Japanese apartments

The comfort that TV could bring me back home, of mindless entertainment wasn't working. My mind was racing to figure out what was happening and when the anime characters would jump out and enter the into the cooking episode! It's not as relaxing as it is back home, with all the flashy lights and colours-it felt like I could easily have slipped into an epileptic fit if one more light was added on set! It was different and exciting, which was all part of the adventure. I had my fill of it though and decided to make the slow shift towards getting into bed.

My apartment was deemed "large" by Japanese standards, which is far from the truth by North American standards. There were two rooms, one filled with Tatami mats and the other hardwood but a heat pump. I had a tough decision, comfort sleeping verses comfort of temperature. I decided to pick temperature, as if any of my previous flat-mates are reading this, they can attest to the fact that I like a warm, more like smoldering hot house! There were big closets in one of the rooms and none in the one I had chosen. I made a pile of my bags in the corner to justify to myself that my room somehow looked neater, which it didn't. The 'fusuma' or sliding doors were paper thin and was the only thing that separated my room to my new flatmate. I was really hoping she wasn't a weirdo or a snorer! But if she was, I had the power to slide the door shut and keep to my warm bedroom muhaha! The beds that we were given were thin and had an expiry date of one-more-use-more-before-a-mandatory-garbage-bin-toss rule, that must have been written somewhere in Japan. The sweat stains from a hundred other teachers before me were apparent-this physical imprint they had left behind wasn't making me feel any less lonely though. I had decided to take a shower to cleanse myself from the dirtiness, that must have accumulated on me from looking at the thing!

Tatami Mats

Japanese bathing area

Japanese showers are again different from what we are used to. You always, for an unknown reason to me, have to step up a stair to enter the shower. There is a shower head but most likely there is also a bathtub in the same room. The whole shower room is meant to get wet and sometimes these are attached to where your sink and mirror are (so no girly time doing makeup or hair can be spent without soaking wet socks or damp, cold conditions)! They had a little stool and a mirror that is place right below your waist, if your standing, to give you the most flattering view of yourself. Traditional Japanese style bathing, there is a stool and a bucket to fill it up, scrub yourself down and rinse with the shower head while sitting. You then hop in the bath full of water and relax, although the only way to fit in is the fetal position. I really wish I could incorporate this type of bathing style into my routine, but I never feel I have the time. Showers back home are made to be somewhat fast (in comparison to a bath) and this is a change to add another method of bathing into the picture was too much! The Japanese are a pretty clean type of folk, although I will mention some contradictions to this I have seen:

-Firstly, it is quite hard to find deodorant here and many people go without. Although in saying that the smells aren't as bad as you'd think, until it's a hot day, crammed up into someone's armpit on the subway.

-Secondly, in many bathrooms there seems to be missing soap and a towel. Many Japanese people bring there own personal towel around in a bag with them, but I'm not really sure how a soaking wet towel in your purse or pocket is going to provide you with a sanitary hand drying experience. I'm baffled about the soap as there almost always is a toilet sanitizing wipe in the bathroom, but nothing for your hands after?

-Thirdly, if you really want to get nitty gritty, if you ever go to an onsen, which is a Japanese bath house. I've never seen cleaners or people carrying there own towel or sanitary clothes to wipe down the stools that are sat on, one bare assed person after the next..isn't that kind of similar to a toilet?

I'm not denying our own culture doesn't have it's own contradictions with hygiene and bathing methods, for example, pubescent boys that figured if they just put enough "Axe" deodorant on themselves, not only did they not have to shower, but they could also score hot chicks at the same time!

I hoped out of the shower and ran to stand in front of my heat pump. This is one of the things I miss the most about back in Canada, even though it can be ridiculously cold outside, I can be toasty warm inside, at a mere flick of my finger on the thermostat. Ah central heating it is amazing, yet lacking in so many places that get cold enough to justify it (ahem south island New Zealand, Scotland and Japan)! 

When I came back still shivering (Japan cools down a lot by night) I figured it wouldn't hurt to turn on the gas stove to warm my place and fill my belly (comfort food)! The Japanese kitchen is usually quite small, which is impressive when you see a Japanese average dinner of several dishes. I struggled putting down one plate, let alone serving a family of four, three different dishes each! I had all the necessities though, luckily something that was helpful of the other teachers to leave behind.

I tossed and turned that night having to get used to my futon on the hardwood floor (my base mat that is usually included, had mysteriously gone missing) and my bean pillow. I woke up sore the next morning from an odd view from the ground, wondering where the heck I was.