"What are you wearing?!" asks Amanda. We've just connected via Skype, she sitting in a t-shirt in her centrally heated house in Tennessee, while I am attired in two pairs of sweatpants, a t-shirt, two fleeces, wool socks, and a ski hat. "Um, well, it's cold here," I whine in justification. With no insulation and no central climate control, Japanese buildings tend to trap in and amplify the outside temps, whether it be blistering heat or bone chilling cold. Winter is a particularly sedentary time, as families huddle for warmth around the kotatsu, a large table with a heater under it. A heavy blanket is placed over the table to hold in the heat, and everyone sits on the floor with their legs crammed underneath. This position is maintained until spring. Though I've been warned not to fall asleep under the kotatsu- "You can burn your feet."
The question of how to best heat an apartment generates a healthy debate.
"Don't use your air conditioner to heat your apartment. It has a heat function, but the bill will give you a heart attack."
"Wait, I use my air conditioner to heat one of the rooms in my apartment. It's not a big deal- it's fine!"
"No, it's way too expensive. The kerosene heaters are pretty inexpensive. That's what I use."
"Yeah, but they're really dangerous. I mean, for one thing, you have to keep kerosene around, which is highly flammable. Then you have to be careful not to leave your clothes or you towel sitting on top of the heater because they could catch fire and burn down your apartment."
"OK, but that's just stupid anyway. The kerosene heater's not that dangerous. You just have to make sure you open the windows every so often to let out the carbon monoxide so that you don't get carbon monoxide poisoning."
I hope to survive the winter with option three, my Sanyo Accumulate ceramic fan heater. Really, the temps here aren't that different from Washington, DC in winter. However, it turns out that central heat makes a crucial difference, particularly during the 3 minute period in the mornings when you have to crawl out of bed, walk to the shower, wait for the water to heat, and get into the shower.
ROSE-COLORED GLASSES
In a recent email from my intrepid correspondent in Kenya, she expressed her concern and solidarity as an expat, saying at one point, "One moment you say that you are extending [your contract] for another year and the next you mention that you are eating lunch alone..." This struck me for two reasons, 1) I have some wonderful friends, and 2) Leigh is right- living abroad is not always bread and roses. So I thought I'd "get real" and share my top 5 "WTF am I doing here? moments." Some of them I've already detailed in previous posts, others are more recent. The good news is that as frustrating as these things can be, the situation is always ameliorated, by a kind gesture, or assistance from a stranger, or commiseration with good friends.
1. I go into the grocery store for the first time alone and realize I have no idea what anything is.
2. It takes me 2 weeks to be approved for a cell phone, and 2 and half months to get Internet in my apartment.
3. Japanese ATMs. One of my biggest gripes about Japanese culture has to do with money. I haven't had such trepidations about banking since I was 6 or 7, and my mom took me to the bank to open an account. We were 99% through the process, when I balked at having to hand over my vast fortune (probably close $20). I believe my exact words were, "When can I visit it?" (As a child, I really enjoyed counting my money, which made me feel like Scrooge MacDuck from "Duck Tales," with his swimming pool of gold coins.) The teller explained that she was going to deposit my money with everyone else's, so I couldn't really "visit" it per se. My young mind boggled as I hugged my Ziploc bag of change closer to my body. This had to be a scam. Mom, realizing this was a deal breaker, thanked the teller and packed me off quickly into the car. I didn't open a checking account until I was 13.
To this day, not being able to get my hands on my money makes me nervous. Especially since in Japan, cash culture + significant expense of living, eating, shopping and traveling = one must carry around a substantial amount of cash. However, gaining access to your hard-earned yen is a challenge. First of all, not all ATMs run on the same schedule, even if they belong to the same bank. From what I can gather, as a rule, ATMs function from 8:45am-6pm M-F. From 8-8:45am and 6-9pm there is a $2 surcharge to withdraw. Past 9pm, you can forget about it-the ATM will have shut down completely. On weekends you have to pay a $2 surcharge all day. And if you have plans to start your Christmas shopping on a national holiday, don't assume that you can make a withdrawal, even if it is a weekday. Otherwise you will show up to the ATM to find the machine turned off, which may in turn cause you to wonder what this country is coming to.
4. Getting my reentry visa. If you have a visa to work or live in Japan, you have to get a reentry visa if you plan on leaving that country at any point in time. If you leave without one, they won't let you back into Japan. Slightly problematic. So last Friday I traveled an hour on the train, walked another 30 minutes in the rain, and after being lost for a good 20 minutes thanks to the inadequate map provided by my contracting organization, I finally found the immigration bureau. However, it was closed because it was 12:08, and the office takes lunch from 12-1, which of course is not mentioned on their website, which lists their hours from 9AM-4PM. So there I sat, wet from the knees down, wrapped in the drafty, smoke-filled cocoon of the immigration bureau, waiting for it to reopen. When the clock tolled one, the doors dutifully parted, at which point I was thwarted again by a Japanese couple who had arrived at 12:50pm, and efficiently and ruthlessly cut in front of me. My turn finally came, and my business took all of 8 minutes to complete. Oddly, I don't know if the quick turnaround time made the experience worse or more bearable. Regardless, I can now flee the country whenever I want and return.
5. Trash bins. Throughout Japan, there is nary a trash bin to be found. Occasionally you'll find one in a train station, but it's usually hidden and they only accept obscure materials like newspapers, as opposed to the things you really want to toss, like water bottles or chewing gum wrappers. And because littering is the 8th deadly sin, you're forced to squirrel this detritus away in your bag or pockets. Don't be mottainai (wasteful). Do be a hoarder.
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