Staying Warm

This past Saturday, Adam and I were invited to a Christmas dinner with the other Canadians we know in the area.  We had a lovely time eating ham, mashed potatoes, and apple pie.  We contributed some homemade bread rolls, banana chocolate cake, and cookies to the dinner.

On Sunday, we woke up to more snow!  We decided that it could be dangerous (and difficult) biking to church so we took the train.  However, on the way home, we decided to walk.  It only took about 1 hour and 45 minutes to go from Ogaki church to our home.  Seeing as in Canada we always like to go for walks on Sunday, this was a great way to admire the snow and enjoy the early afternoon.  I think one of my favourite "pictures" was seeing an orange tree with ripe oranges and all it's leaves still on with snow all around.  Today, we woke up to snow and it's been snowing all day.

Here are some pictures of the snow.

Sunrise outside our window this morning.

Outside out front step

They have these mirrors at most intersections to help people see who's coming
with all the blind corners.

Orange tree in someone's yard.

There's still flowers on trees.

I think this is a temple- it's close to our house.

So you may be asking yourself how do you stay warm without central heating?  Do you just eat soup and drink tea all day?  While we certainly do drink our fair share of tea and eat soup, we have other ways of heating our house. First off let me say that I think Japanese people are tougher than Canadians in terms of the cold.  In Canada, we have it good.  We get into a warm car and then into a warm building and you really don't have to spend that much time outside.  In Japan, if you go out, you turn off all the heat so when you come home it's the same temperature inside as outside and the houses aren't well insulated.  At our adult English class this past week, we were talking about the weather.  Two ladies asked me if I had ever gotten frostbite.  I talked about how in Canada winters are very cold, so when you're outside you can get frostbite and you have to be careful.  Well, I was sure surprised when they shared with me about how they get frostbite on their toes in their homes!  One lady said, "Because my home is so old and it's so windy even with the windows closed the curtains blow."  

Our home is really drafty, but probably not as bad as hers.  We got our old kerosene heater up and running which heats up our whole house pretty quickly.  I guess people who lived in our house in the past didn't use it because it lets off CO.  We just got ourselves a CO detector, and crack the window open every once and a while.  Since our home is older and drafty, I don't think we have to worry too much about it even with the windows closed.  We also have two air conditioners that have heat settings.  These take much longer than the kerosene heater to warm up and are pretty expensive.  Then, we have the kotatsu which is a low table with a heater underneath that you cover with a heavy blanket (or in our case a heavy rug, I found in the closet).  Finally, we have a heated toilet seat.  I was never a big fan of heated toilet seats, but in the middle of the night when your house gets really cold and you got to go, it's really nice to have.  :)

Now, I'd like to wish you all a Merry Christmas.  Adam and I will be leaving on our trip to Ishigaki next week, so my next post will be all about that trip.