Winter in Kagawa, Japan

I thought I should talk about Winter in Japan; or rather, really just the the climate! As I come from Scotland, which typically has a reputation for being rather cold (which it is!), many people suspect that Japan would probably have a warmer climate, and that Winter in this country would be a milder and less chilly season. While Takamatsu doesn't get much snow at all (so no seasonal snowscapes or skiing, sadly!), and so one would be forgiven for thinking that the cold seasons here would have been considerably less cold than what I was used to.

I'm afraid to say that this is definitely not the case. This Winter has been, perhaps, the coldest I have ever experienced.

A familiar sight in homes across Japan; the lack of insulation

means the heat from an air-con becomes a room's only warmth.

 

My air-con remote turned up to 30°C.

Standard setting for me.

You'll remember that I've previously commented on the extreme heat in Summer-time. When I first arrived in Japan, the most immediately striking thing (other than the language shift and the cultural differences) was the vast temperature difference. While Scotland usually sees a bit of sunshine and a few barbecues, Japan overwhelmed me with the brutal heat that caused me to sweat like I'd never done so before in my life. It was just a tad overbearing... yet it seemed to promise that perhaps this would be a year-round trend; generally warmer temperatures and perhaps a comfortable Winter. Unfortunately, this was not the case. The pleasantly cooler climate of November was merely a deception; December, January and February in Japan are cold.

So, what's the problem?

As I understand it, Japanese buildings are consistently lacking in insulation. The reason for this was described to me as a fear that heavily insulated buildings would amplify the heat in Summer, and therefore the solution was just to bear with the cool Winters as they were. I don't know how legitimate this is, but it's certainly the most common and logical explanation I've been offered on the subject.

This sounds reasonable enough in theory, but in practice it means that waking up every morning can be a gruelling experience - leaving the comfort of the duvet causes a system shock and shivers to shoot through me every single morning. From my point of view, the lack of central heating in most buildings seems the most unforgivable; a standard feature of many Western homes, only a few buildings in Japan benefit from this seemingly commonplace solution adopted by the rest of the world. If you were expecting the school classrooms might have this feature, well, I'm afraid around 95% that I've experienced don't.

  

The only solution that is usually offered within the home is the common air-con system on which I was so dependant in the Summer months. In Winter, the needs are inverted, and so the air-con system is designed to allow the flow of hot air, too, and to generate heat in a confined area. This does wonders to warm the living room area, but does absolutely nothing to heat the corridor or bathroom areas, which are outside of my solitary air-con's range and remain chilled every morning and night. The condensation on the inside of my front door and fridge every morning is actually wet to the touch; an image that pretty much sums up the situation for me.

It's actually reached the point where now, everyday, I wake up ten minutes before my standard alarm time, turn on the air-con for heating, and wait ten minutes for the living room to warm up. Then, it's a gruelling psychological battle to open the door through to the hallway and sprint in my dressing gown and slippers - whilst freezing! - into the bathroom for the morning shower. Furthermore, work days have become dominated by an excessive need to drink tea, coffee and ocha, for fear of freezing without the consistent intake of hot fluids.

It staggers me that Japan operates every year with this same damn problem.

There is one shining beacon of light in this rather miserable situation, however; Heat-Tech!

 Heat-Tech from Uni Qlo!

 

Heat-Tech shirts and socks; essential for surviving

the cold at Winter - both outdoors and in!

Not to offer too much of a plug, but Heat-Tech (appropriately labelled as 'Japan Technology') is sold at Uni Qlo stores around the country. Basically, these clothes are fairly skin-tight vests (both long and short-sleeve), leg-warmers, underwear and socks that are designed to retain heat and fit comfortably underneath your regular clothing. I have seen a few other versions of the same style of clothing available from other retailers, but I decided to place my faith in this brand.

Thus far, it has helped considerably. Every day, almost without exception, I wear these clothes under my work clothes to school - in addition to a jumper and a heavy wooly coat, scarf and clothes (and occasionally a beanie hat). Usually, around four to five layers (and a double-pair of socks). It's still cold, yes, but it's made the Winter season just that little bit more bearable, and for that reason I heartily recommend these items to anyone either visiting or living in Japan at Winter. Many of my friends recently wenk to visit the famous annual Snow Festival (Yuki-matsuri) in Hokkaido, supposedly the coldest part of Japan. All I can say is that I hope they brought plenty of Heat-Tech along!

The climate has recently began to show steady signs of warming up again, recently; temperatures are chilly but not quite so brutal, and I can get away with wearing slightly less layers to work everyday. It's still cold, but at least I can feel a tad more comfortable on my early morning sprints to the shower.

Of course, once the Summer comes back, I certainly won't have to worry about being cold anymore. Undoubtedly, though, I'll be spending just as much time complaining about the heat!

Christmas & Hogmanay 2011 in Scotland

The family Christmas tree.

With only five months of Japan behind me, I headed back home to Scotland for three weeks to spend Christmas with my family.

A lot of people thought this was too fast. Many of my fellow JETs were quite outspokenly cynical of this decision, as were a few of my friends back home. Why did I want to go home already? However, I had already agreed long before with my family that I would return home for Christmas. It's a holiday which has always held a special place in our family (despite me being a rather out-spoken atheist), and I was keen to check back in with both them and my friends, to let them know how I was doing (even though my family had just been out to visit me in Japan the previous month).

A giant snowman balloon in Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh.

Getting home was quite the feat. After taking the night bus from Takamatsu bus terminal to Tokyo Narita airport, I endured a grueling twelve hour flight from Tokyo Narita to London Heathrow, before having to finally transfer up to Edinburgh. By the time I arrived back on UK soil in Heathrow, I was already feeling fairly exhausted, but also elated. Suddenly everything felt much more recognizable; suddenly, I could every sign again! I was, however, initially shocked by how white (!) everyone looked compared to the tanned skin I'd seen in Japan, and I remembering literally asking myself; "Is that what white people look like?". I was also stunned at the amount of English that I couldn't filter out from the conversations around me. Whereas in Japan I'd been fading a lot of the language around me into a faint background noise (due to my basic language abilities), here I was swarmed in an overflow of information. I felt like I could hear every conversation, and it was bizarre.

Christmas bells in the Kingsgate Shopping Centre, Dunfermline.

I treated myself to a quiet pint and dinner at the Terminal 5 Wetherspoons, where I met and sat with a couple of girls who had also been teaching English abroad (one in Mexico, one in France), and were also returning home for Christmas. It felt like I was part of some sort of global homecoming movement!

When I finally made it to Edinburgh airport, my parents were thrilled to see me. Stepping out on Scottish soil again was a surreal experience; the cold air felt refreshing, familiar and welcoming compared to the harsh cold I'd experienced in Japan (I will swear until the day I die that Winter in Japan is far colder than it is in Scotland). The airport was quiet when I arrived, but all around me the accents were familiar. I finally felt at home... and in desperate need of a shower. We got in our car in and drove home, with me staring out contentedly at the scenery around me (including a drive over the iconic Forth Road Bridge, staring out at the Forth Rail Bridge). As we pulled into my hometown of Kirkcaldy, and finally came up to the driveway of my house, Japan felt like a dream I'd imagined; a world away, and far less "real" than what was immediately in front of me.

I stepped into my house, honestly feeling like I had never left, and fell asleep almost instantly on a couch.

Whisky.

 Over the next three weeks at home, I spent a lot of my time socializing and re-acquainting myself with many of my old friends. Within my first day of arrival, I lazed in bed for a few hours before making my way to my local Wetherspoons in Kirkcaldy to meet two fellow high school classmates (Louise and Christine) for lunch (complete with Irn Bru, naturally).

The evening that followed was spent drinking with friends in that same pub, while only a couple of days later I was in my old university city of Stirling for a party hosted by my good friend Clyn Gallagher. There were several parties, lunches, dinners... I was socializing like crazy.

With Clyn Gallagher.

Banter central.

Equally, I was spending a lot of time with my family, including having a get together with some long-lost relatives who I had never met before. I was introduced to several new family members, which wasn't bad for being 23 at the time (you naturally expect that you've met pretty much everyone by this point). In addition, I was frequently going on small trips with my parents and catching up with my sister over lunch and coffees. Of course, being the time of year that it was, my parents were initially run off their feet trying to get everything ready in time for Christmas. It was good after the event finally passed and we were able to spend a bit more time together!

Coffee time with my mother and sister.

I had brought a lot of gifts from Japan with me; almost a full suitcase full, in fact. I may have slightly overdone it, but I really wanted to share a lot of my experience in Japan with my family and friends. Of particular note was my search for two Japanese maneki-neko statues; one for my mother, and one for Lawrie Brewster to give to his. I was searching for these right up to the last minute of my departure at Tokyo Narita Terminal 2.

I also have to say that I was absolutely thrilled to have access to my car again; my little Ford Ka. I had sorely missed driving while in Japan, and it felt amazing to finally be able to go wherever I wanted whenever I wanted again without having to consult public transport times. An amazing and liberating experience. On some evenings I went driving just for the thrill of the experience, without any destination in mind.

Martin seems rather pleased with this poster.

I was also thrilled to have access to my video-game consoles and extensive DVD collection again. I watched a fair amount of DVDs that were on the "too watch" list during my time at home, including Caddyshack (yes!).

Christmas Eve lead to our traditional pub night, where many of my old high school friends who had traveled far and wide came together for a reunion. I wasn't the only one who had come home for Christmas, and several of my friends who had moved outside of Kirkcaldy had travelled quite some distance to make it there. I don't think anyone traveled any distance that compared with my own, however.

Christmas Day, as always, was a big day for my family.

Opening presents on Christmas morning. Dad seems slightly distressed!

We all woke up early in the morning, to a continental-style breakfast of croissants (our traditional Christmas morning snack). We shared our presents by the tree (still dressed in our pyjamas), and spent the day feasting and playing around with our various new trinkets. As always, it felt just like being a kid again. The traditional turkey dinner (with cranberry sauce) was - as always - incredible. A small Christmas tradition I started while working at Sainsbury's was putting Christmas-themed lotto scratch cards in everyone's Christmas cards, and I continued the tradition this year. And again, in keeping with tradition, we scratched them off in-between courses. Just a little bit of fun, of course - it's almost always a complete waste of money.

Christmas candles at the dinner table.

I was greatly excited by the annual Doctor Who Christmas special on BBC One (which, sadly, wasn't quite up to the usual standard this year).

Boxing Day involved a small trip with Andy Mitchell to watch the new Sherlock Holmes movie (not bad, but I still prefer the BBC's take with Benedict Cumberbatch).

Playing snooker with Neil Ingebrigsten.

For Hogmanay (or "New Year's Eve", for all you non-Scottish folk), I traveled back through to Stirling again for a reunion with a few friends I hadn't seen yet; Ross, Skippy, Michael, and Greg.

Back in town.

We hired a room at the local Premier Inn and spent the night drinking in relatively new 'Buddha Bar' (which, er, had a lot of buddha statues in it). At midnight, we made our way out onto the city streets, though it was fairly difficult to see the fireworks from our location, as the buildings around us blocked our view. As always, there was a great atmosphere at midnight as we welcomed in the New Year; renditions of Auld Lang Syne and shaking hands with complete strangers. It felt great.

Hogmanay fun.

We followed this up with a trip to the local Dusk nightclub, for old time's sake. Dusk was our most frequented night-club while at university, and it was a welcome flashback to our past. The next day, we were naturally in the state you may have expected, but I happily made it home in time to be treated to a lovely steak pie dinner from mum.

  

Well, that escalated quickly.

The remainder of my trip was spent mostly having a lazy time of it. I had spent so much time socializing and running around meeting people that I mellowed out for the last few days and spent a bit more time with my family and indoors. Eating all of my favourite foods again (smoked salmon pâté! haggis! steak pie!) I wondered how I would ever cope in Japan again without them.

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Unfortunately, my time at home wasn't completely without regret. I was deeply hurt to learn almost immediately after arriving that one of my friends had died a few days prior to my return. I won't discuss that at length here, other than to say the funeral was a very sobering experience, and completely unexpected. I never thought I would be attending anything like that during my time at home. It was a damn shame, but I'll leave it there.

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Inevitably, of course, the time came to return to Japan.

It had been three incredible weeks, filled with fun and a lot of good memories. That said, I was incredibly reluctant to bring it to an end. I knew at this point that I would probably be in Japan for another year, leading right up until at least summer 2013 - over a year and a half away. I planned with my family to definitely return for Christmas 2012, but it was definitely hard to say goodbye all over again - and this time, for what was certain to be a longer period of time.

Farewell drinks with friends.

It was quite an emotional moment at Edinburgh Airport as I prepared to fly back to Japan. I had experienced an amazing three weeks, and remembered just how valuable my life at home was to me. It wasn't without some trepidation that I waved farewell to my parents at the airport and boarded the plane for the long, long journey back to my new home in Japan.

Only twelve months before doing it all over again.

Coming home may have made it a little harder to leave it all behind. Truth me told, though, that's something I could never do. As much as I've loved my time in Japan, my heart will always be in Scotland. It was wonderful to go back there again.

Christmas 2011: Celebrations in Takamatsu

Pre-packed Christmas treats in Aeon.

For Christmas 2011, I knew that I would be heading home to Scotland to see my family and friends. Many people said that this was too fast and a bit silly (since I'd only have been in Japan for five months by the time I would be heading back home!), but I felt it was a worthwhile trip. My family has never had a Christmas apart from one another, and I didn't want to be the one to break the trend; plus, it would be a nice way to touch base with my friends and assure them that everything was going well.

Of course, I would be in Japan for the majority of December before my travels homeward. As such, I was lucky to experience at least a little of the local Christmas spirit, which I'll be writing about here. I've already written about my Christmas lessons at school elsewhere, so I'll focus on some of the wider social and cultural aspects in this post.

A Christmas tree lights up the Takamatsu shotengai shopping streets.

Christmas is a relatively new concept in Japan, by all accounts adopted primarily after World War 2. Japanese citizens are certainly aware of it, but it's a bit of a novelty - many families probably wouldn't have a Christmas tree, for example, nor exchange any presents. New Year has always been the biggest celebration event in the Japanese national calendar, and as such Christmas is only now beginning to catch up - though obviously, it lacks any of the Christian connotations in holds in the West, due to Japan's dominant Shinto and Buddhist belief systems.

Christmas isn't a national holiday (people still go to work if it falls on a weekday), and a few of the iconic elements are still not readily available. While Santa and reindeers are naturally prominent, advent calendars and Christmas crackers are pretty obscure over here here - as is turkey, which is supplemented by chicken or even a trip down to KFC(!).

A festive Colonel Sanders sells Christmas chicken.

(Image sourced from this blog.)

By no means is that to say that Christmas isn't visible across Japan. It most certainly is, and pervasively so.

A festive Christmas cow with reindeer antlers.

Certainly very innovative!

Christmas tortilla chips? Sold!

While perhaps not quite as excessive as a few Western cities I could think of, the Christmas decorations are most certainly on display in town centres and commercial areas. While homes may not have Christmas trees or lights themselves, the commercial nature of Christmas is very much alive. Festive branding dominates store fronts, and many shops offer seasonal products and deals. It seems that perhaps those most strongly pushing the concept of Christmas in Japan are those who see the way in which it can drastically contribute to Western economies and are hoping to replicate the benefits locally!

A uniquely Japanese-style Christmas cake.

One of the most iconic elements of Japanese Christmas which is unique to Japan is the concept of Christmas cake. While most Western countries will indulge in cake at Christmas (perhaps a traditional pudding or chocolate log, etc), most don't have strawberry shortcake filled with sponge, cream and vanilla icing. Many bakeries and department stores offer these specialized Christmas cakes, often complete with the branding of mass-marketed characters for children. It's quite a radical departure, and typically these need to be ordered weeks in advance to avoid disappointment (as opposed to our Western tradition of reserving turkeys).

A gift for my sister;

a giant Rilakkuma head.

Another product which deserves heaps of praise are Japanese Christmas cards. Typically these greetings cards are far more elaborate and impressive than their Western counterparts. I imagine the reason for their craftsmanship has more than a little to do with Japan's history of origami and paper craft. These aren't necessarily too expensive, either - often ranging between the ￥100 to ￥350 mark, so they're definitely affordable to give to a few friends (I ended up buying around thirty, to distribute both here in Takamatsu and back home in Scotland!).

A Japanese Christmas card!
Image sourced from this Flickr page.

Of course, there are naturally cheaper varieties, but typically the cards on display are in line with these elaborate displays - and all the better for it.

Construct your own Christmas house!

A fun little find in the Aeon crafts section.

Starbucks' Christmas menu: refreshingly familiar.

The Gingerbread latte is one of my favourite tastes of Christmas.

For a small pre-Christmas celebration, I was invited along to Mitoyo-city by fellow ALTs Kayla and Julia to make some festive gingerbread cookies. It was a lovely little afternoon and a good opportunity to get to know some of the local ALTs better. We struggled to cook some of the cookie dough in the toaster oven (a common problem here), but we pushed through and made some rather tasty results. Here's a handful of photographs from our day of baking:

 

Kayla (above left) and Julia (right) indulge in our homemade gingerbread cookies. 

A rather unflattering portrait of myself.

The JET community were also active in spreading a bit of local Christmas cheer, of course. The AJET community for Kagawa had organised a carol singing event at Takamatsu station, to greet local residents with a selection of traditional Christmas songs. I missed the event, sadly, due to a need to do some last minute Christmas shopping at the big Youme Town shopping mall in town, but I did pop by briefly to get some photographs and enjoy listening to the JETs. They did a pretty damn good job! The event was organised by English ALT Ryan Keeble, and kudos to him for putting it together

The Kagawa ALTs sing Christmas carols at Sunport, lead by Ryan Keeble.

Following this event was the AJET Christmas Party. I arrived somewhat late, due to my shopping into the early evening, but was amazed by the huge turnout. The venue for the event was 'The Palms', a local Hawaiian bar, and the place almost had no room left to sit. The evening consisted of a pub quiz and a Secret Santa session, where I won a rather nice tumbler with a chicken design on it. The room was full not just of JETs, but a whole host of local young Kagawans, too. It was a very international evening, and it felt like a lovely bit of cultural exchange.

The AJET Christmas Party 2011.

The event was followed by a trip to a nearby karaoke bar (which often happens on a night out in Japan). Cue terrible singing while drunk, but plenty of merriment.

I also happened to meet a rather cheerful gentleman with a horse's head afterwards.

Merry Christmas?

On the eve of my travel back home to Scotland, I was comfortably packed and ready to go the day before. I would be taking a night bus to Tokyo station - an overnight journey which would allow me to sleep - before boarding the Narita Express train to Tokyo Narita Terminal 2. From there, I'd fly to London Heathrow, before transferring to my final destination of Edinburgh. I had one hell of a journey ahead of me, but I was excited regardless.

Before I stepped on my night bus, however, I had a spare bit of time at Takamatsu station in which to indulge in a small snack before the long journey. I popped into the ever-popular 'Mister Donuts' chain, and treated myself to a coffee and a snowman donut cake (composed of two donuts on top of one another). It was a lovely reminder of Christmas in Japan, before I made my way back home.

Not a bad snack by which to say farewell.

And so, filled with festive donuts, I was off on my way back to Scotland.

As a little bonus to this post, here's a special Japanese Christmas music video from 2011. Enjoy!