Learning to Love the Cold

So I was thinking that since I dedicate this blog to all the people at home traveling vicariously through me, I really should be writing about everything that is included in being abroad. Not just the fun stuff and the major events, but also the mundane everyday things; stuff I tend to take for granted.

This post was inspired by two recent related pieces of news I have received. One, that the weather is expected to get a bit warmer as of tomorrow. And two, that my friend Mike has finally thrown in the towel and turned on the heat. The relevance of the first news is probably obvious, but the second needs some explaining.

Mike is a Canadian JET who lives in a neighboring town, and a good friend of mine. He is socially and environmentally conscious in the best and worst of ways, and I say this with complete fondness. This winter, he decided that he would not use his heat AT ALL, so he would not contribute to global warming any more than he had to. I totally support him, in spite of fact that I think he is nuts. Every time I see him, he shares stories of his latest tricks for staying warm (which included learning to type with one hand so the other hand stayed could his pocket), and talks yearningly of spring days to come. We were all rooting for him to make it through the winter, but this week he had to give it up because he was having migraines. But it is damn impressive that he made it this far!

So by this point, you might be wondering - just how cold does it get in this part of Japan? Actually, it gets cold, but compared to many other places in the world (Canada being one), it really does not get THAT cold. Nighttime temperatures are usually barely above freezing, with the daytime usually being at least a few degrees warmer. It is not the warmest place I have lived, but it is not the coldest either (Seoul was much, much colder!)

But if you will allow me to play with definitions a bit, and measure temperature by how much the cold is actually FELT, then Shizuoka is by far the coldest place I have ever lived. The reason - it is just warm enough to be tolerated, and the Japanese are all about building character. Meaning - when my apartment and school were built, central heating and insulation were not considered necessary, or maybe left out to save money. And that means not only being cold when you are outside, but also being cold a good portion of the time you are indoors as well!

I essentially live in a concrete block, with super drafty windows. For heat, I use either a electric space heater or kerosene. The kerosene heater works really well, but I can only heat one room at a time. Luckily, my kitchen, living room and bedroom are connected by sliding doors that can be opened or closed depending on how large a space you need to heat, but it is really inefficient to heat them all at once. So I usually heat only the kitchen and/or living room when I am home. About 30 minutes before I go to bed, I have to move the kerosene heater into my bedroom and pre-heat it before I go to sleep. I don't sleep with any heaters on, because it is dangerous and expensive. About 10 minutes after the heaters are turned off, the temperature in my bedroom is back down to about 10 degrees C, and by that time I snuggled deep down under my blankets, wearing sweats, wool socks and a hooded sweatshirt to keep out the cold. Recently I have begun filling a plastic liter bottle with hot water and putting it down by my feet. I've got it down to science, and manage to stay really warm at night. But I hate waking up and feeling how cold my nose is!

And don't even ask about the rest of the rooms in the house - which is where all bathroom, washing, showering, laundry, doing hair and makeup and changing of clothing takes place. Those stay cold, and I just suffer when I have to be in them.

At school, it is pretty much the same story. Only the teachers room is heated, so when I teach I often have to wear a jacket and gloves. And the toilet in the staff bathroom has a heated seat, but the bathroom itself is not heated! I feel sooo sorry for the students, who sit most of their day in those cold classrooms, but that is the Japanese character building for you!

Here is my morning routine - wake up and spend about 10 minutes enjoying the warm bed I have spent all night creating, psyching myself up for the cold. I get up, and let the shock of the icy cold toilet seat jolt me awake. Turn on the shower to let it warm up, undress in the spare room (where I keep my clothes), and run into the shower. The water temperature/pressure doesn't get *quite* warm enough to do much for the body in the time it takes for a morning shower, and the instant the water is off, I am chilly again. Make a brief stop in the kitchen to move the kerosene heater from the bedroom and turn it on, then run to the spare room, dry off and throw on clothes as fast as I can. Make-up and hair are done in the cold, and my only warm moments in the morning are spent in the kitchen eating breakfast. Then it is time to bundle up for the 25 minute bike ride to school, and by the time I get there my core is warm, but the surface areas that get hit by the wind are frozen - especially my face and thighs. And then I sit in the teacher's room nursing a hot cup of tea while I defrost. As soon as it is time to teach, the jacket and glove go back on.

So can you see what I mean by "how much the cold is felt?" Winter in Shizuoka is a constant game of cat and mouse played with the cold. In cold places with proper heat and insulation, you are only cold when you go outside, but here, you are also cold for a good portion of the time you are inside. Even if you get all nice and warm for a bit, it is inevitable that you have to leave the warm place within a short time. For example, right now I am warm enough because I am shut up in my living room with the heater on, but I have to pee, and I have to clean up the kitchen, and I eventually have to get ready for bed, and the instant I step out of this room I will be freezing again.

Feeling sorry for me yet? Don't! In the spirit of the Japanese, I like to think how all this "suffering" is making me tougher. Think about it - in the modern world, we have so many accommodations to minimize our discomfort, and it ends up making us sort of wimpy. At least I know it made me wimpy - a little cold, a little heat, too much physical exertion, and I was whining like a baby. But I think there is really something to be said for the old adage, "Stop complaining, it builds character!" There is something that happens mentally and spiritually when you have to "tough it out;" it makes you a stronger and even more humble person. I've seen pilgrims walking for 100 miles to visit a sacred spot, I've built houses alongside people who eat nothing but a bowl of rice everyday, and I've taught 15 year old girls who sit all day in a zero degree classroom wearing a skirt - what do I have to complain about?

Which brings me back to the first piece of news mentioned earlier in this post - that the weather was expected to get warmer tomorrow. As much as I have been looking forward to spring, I actually felt a small twinge of disappointment when I heard that. Like, I've finally got this whole winter thing down pat, and it is already ending? But I was just starting to really toughen up! I guess I've done such a good job of turning lemons into lemonade that I don't want to see the lemons go! I like my cold lemonade!

Not that I won't be thrilled once I can sleep without a hooded sweatshirt and teach without my jacket on.....