We made a quick trip up to Sapporo for the 65th annual snow festival in early February. I'm from St. Paul, Minnesota (where we have our own winter carnival) so I was curious to see how Japan "did" a snow festival. One main difference is that they get a lot more snow in Sapporo (over 20 feet/year!) - it's one of the snowiest cities in the world. That translates to some giant, really impressive snow sculptures - and lots of people that want to see them. Over 2 million people visit Sapporo during the week of the festival to view these ephemeral snow and ice creations. Although it was crowded, it didn't detract from the beauty and I really enjoyed the festive atmosphere.
Jiyūgaoka is one of the most desirable neighborhoods in Tokyo. I can see why - it's got it all. Shops, cafes, restaurants, bars, adorable tree lined streets, lots of dogs...yeah, I could picture myself here :)
This is definitely a dog neighborhood
It's an international neighborhood with a lot of expats
The stereotype of Japan is that the houses are cold and drafty...annnd that's one stereotype I can confirm that's definitely true. :)
It’s cold in our house. So far our “record low” in the house
is below 45 degrees Fahrenheit. How do know that? Well, first of all, I could
see my breath in the kitchen. And second, the olive oil was thick and cloudy,
which apparently can happen below 45-50 degrees. Yeah. Yikes!
It’s not that cold outside – above freezing, usually.
However, our house is old for Japan (1975) and lacks insulation and double
paned windows. Even newer houses aren't that well insulated - one of the mysteries of Japan. We can actually feel the wind blowing through the house. I’m
from Minnesota, so I *thought* I was used to the cold. Ha! Well, this is a
whole different story.
We have ductless wall unit air conditioners that also function as
heaters. These are used in most of Asia and lots of other places around the
world. Very inefficient in our house – sometimes we can’t heat the living room
above 55 degrees even when we have the heater set on the maximum setting (30
degrees Celsius/86 degrees Fahrenheit!!). I envision that all the heat goes
straight out the roof. Also, not all of our rooms have heaters – the bathroom
and kitchen don’t, so we use a space heater or we just tough it out.
Useless air con/heater unit
The heated toilet seats in the
bathrooms are awesome too. Technically, it's a "Warmlet," as opposed to a Washlet, which is the full-on Japanese bidet toilet. When we discovered we had them in the house, we thought "ooh, fancy!" No, no, not really -- more like a necessity when it feels cold as ice in the bathroom!
We also have a pretty sweet bathtub like all homes in Japan.
Our furo fills up with the touch of a
button and recirculates the water so it stays warm. It’s nice and deep, which I
love.
Don't you love the color scheme?
Lots of people use kerosene heaters. Kerosene is cheap, but
you have to make sure to have proper ventilation or the fumes will kill you! Also you have to siphon it in there from a tank and risk spilling it all over the place...and well, thanks but no
thanks.
Kotatsuare pretty
popular as well. They are low tables with a heater underneath covered by a
thick blanket. Back in the day, they
used to be heated with coal, but now they’re electric. They even have heated
electric carpets too. I’m sure Hashi
would love one but Igor and I aren’t big fans of sitting on the floor Japanese
style :-/ They even have heated electric carpets.
Here's a kotatsu cover for sale at Nitori (Japanese IKEA)
