heating, the Japanese have come up with this cunning way to convince us all that we are warm. My normal table actually turns into a kotatsu in the winter. That makes it sounds like it's an automatic change, which, believe me, it very very much isn't. The table is heated electrically underneath and the top comes off so that you can put a thick blanket over it and let it fall over your legs, keeping the heat in. It can then be placed back on top of the blanket so that your table can still be used as a table. Does that make any sense at all? Maybe a photo would help, so here is a picture of my kotatsu:

It is very comforting to sit under it, but I know I'd rather be in an actual WARM ROOM and therefore not need the tiny bit of boiling hot space UNDER A TABLE that I am crammed into.

Advantages of kotatsus:

1. They keep your feet nice and toasty.

2. They allow you to use your funky floor chair if you are as cool enough to own one (as I clearly am). I love my floor chair.

Disadvantages of kotatsus:

1. It gives you only 2 square feet of warmth, which is just a few cm off of the ground.

2. It means that the only warm parts of your house are under a table and the toilet seat, with the fridge coming in third place...not the most practical of locations.

3. It makes you try to wedge yourself into the aforementioned 2 square feet of impractically located space, which even a contortionist couldn't do and then when you get the maximum amount of your body under it, you realise that it's so hot under there that you have to withdraw a bit every minute or so and sit in a sort of hovering semi-wedge.

4. You fall asleep in said wedge or semi-wedge position and wake up with boiling legs, a freezing head and an aching back.

5. It's name leads you to tell people that you ate a table for dinner or feel asleep under your pork cutlet and rice (may or may not have happened to me).

However, in spite of myself, I do spend most of my time at home wedged or semi-wedged under the thing and that is indeed, where I am now, writing to you. It's so very impractical, but when everywhere is so cold, it really is a God-send...me and my kotatsu have a true love-hate relationship. Floor chair is all love, as is katsudon and Kusatsu.