Winter is Coming

Winter is coming. (Cliche now, huh? Dang.) As my friends and family in the US break out their winter coats, there too is a chill in the Hokkaido air. I am curious to discover if what I've heard about Hokkaido winters is all hype, or if this is the real deal:

"Shovel your roof or the corners of your house will break off." "At night, keep your heater on or your pipes will freeze." "It is so cold in our school in winter!" The temperature hasn't dropped below freezing and people here are breaking out their winter tires and wrapping themselves in blankets in the office. The fact that it's now November and hasn't snowed makes me think that either this will be an unusually mild winter, or that people in Hokkaido "can't take the heat" (to use a totally ineffective idiom.)

Do I really need a flare in my car!? It's the law here that your vehicle be equipped with a working flare. I'm setting it off of the 4th of July if I don't use it this winter! Do I really need to put chains on my tires to go uphill? Bubble wrap all of my windows because there is no insulation? (Just did that - they sell huge sheets at Homac - the closest equivalent to Walmart there is).

What the heck is going on here? Why are Japanese homes so unprepared for what seems like a winter of epic proportions? I am really confused about all of this. I have had multiple people explain to me how to shovel, scrape snow off of my car windows, and use antifreeze. You guys, Minnesota is about the same latitude as Hokkaido. 

Well, despite the hype, one of the things that will be fun about winter is how winter activities feel like a cultural common ground from Minnesota to Hokkaido. Paper snowflakes? Derivative of Japanese paper cutting art kirigami. Snowmen? Snow forts? They have them in Japan! Giant ice sculptures? You'll see photos this February from Sapporo's Yuki Matsuri Snow Festival! I wonder if children make snow angels? At one of my schools, I was asked to create my own lesson about anything, previous ALTs did team-building games and taught students how to play cricket. Maybe we can have a winter culture share. Do they snowshoe here? Maybe we can play some winter tackle football.

When I return to Minnesota, I hope to transfer some extremely useful things that I have found in Japan. One is the kotatsu, a small table with a built-in heater, which, when covered by a think blanket, traps heat inside and keeps you toasty! My supervisor admitted that when she was a little girl, she used to try to hide and sleep under the kotatsu, but her mother always caught her and said, "dame!" - bad. However, most people I know can't sit comfortably on the floor. Maybe heated lazy boy recliners are more in the style of Americans. Or heated Snuggies! I bet someone has invented that already, like every good idea I have. The last one I can remember is a bicycle seat for men that has a space for the testicles to hang out. Already exists. One of these days I will be a great inventor.

Another thing that makes winter bearable in Japan that does not exist in the US is the onsen/public bath/hot spring/spa. In all honesty, onsens are one of my absolute favorite parts of Japan. It's like really cheap, accessible, beautiful, hot tub, with health benefits from the minerals in the water. Recently, I bathed outdoors, finding refuge from the cool air, while enjoying the brilliant fall colors. After I visit the onsen, I feel imbued with a magical transcendent calmness aura for the next few days.

Onsens would just not work in the U.S. Why not? Firstly, Americans are far too uncomfortable with their own bodies to be naked together. Which is a shame, because modesty aside, there is something really humanizing about just being together with other people, resting, naked. Japanese often talk about the virtues of "naked communion" (hadaka no tsukiai) for breaking down barriers and getting to know people in a relaxed atmosphere. Many Japanese television programs feature local onsens, having special access with a video camera, male reporters wearing only a small modesty towel. There is a lot of nudity on Japanese TV, and not in a sexual way - often in a normal or comedic way. I find these differences really interesting. Secondly, onsen would probably turn into gay hangouts. Don't you think? Is that controversial? Sorry. 

Here's an interesting anecdote about Yunohana Onsen in Otaru, Hokkaido (only a few hours from me). In 2001, owners refused service to foreigners, referring to incidents by rowdy Russian fisherman causing loss of business. They put up a "Japanese Only" sign. They were sued. They lost. 

On that note, I don't have anything else to say about winter, except SNOW ALREADY! I made a bunch of paper snowflakes for Christmas party decorations, but I thought that it's a ritual kind of like a rain dance or something. I didn't take up like 1/7 of my luggage to Japan with snow boots for nothin'! 

But seriously folks, global warming.