Today we are celebrating yet another national holiday, Culture Day. Chad has the day off and while we aren't going to experience much culture today, he also took tomorrow off and we are taking a little trip to see some culture this weekend.
This holiday started in the 1800's as the then Emperor's birthday. When a new emperor came along it wasn't a holiday for awhile, but then it was reinstated in 1927. I'm noticing a real trend of renaming, moving and restructuring holidays in Japan. Traditionally the day is full of art exhibits, festivals and parades. I went out briefly today and didn't see much going on....there were a lot of people celebrating culture by shopping in the mall. ;)
November 3, 2011
November 2, 2011
Brrr.
As winter is fast approaching, I thought it time to illustrate the situation in which we find ourselves here. Namely, that we do not have central heating and air-conditioning in our house. I don't think it's popular here. Neither is insulation---in general, Japanese houses are constructed in as flimsy a manner as possible so that when an earthquake hits and your house falls on you, you aren't squished flat.
Nor do we have a fireplace. (I'm not sure if they have those here either, come to think of it....wouldn't want a chimney falling on anyone either....) But never fear, weprobably won't freeze because our house came with an astonishing variety of contraptions to heat it up. I'm trying not to see this as an ominous sign.
We have five air cons (two downstairs, three upstairs) that are expensive to run but do a good job. We used them this summer to cool the house (they blow hot or cool air to adjust the temperature) and on all but the hottest days they were able to keep up. We do only keep them turned on when we are actually in a room which is slightly annoying to keep up with.....and still might put us in the poorhouse this winter.
We have twooil, correction, gas heaters downstairs. We had to get a lesson on how to use them, but so far we haven't tried them yet. Apparently gas is a little pricey too.
We have three kerosene heaters which terrify us. They are very popular here because kerosene is cheap. And they are supposedly very safe. Sure. We also got a lesson on them, but if I know us, we will have to lose a couple of toes to frostbite before we resort to them. Also, they stink.
We have three wheeled radiator-type doohickeys. Supposedly they are good to use at night in the bedroom.
And just in case that's not enough, we have three small under-the-desk type plug-in heaters.
Nor do we have a fireplace. (I'm not sure if they have those here either, come to think of it....wouldn't want a chimney falling on anyone either....) But never fear, we
We have five air cons (two downstairs, three upstairs) that are expensive to run but do a good job. We used them this summer to cool the house (they blow hot or cool air to adjust the temperature) and on all but the hottest days they were able to keep up. We do only keep them turned on when we are actually in a room which is slightly annoying to keep up with.....and still might put us in the poorhouse this winter.
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| air con: they also have handy remote controls |
We have two
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| oil heater |
We have three kerosene heaters which terrify us. They are very popular here because kerosene is cheap. And they are supposedly very safe. Sure. We also got a lesson on them, but if I know us, we will have to lose a couple of toes to frostbite before we resort to them. Also, they stink.
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(I can practically see the flames licking up the wall) |
We have three wheeled radiator-type doohickeys. Supposedly they are good to use at night in the bedroom.
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| doohickey |
And just in case that's not enough, we have three small under-the-desk type plug-in heaters.
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| heater miscellany |
November 1, 2011
Joyful Consumerism!
Awhile back our Japanese teacher told me about this store called Joyful Honda. (I'm still not sure whether or not it has anything to do with Honda cars---can't quite get a straight answer on that.) Anyway, she gave me directions and said it was pretty far away from my house. So several weekends ago I made Chad drive me out there to check it out. It's about 35 minutes from our house and we didn't stay long but I resolved to return by myself as soon as possible.
See, here it can be kind of hard to locate good shopping centers but once you do find one....boy, oh boy. I went back by myself this Saturday and pored over everything for several hours.
You may be wondering exactly how much stuff I'm carting home from all these shopping centers I find....and the answer is, not much. It's nice to know where to find craft supplies when I need them, but mostly I want to buy things that I can't find in the US. Unfortunately, I don't find many. Most of what's available here (in every category of goods except food) is the same stuff I find back home. I do have some good information on where to find local-craftsman/traditional Japanese stuff in Tokyo, but I have to get around to making a trip by myself. Meanwhile, if I pay attention I can find some different stuff in places like Joyful Honda, for example, near the scrapbooking supplies was a section of origami paper. There were traditional flower-arranging supplies tucked in near the fake flowers and brushes for Japanese calligraphy alongside the regular paintbrushes. It's like that in places like Aeon, and Cainz too....95% same old, 5% new and different.
See, here it can be kind of hard to locate good shopping centers but once you do find one....boy, oh boy. I went back by myself this Saturday and pored over everything for several hours.
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| way far down out of the picture is a huge Home Depot-esque section, the top floor of this building is like Micheal's and the bottom floor is basically a Garden Ridge. plus: a supermarket, dollar store, shoe store and a food court for good measure |
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| the endless Garden Ridge section |
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| the Micheal's section (beads) |
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| scrapbooking supplies (notice Mickey butting in on the right) |
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| need some clay? or a potter's wheel? how about a kiln? |
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| I want one, but I have to figure out if it has English instructions. plus it's kinda crazy expensive. |
You may be wondering exactly how much stuff I'm carting home from all these shopping centers I find....and the answer is, not much. It's nice to know where to find craft supplies when I need them, but mostly I want to buy things that I can't find in the US. Unfortunately, I don't find many. Most of what's available here (in every category of goods except food) is the same stuff I find back home. I do have some good information on where to find local-craftsman/traditional Japanese stuff in Tokyo, but I have to get around to making a trip by myself. Meanwhile, if I pay attention I can find some different stuff in places like Joyful Honda, for example, near the scrapbooking supplies was a section of origami paper. There were traditional flower-arranging supplies tucked in near the fake flowers and brushes for Japanese calligraphy alongside the regular paintbrushes. It's like that in places like Aeon, and Cainz too....95% same old, 5% new and different.
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