Now, the temperature itself isn't that bad

It's the end of February now and it's in the upper 40s

It doesn't really go below freezing that much

We don't get that much snow...

...at least in this part of Japan

So, that's really not that bad, but the problem is that...

...Japanese homes don't have central heating for the most part

So, when you come home expecting to walk into a nice warm room after being out in the cold

It doesn't happen

It's just as cold inside as it was outside

To some extent Japanese homes are built for this

They have doors in between all the rooms in the house

For communal areas there's sliding doors...

...so you can keep them open or take them off, if that's what you want

But generally they just heat one room at a time here

So that's a little more efficient

But, on the other hand, Japanese homes themselves are built really terribly

They have little to no insulation...

...the walls are paper thin, our front door doesn't even shut all the way

So, even when you are just heating one room, it's still really inefficient

For heating methods here...

...I guess the most normal method for at least an American would be using...

...the heating function on an air conditioner

But again there's not really any ductwork, at least in this part of Japan

So, you're still just heating one room at a time that way

They also have big kerosene heaters...

...which seems like the most common way of heating

They smell terribly...

...they spew out all kinds of fumes and stuff...

...so you have to keep the window open...

...and you have to air out your room all the time, which kind of defeats the purpose

of heating

And then of course you have a giant gas can sitting somewhere in your house...

...which seems kind of unsafe to me

But I dunno, I guess that it's fine here

Then we have the greatest warming invention of all time, which is the kotatsu

A kotatsu is a wooden frame with some blankets on top, and then...

...a tabletop on top of that, and underneath you have an electric heater...

...so you just sit underneath and you can do whatever you want on the table

And it just warms you up

And it's really comfortable...

...and really nice and it always makes me sleepy

And then we have electric blankets, of course

And electric floor rugs, which are nice

And of course tons of floor heaters

When I first realized how Japanese people heat their homes...

...I thought it was really dangerous...

...and I didn't know how more Japanese people don't burn down their homes

I mean, in America we don't even have all these things...

...we just have like the floor heaters, usually

And people still burn down their homes in the winter

Like, there's tons of people who do that, at least in my city, every year

And you don't really hear about that kind of stuff here

So, I don't know, I guess maybe us Americans are just more...

...we're not responsible enough to have these types of things

Oh, by the way, we have gas stoves here, too, which are great

My husband says they're safe, they always make me nervous, though

I mean, at least the last two times I tried to use it I somehow managed...

...to turn on the gas without starting a flame

So we just has gas spreading out into our kitchen... which was great

So, I just wanna say for the record I don't think any of this is a good idea

But yeah, it can be kind of cold here, especially if you're riding your bike everywhere...

...if you don't have a car, which is really normal, lots of people do that

Even if it's not that cold outside, when you're riding your bike and you're...

...going into the wind and stuff it feels really cold

Most Japanese people prepare for it by wearing lots of layers...

...like, sometimes even four or five layers

And if you're like a tiny, small Japanese person that's fine...

...or I guess if you're a guy

But if you're a woman who doesn't want to look bloated by wearing five layers...

...of clothes you're kind of out of luck

You either have to be cold or look like a mushroom

There's not really much space in between

But fortunately the cold weather season doesn't really last that long here

Like I said it's the end of February and we're already getting close to the 50s...

...at least in this part of Japan here

And even having a cold home all winter isn't the worst thing in the world

It's definitely preferable to not being here at all

And of course in Japan they still have flowers blooming all winter

Which is great

Even in January, February, December

I'm not used to seeing living things in the winter

So it's always a nice surprise when you go out...

...and they still have flowers blooming along side of you