Christmas Lights - 12/06

Japan doesn't celebrate Christmas, as it's not a particularly a Shinto, Buddhist thing. New Year's is the major holiday and with it comes the family gatherings, special meals and celebrations.

Christmas Eve is a date night for young couples and the tradition on Christmas day is to have a Kentucky Fried Chicken dinner. The Colonel must be a good marketer because it's not like THAT dates back to the Meiji period.

The stores do decorate and play cheesy Christmas music. We bought a small artificial tree to brighten our December, and put it in the front window. Shortly afterwards, a neighbor across the street put up Christmas lights. Then the neighbor on the other side did too. Gee, that was nice. When the third neighbor put up lights, I was shamed into going out and buying our own. Our road is quite cheery.

Then I noticed that the Christmas lights are an anomaly in our development. No one else on the other streets had them.

What great neighbors!

Heating with 30 amps - 12/06

Our house only has 30 amps of available power. Total. For all our electrical needs.

Japanese homes do not have central heating. Here in southern Japan, the homes are also not insulated. (I'm hoping this is not the case in snowy Hokkaido.) So, what to do for heat... We leased electrical wall units that are combination a/c -heat. They mount on an outside wall, and are fairly efficient. Unless you only have 30 amps.

The last few weeks were rainy and cold. Okay, only in 40s, but this Vermont girl would've had the woodstove cranking. So, you guessed it, every time we turned on one heater and something else, like the microwave, we'd overload the circuit.

Now being whiney Americans, we got on the phone and had the electrical folks come and up our amps (50!!!). Well, actually, Ian got on the phone (thanks, Ian). But it made me wonder how the previous occupants handled the winter.

First of all, I found out that we don't have the right kind of dining room table. The traditional table is low to the ground, with just enough space for your legs when sitting on the floor/cushion. Called a kotatsu, the table is fitted with a central heat lamp and there's a special quilted tablecloth that goes around the table and the diners to hold in the heat. No one ever wants to leave the table.

Kerosene heaters are also quite popular. Kerosene is cheap compared to electricity and the little heaters throw off a lot of heat. The best part is the kerosene delivery truck comes through the neighborhood to fill your tank. They play special kerosene music so you know it's them and you don't get confused with the produce truck and the roasted sweet potato truck. For the first month of cool weather, another truck drove around in the evening yelling out reminders for people to turn off their heaters.

Then there is the toilet seat heater. We do have one of those, so we're ready for winter now.