Surviving the Japanese Winter

First off, let me say that as a native Winnipegger, I'm not finding the "winter" weather so harsh that surviving is difficult. But the Japanese have their own way of battling the elements that is completely different than our own North American ways, which is why I've decided that is worthy of being mentioned.

How different, you ask? For starters, Japanese buildings aren't insulated. Insulation is something very new to Japan. If you live in a building that has been built in the couple of years, you have a high chance in being in a rare insulated building, but even then, it might not be as insulated as a western building. While you may be fortunate enough to have insulation, you still won't have central heating. During my adventures around Japan, I've noticed that only places of business seem to have any kind of ventilated heating system.

The really bad thing about the lack of these two familiar things is that when it's cold outside, it's cold inside. Yeah, 10ºC may not be cold, but when you're constantly surrounded by it, it gets pretty uncomfortable. This is especially true of my jr high school which doesn't have closed in hallways, so when you open a door, you're outside again. There's very little protection from the elements.

See? It's pretty crazy, right? But do not give up hope, reader! There are few simple ways to stay warm.

Blankets: The easiest way to stay warm is, of course, to wrap yourself up in a blanket. And I don't just mean at home. It seems to be a perfectly, socially acceptable to wrap your legs in a blanket at work. Almost every teacher at my school has a blanket draped over their chair. The women's blankets are predominantly designed with some sort of cartoon character, while the men's are a simple design along the lines of stripes or polka-dots. Mine is purple with black cartoon cats on it.

Hand warmers: I've only ever seen hand warmers in the movies, and even then, never in a Canadian movie. Hand warmers are little packets that magically warm up and keep you warm you up when you hold onto one. They're very popular and inexpensive. You can buy a box of 30 for about ¥500 ($5).


Electric Space heaters: Space heaters in Japan vary more than anything else in Japan. They come in various shapes, sizes, power levels and even power sources. You can choose a kerosene/electric hybrid, or just an electric heater. You can buy a large one that resembles a radiator or a tiny round one that fits on your table. Japanese air conditioners also come with a heating function, but they use a lot of energy and it takes a long time for the whole room to fill with warmth. The down side to these heaters is that they are very drying. To counter this, some of the more extravagant ones come with a humidifier option.

Kerosene Space Heaters: These space heaters seem to be very popular in Japan. I've not only seen them in homes, but all of my schools have one, and there's one in every classroom. Why they're so popular is a bit of a mystery to me. They don't seem very convenient, but they do heat up a room quite quickly. A kerosene heater needs to be plugged in order to turn on, but needs kerosene in order to run. The heater starts a fire and keeps burning until you turn it off, or it runs out of gas. Of course, it running out of gas means that you'll have to take a trip to the gas station to get some more. Another downside to the kerosene heater is that it can't be equipped with a humidifier, like its electric rival. Instead, it is common to see a large metal pot or metal kettle placed on top of the heater to allow a small amount of steam to be added to the room. While they do their job very well, I'll never buy one for my place. Not only is it inconvenient, but they are so very dangerous (c'mon, it's a caged fire!) and the smell of burning kerosene is not a pleasant one.

Kotatsu: Ah, the kotatsu. One of Japan's neatest inventions. When asking around if I should buy a space heater or a kotatsu, everyone agreed that a space heater is more practical, but that kotatsu are much more comfortable. A kotatsu is a table with a heater built into the underside of the table top. You place a blanket or rug on the floor and then place the kotatsu over that. The top of the table is removable and you place a large, thick blanket under the table top so it drapes over the edge and onto the floor. Then you turn it on and get all cozy under the blanket. It's easy to see why it's not very practical. The heat only stays under the table making it very hard to muster up the will power to leave.

Mini-kotatsu: I don't think the Japanese refer to them as mini-kotatsu, but I know that these little pink boxes are referred to as a kotatsu, so I'm using mini to just help distinguish between the two. Anyways, a mini-kotatsu is a little heater for your bed. You place it under your sheets, plug it in, turn it on, and enjoy the electric warmth.


Hot water bottles: When I say hot water bottles, you probably get an image of a soft rubber bottle that you apply to your body when you're not feeling well. The Japanese version is quite different from that. It is made of a very hard plastic that is shaped much like the mini-kotatsu, and like the mini-kotatsu, it is used to keep your bed warm. I don't know how well this item works, having never tried it. I'm still trying to figure out if it stays warm all night, or if it just makes your bed uncomfortable when the water finally goes cold.

And there you have it, 7 easy ways to stay warm in Japan. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to curl up under my kotatsu and hibernate till spring arrives.

Live! From your Local Shopping Centre

One of the things I really love about Japan is the live shows they have every weekend at the mall. Even though I live in a very small town, we're still treated to acts of music, magic and other interesting specials and exhibits. While the shows we've watched at the mall have been pretty interesting and entertaining, the show that inspired me to write this blog is the Kamen Rider mall appearance.

Kamen Rider is a Power Rangers-type show, which features people transforming into power suits to fight evil muppets. Also, much like Power Rangers, each season has a new type of Kamen Rider. I don't know anything about this particular Kamen Rider, but the kids seemed to love him.

The show in general was cute and interesting. The host, a pretty girl who referred to herself as Nee-chan (Japanese for older sister or young lady) came on to the stage and talked to the kids for a bit. From their reactions, I would say she was doing typical pre-show hypes. Like "how are you?, "I can't hear you," and "Oh, I think I hear Kamen Rider coming!" Then, as his theme music played and all the children cheered, Kamen Rider came onto the stage.


From what I've seen on anime, live shows of a Power Ranger nature usually include a simple fight against a stuntman in a costume of an evil monster. I was a little disappointed to discover that this was not one of those shows, but it was still interesting to watch.

The show was a short trivia show. Nee-chan asked 3 random trivia questions and 3 music questions. After the question was asked the audience had a few seconds to think about the answer and then they asked if anyone knew the answer. Little hands shot up into the air, complete with hopping and squeals of "oh, oh, me, me, please me!" Nee-chan picked someone, and, after they found their shoes (the audience was sitting on a mat covered floor in the center court, and since this is Japan, they had to remove their shoes), Kamen Rider helped them onto the stage. They introduced themselves, bowed to the crowd, and answered the question. Kamen Rider took a few suspenseful moments to decide if the answer was correct and then would turn to the child with one of his thumbs up. Nee-chan would happily cheer, "Bing-bong," the Japanese sound effect for a correct answer. Then the child was rewarded with a small toy. After all the questions were asked, the children had a chance to have their picture taken with the Kamen Rider. Of course, the Japanese parents were ready with cameras in tow.

While it wasn't the evil doer butt-kick show I was expecting, it was still fun to experience. After all, it's not everyday you get to see a superhero in person.

Here's a short video of Kamen Rider's entrance. There's no subtitles, cause, well, I don't know Japanese well enough yet to add them. Enjoy!

Sightseeing with Koren-sensei

Nishiwaki's sister city is the town of Renton, Washington. As part of their sisterhood, the two cities partake in a student exchange of sorts. For a little bit more than a week, some jr high students from Nishiwaki visit Renton and live with a host family. This year, this happened in August, when the Nishiwaki students were on summer break. Then, in October, the Renton host students came to Nishiwaki and stayed with the student they had hosted. I don't know how the students are chosen, but a total of 15 students who represent the four jr high schools in Nishiwaki took part in this program.

In October, when it was Nishiwaki's turn to host, the city and board of education had a bunch of tours and activities planned for the visiting Rentonites (Rentoners? Rentonians?). Each of these tours and activites included an ALT to help with language barriers and to just be a representative of the Nishiwaki Board of Education. On the day that I hung out with the Rentons, we went to Himeji Castle.

Himeji Castle is the most popular castle in Japan and is located pretty close to Nishiwaki. To give you an idea of how popular this castle is, we went on a Tuesday afternoon in October and we had to wait in lines while moving through the castle. Not only were there students visiting the castle as part of a field trip, but we saw multiple foreign visitors: Austrialias, British, and I think I might have ran into some Germans.

This six-storey castle was built in 1333 and has been restored many times since then, but they make sure to keep all the details. Like the wodden frame and white plaster walls. It's because of these white walls that the castle has been given the nickname of White Heron Castle (Shirasagijō).

If you think this castle looks familiar, chances are you've seen it before. The castle has been featured in many movies including James Bond: You Only Live Twice and The Last Samurai.

Engrish

This is something I wanted to stay away from, but after seeing this sign today, I decided that I couldn't ignore it anymore.Okay, so, from now on I will do some Engrish updates. There's just too many examples of it in this country to ignore it any longer. Plus, it is pretty funny.

New Years in Japan

I love Christmas time. The sights, the sounds, the feeling of peace and joy on Earth. The love and merriment, and even the craziness. I love it all. Sadly, Christmas is not a big holiday in Japan. The Japanese are so in love with western culture that they try to copy our big holidays, but they seem to only copy the decorating part and miss the true joy of the holidays.


So, needless to say, my Christmas in Japan was quite tame. I was lucky enough to have the day off, and I spent the time talking with family in Canada. I also went shopping to get a few last minute things for the Christmas dinner Kris and I had with our friends. It wasn't a bad Christmas, just not a Christmas I'm used too. There wasn't even any snow!

But don't think just because there wasn't a grand Christmas that Japan is lacking on holidays. They have more than enough of their own. For starters, they have two four-day holidays; one in the spring called Golden week, and one in the fall called Silver week. They also have a whole slew of holidays thrown into their year. So many that it seems like I have a stat-holiday at least once a month. But the big Japanese holiday is New Years.

Unlike us, the Japanese aren't big on staying up till midnight to watch a glittering ball drop. If they do decide to stay up late, they'll stay up all night to watch the sun-rise. Many temples accommodate this tradition by having a festival all night that offers food, beer and other sundries to visitors. Then, on January 1st, thousands of people gather to the shrines and temples (don't ask me the difference between the two cause I have no idea).

While they do enjoy the festival, the big thing is to make an offering at the temple, ring the bell, and pray for good fortune for the upcoming year. After the prayer, you can purchase a multitude of charms and horoscopes. If you have a horoscope that predicts misfortune, you tie it to a tree (or any spot that has been dedicated to this custom). Some shrines (like the one we went to) also offer other mini-shrines you can make offerings to and pray to. These shrines are dedicated to a certain cause. For example, if you are a student preparing for your entrance exams for high school or university, you might make an offering to a shrine for education.

The shrine that we went to is pretty popular because, apparently, it specializes in car blessings. The cars line up at the front of one of the shrines and then everyone gets out of their car and goes inside. I have no idea what happens in there, but after a very long time, they come out and enter their cars. The monks from the shrine come outside and stand on the balcony and do a special car chant, complete with gongs and bells. Once the chant is done, a few of the monks walk amongst the cars with large poles that have a bunch of papers attached to them. I don't fully understand the papers, but they are folded a certain way to make them good luck charms. Anyways, the monks wave the poles around the cars while chanting. Once they are done, the cars leave the parking area, and the next group comes in.

Visiting the shrine is only one of the new years traditions. The other main tradition is the family time. Children (no matter what their age) return to their parents' home. They usually stay from the first until at least the third. During this time, no cooking or cleaning is supposed to be done. Which means that the poor mother is cooking like a mad woman on the thirty-first so that everything is ready for the upcoming feasts. I don't know a lot about these feasts, but I do know a bit about the food. One common new years food is zoni, which is a special vegetable and chicken soup. This soup is made with toasted mochi (rice cakes). We made it for our new years dinner and it was really yummy. Definitely something we'll make again.

Other foods that are common to new years are these boxes filled with different types of vegetables and seafood, like whole shrimp. The boxes should be assembled at home, but you can buy them from stores in advanced and have them delivered to your home either on new years or just in time for new years. But these boxes don't come cheap. The grocery store in the mall was selling them for about $100. I think I saw even some at 7-11 for $35. I don't know the full story, but each food has a special meaning, like long life or prosperity or something else depending on the food. Each thing is supposed to help bring good luck in the new year, and chase off evil spirits.

Since all this time is being spent with the family, a lot of places are closed until the 3rd or 4th. It's not as bad as I thought it would be. My bank's ATMs are open, but I've noticed a few that are closed. The big chain stores are open, but a lot of the smaller, family owned places are closed. The buses and trains are running, but a lot of them are running on a holiday schedule. Even some of the tourist destinations are closed.

The stores that are open offer "Happy Bags." Depending on the store and the items, a happy bag can go for $5-$100. They are filled with items from the store. Each store has signs and pictures of what is in the happy bag. I've seen happy bags filled with candy, clothes, picnic supplies and even stuff for the kitchen. Its a pretty cool idea, and one that works really well with another new years tradition: money envelopes.

I guess its okay that they don't have Christmas, because they have this tradition instead. On New Years day, parents give their children, under the age of 20, envelopes filled with money. From what I've been told, the older you are, the more money you receive. Many of my jr high school students will get $30-$50. The envelopes here are really cute, too. They have many different designs, from flowers, to the animals of the Chinese zodiac, to popular characters like Disney Princesses and Thomas the train engine.

The last tradition that I know about is New Years cards. The idea behind them is similar to Christmas cards. You buy, or make, cards that wish the people in your life good luck in the upcoming year. These cards are such a big deal that the post office guarantees delivery of your cards in time for new years as long as you drop them off by a certain time. The only major difference between these cards and our Christmas cards is that they don't sell them in bulk. Of course, in North America, you can go to almost any store and buy a box of Christmas cards for a few dollars. In Japan, you can buy new years cards from most stores or the post office, but they all go for 50¢ a card. Which can get really expensive really fast. I know the teachers I work with are buying them not only for their friends and family, but also for their homeroom students and students that are in the clubs that they supervise.

Japanese New Years might not be as awesome as Christmas is, but its still really interesting to experience this culture and enjoy their holidays and traditions.

Welcome to 2010

Hello blog-verse and Happy New Year!

My resolutions for the new year is to post a new blog once a week. Starting with this Sunday. So hold onto your hat, dear readers, 2010 promises to be one heck of a ride!