My Japanese Winter Survival Kit



In Japanese, "nabe" means "pot." Nabe is a popular winter dish in Japan - a boiling pot of meat and an assortment of vegetables. My grocery store recently started selling pre packaged nabe which is convenient and makes for an easy, wholesome dinner. The white, tube-like things are called "kiritanpo," cooked rice that has been mashed, formed into cylinders, and then toasted.



Nabe, after.



Heattech is like Under Armour, except you can wear it on a daily basis. At Uniqlo, it comes in a variety of styles and colors. There are even heattech socks. It's super warm, fashionable, and can be worn under just about anything. I'm definitely going to miss this stuff when I go home! 

 

My kotatsu - a "kotatsu" is a small table with an electric heater attached to the underside. During the winter, you throw a heavy blanket over the table and use it as a heat source. Most families in Japan use a kotatsu since central heating is not as common here. While it's pretty cool and can be addicting, nothing compares to central heating!

Rainy Day in Tokai

So today has been rainy and FREEZING but luckily I had a really good day at Tokai and an equally successful Japanese lesson to make up for it.  This morning I got to school early because I took the train instead of carpooling with my English teacher.  We left for the train station at 7a.m. which means I was supposed to get up at 5:30 but of course I woke up around 6:15.  I hopped in the shower, knowing that I wouldn't have time to dry my hair.  That was my first huge mistake-I didn't realize how ridiculously cold it was going to be.

I got to school early and pretended to look busy while really pondering how I was going to survive the freezing teachers room all day.  I forgot to grab my jacket on the way out of my apartment this morning (huge mistake #2).  But luckily, I was wearing "heat tech" under my blouse.  "Heat tech" is a brand of under-armor type clothing that just came out at Uniqlo (popular clothing store in Japan).  I went to Uniqlo about a week ago and was blown away by the crowd of women that surrounded the heat tech section, while the other aisles in the store were pretty much empty.  I patiently waited and finally managed to grab a pair of dark gray pants (size L of course) and a light gray long-sleeved shirt.  Mission accomplished.

Unfortunately, my heat tech wasn't going to save me today, so I made a hot cup of tea to warm my hands.  It was seriously unbearable.  I was then told that tomorrow is examination day for the students, so there would be no English club activity after school and all of my classes would be cancelled except for one!  Then one of the English teacher's FINALLY closed the windows and turned on the heaters.  My day was starting to look up.

A few hours later, I had class with the same teacher.  I was prepared for the worst because I know many of the classes at Tokai are low level, but I was completely shocked when I started to give my self-introduction.  The students were attentive and quiet, they asked questions, and were totally into my worksheet.  After this, we played a game [one side of the room starts by passing around an envelope filled with questions and the other side of the class starts by passing around a stuffed animal.  I play music while they pass, and when I stop the music, whoever is holding the questions has to pick one and ask whoever is holding the stuffed animal] and they absolutely loved it.  Some students even stayed after class to talk to me.  I was so relieved.