cold in japan

Tonight it's hitting the low 40s (F) here in Hitachinaka. During the day it reaches the high 50s, which, for an Ohioan, isn't that cold. Heck, Ohioans pray for the temperatures to hit the 40s and 50s in winter. That's warm.

Consider this, though. Imagine your place of employment did not believe in the concept of "indoor heating." Imagine that, some mornings, you could walk along the halls and see your breath. Imagine that your place of employment left several windows all over the building open a crack (or all the way) while it was in the mid-50s outside. Then imagine that amidst all that, there is rarely a source of heat outside of a hot cup of tea, the heated toilet seats in a few of the bathrooms, the teacher's room (where you do not spend most of your time), and whatever warm clothes you've piled on.
Imagine you're already cold, and when you go to class to teach, the kids yank open the windows because they've been running around outside for gym class and they're hot. Then, when the room's cold, nobody turns on the heat. They just... close the windows. Mostly.

This is Japan.

Malls, shops, and restaurants are heated. The schools, though... not so much. And it seems that many apartments have such dubious insulation that layering clothes and huddling around a heater or kotatsu (heated table) are the ways in which you're expected to keep warm. Clothing stores also sell specialized insulation shirts and leggings with "fiber heat" and "heat-tech" technology that does, in fact, help you keep in that much-needed body heat. Still, you can't go to school in a thin sweater and expect that to be enough.

Despite all this, the jr. high and high school girls still wear skirts to school. Some of the elementary girls wear skirts to school, and it's not even their uniform. Sure, they've got knee socks pulled up nearly to their thighs, but that's still bare skin left out in the cold. I even see 2nd and 1st graders running outside to gym class in their P.E. shorts and t-shirts. If you ask the kids if they're cold, they answer in the affirmative, but for Japan, this seems to be a fact of life. Yeah, they're cold; everyone's cold. What are you gonna do about it? There's no indoor heating in the schools. There are A/C units, and sometimes the classrooms have giant gas heaters in the corners, but I have yet to see any of them turned on.

This isn't to say that everyone is blue in the face and that teeth-chattering drowns out any teaching I do. It's just, Japan's culture is more inclined to bundle up their bodies for warmth than insulate and heat the rooms they're in. It's more energy efficient, I'm sure. But it also means that shopping for a Japanese winter is much different than shopping for an Ohio winter. In Ohio, you buy clothes that will keep you warm when you go outside, with the expectation that several layers can come off when you're indoors. In Japan, you layer your clothes underneath, and only add some accessories plus a coat/jacket when you go outside. Japanese people (in Hitachinaka at least) seem to accept a slight chill as a daily inconvenience and move on.

I've come to appreciate the heat of a hot cup of tea in the mornings, the insulation that layers of blankets provide, and the fashionable look of one shirt peaking out of the collar of another. I've learned that there is no refuge, so you must make one, and enjoy it while you're there. I've come to accept that come January, my electricity bill for my apartment is going to be hideous from all my A/C heater use. And I'm fine with that.

Japan's winter seems to only just be setting in, while Ohio has already had plenty of snow. I'll see what January and February bring, and make sure I plan sufficiently for the cold weather of Kyoto when I visit the southern city for Christmas.