People have asked me, what do you miss most about home? What have you taken for granted but now desperately wish you still had? As I sit in the teachers' room, occasionally taking breaks from typing so that I can sit on my hands to warm up my fingers, I can only think of one thing:
CENTRAL HEATING.
First off, the school is so cold that I dread leaving the teachers' room. As un-warm as it is in here, it's at least sort of bearable when compared to the hallways. My students sit freezing in their classrooms; you know it's bad when the skin on your legs turn purple because the blood stopped circulating so long ago. So many of my classes were cancelled yesterday and today because either 1) more than a third of the students were absent because of the flu or 2) the teacher was absent because of the flu. Assuming that such numbers can be projected into the rest of the population, I think I can safely say that a fairly large chunk of the Japanese work force is sitting at home with a fever of 104. That's highly inefficient, even for the Japanese. Not to mention, the more of them that get sick, the more likely it is for me to come in contact with influenza virus and I don't like that prospect at all. Not to mention, I'm sick of holding my pee all day because I really really don't want to go to the bathroom because the thought of dropping my pants in a freezer somehow doesn't appeal.
Moreover, I probably have so many electrical appliaces plugged in and turned on in my sad fruitless attempt at creating a warm haven that it's probably environmentally and economically more practical to burn natural gas via central heating systems. An electically heated coffee table just doesn't cut it.
And strangely, when I take things out of the fridge, they don't feel cold to the touch. Not even cool. Sometimes I leave drinks out overnight, fully aware of the fact that they will be just as cold, if not colder, than if I had put it back in the fridge.
I take baths at night now, because it's one of the only things that truly warms me up.
I wake up and I can see my breath in the morning.
My olive oil now has the consistency of runny butter.
It snowed three times in one week once.
And I bet the water in my dishwashing sponge freezes as well. Now, if only I could brave the cold water running from my tap long enough to actually wash my dishes...
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