Come Away with Me

Winter Tales

This year's winter is what they called 暖冬. Indeed, the weather's been peculiarly warm on most winter days. It's a weird phenomenon considering the fact that just last year Japan experienced one of its coldest winter ever. Indeed 温暖化 or global warming has become such a fashionable term these days. Day in day out, you hear it being mentioned in the news, reports of how ski resorts and other winter related businesses, large or small, lamenting the lack of snow resulting in significant loss in revenue. The erratic temperature range has confused even the plum blossoms (梅花) which generally bloom during the middle of February, causing them to flower as early as late January. This was taken during my walk home after work when i spotted a couple of blossoming trees off the main track.

By a warmer winter, it means that the temperature is higher than the average compared to previous years but by my standard, winter is still winter be it colder or not so cold. For someone who's born and bred in the tropics (and the fact that i am by nature not good with the cold), donning a minimum of 4 layers, thermal wear, turtleneck, jacket and coat, you name it, is still a necessity for me. Though I must have looked really out of place in school where some students can still run around in shorts and T-shirts only.

This is the view of the school and the sports ground from the teachers' room; the coldest day on the island so far. It was snowing quite a bit though still no where near to accumulating the few centimeters that is common in this part of Nagasaki by early February.

Initially it took me a while to adjust to the short daylight and long cold nights. I recalled the slight feeling of despair as i watched the last ray of sunlight disppeared by around 5 in the evening and wondered how i was going to fiddle away the long night now that most activities (i.e . tennis and my weekly adult English conversation class) have stopped and will only resumed in spring.

However as i slowly got used to the winter lifestyle, I can finally say that despite my greatest fear of the cold there are certain aspects of it which i am beginning to enjoy. These days, after the walk (my sole source of exercise nowadays) home, l'll usually take a hot shower before making simple dinner which usually consists of hot soups. Some weeknights will be spend catching a couple of Japanese dramas and blogging while the weekends are generally reserved for reading a good book or long chats with family members and Alvin over the phone.

This is where i snuggle under most nights with mugs of steaming hot tea while watching tv or using the computer. A kotatsu is this piece of indispensable furniture in all Japanese households during the winter months. Unlike many places, it is more common in Japan not to have central heating system in houses and offices. At home people depended on these little heated tables to keep warm. All you need to do is to put a thick piece of blanket like cloth over the table, place the top over it, plug in the cable and stick your legs underneath and within minutes you will get all warm and fuzzy from beneath. While i rely heavily on the kotatsu to keep warm, i still can't decide if i really like this piece of invention. On many days, my back and sitting bone hurt from sitting on the floor for a prolong period of time :(

Then there is the oil-heater which runs on electricity that i use to heat up the room when it gets unbearably cold on some days. I found it hidden away in the store room some time back but couldn't be bothered then to bring it out as i was using the air-conditioner 's heater to warm the house. That is until recently when it seemed to be acting up and would stop automaticaly to leave me stranded in the cold in my own house. I had no choice but to bring out the heater praying with all my might that it still works. Thankfully it does though not after i took ages to figure how to get it started and got a bad scare in the process when it started emitting a strong smell. For someone who've never have any real solid winter experience to speak of, it was indeed a challenge and a real pain! And boy do i realized that those oil does run out fast when i left the heater on for a few hours a night. Nowadays i tend to hide under the table and only use it when the need arises.

Which brings me to the other troublesome bit of winter living: remembering to warm the bed before sleeping. A teacher lent me this electric blanket to use when the bed simply gets too cold to sleep in at night. While it's called an electric blanket, it is actually placed underneath the bedsheet with a cable that you plug into the socket. All you need to do is to switch it on half an hour before bedtime and soon you'll have a warm and cozy bed to crawl into. I've forgotten on several occasions to do just that and it was simply impossible to climb into the icy bed!

The worst bit of winter has got to be those nasty chilblains. I had my first bout sometime in early December but it healed pretty quickly. Recently the itchy and red toes were back to haunt me. It got so bad to a point that i got to put down whatever that i was doing halfway as i simply couldn't concentrate anymore, grabbed the toes (all 10 of them!) and just scratched and wriggled desperately! 2 weeks ago, even my poor fingers developed red and itchy patches. I shall spare everyone the ugly sight of those red and swollen toes, this is how chilblains look like(not too clear in the picture though), noticed the reddish parts just beneath the fingernails? The toes i can assure you is in a much worse condition that the fingers are : (

While i never understood in the past why the June and July issues of foreign magazines always feature articles on how to shed off the excess weight and attain the bikini-fit bod, the perfect sunkissed tan, now i finally understood it well. Many activities come to a standstill during the cold months and it's too easy to hide away in the warmth of your house after a day's work. As such, it is not uncommon to put on weight in winter and lose those extra pounds in the hotter months only to repeat the cycle again in year end. Can't really blame our lack of knowledge in this area can we? Afterall, the weather in Singapore does not really require much of a change to our lifestyle year long. For many ladies i am sure, winter wear certainly look very fashionable what with those real cool looking trench coats and knee-high boots but personally it feels like a daily chore to put on the many layers in the morning and to peel them off before shower. These days i really miss seeing my neck and i look forward to the days i can tank tops once more! Guess i am still very much a tropical gal at heart...

Despite all my fears and 'misgivings' about my ability to adapt to winter living, i am glad that i've survived, through a mixture of trial and error, pretty well thus far.Indeed i am very thankful for the mild winter this year and the fact that i am living in southern Japan, which makes it still possible for me to walk home daily and enjoy my weekly bike ride. Had i been posted to the cold and snowy northern region, i believe it would be an entirely different story altogether.

posted by テレサ @ 9:21 PM