On things which are heated:

Author's note: (as if this whole thing wasn't an author's note) I fail at once a week. Whatever.

It's finally getting colder in Japan. This honestly makes me really happy, as it had been unseasonably warm lately, and I prefer cold weather to hot weather. Warm weather is of course best, but being from Minnesota, what seems warm to me is cold to everyone here. Whatever. The point being, as the Japanese feel colder and colder, things begin to become heated. Sometimes things that should be heated, and sometimes things that should not.

Houses -
Japanese houses are not heated. Nor are they insulated very well at all. It doesn't get nearly as cold in Japan as it gets back home, but still, as I write this, my hands are cold enough to make typing somewhat frustrating. I understand why they don't heat their houses, but what I don't really get is why in the hell they leave the windows open. Seriously. You complain when it's cold outside, and yet you leave all the windows open. Including the ones in the bathroom. This is unpleasant, and I don't understand.

Tables -
To compensate for non-heated houses, Japanese people have something called a kotatu, which is basically a table with a heating element under it and a blanket over it that they pull out when it gets cold enough, and everyone sits around it. Very comfy. Has yet to come out.

Toilet seats -
This is nice, particularly with the windows always being open. Turns what would be extremely unpleasant into... very strange. See, the thing that always comes to mind for me when I sit on a toilet seat, only to find it warm, is that someone has just been sitting there before me. Kinda gross, kinda not. Whatever. It's just strange when it doesn't go away.

Trains -
This one seems like it might be a good thing, but... somehow it manages not to be. See, it didn't start getting seriously cold (below around 50) here until this week, but the trains have been heated for three weeks to a month. And by heated, I mean very heated. Even before, it was enough to make a person (not just me) sweat while just standing there. And even now, when it is cold enough that I am wearing a light jacket or sweatshirt, I want to take it off on that damn train, because it's too warm. The strangest thing is it's not even every train. It is in fact one train; the first train I take every day. Trains should be heated, but this gets a "you're doing it wrong".

I don't really want to take this blog in the direction of "I'm in Japan and everything is weird and different, and please laugh at my funny commentary," but this time I couldn't resist writing about it.

...please laugh at my funny commentary.