Plan Your Winter: Stay Busy, Stay Warm
 |
I have come to appreciate this season. Sure, it gets cold. (So cold, in fact, that the other day I was sure that it was colder inside my apartment than outside, however after putting my thermometer out to check for sure, I was pleasantly surprised to find that it was actually 1C warmer inside.) And I do sometimes wonder why the most effective method of staying warm in winter—insulation and central heating—still haven't become more widespread in this land of futuristic gadgetry. The Japanese, however, in the centuries before the Hitachi 1300M super heater was invented, have devised a number of ingenious ways to keep snug during the winter, and by following their example, we too may survive the winter and actually come to enjoy it.
One of the most ingenious of methods, I believe, would have to be the kotatsu. A kotatsu is a low table that in winter, can be converted into a wonderful bed/heater/table. A kotatsu is Japan's answer to surviving the long, cold winter evenings. Through the months of December to March, this brilliant piece of furniture will become your best friend. Hours will be spent under its heavenly blankets watching TV, reading, eating, drinking and socializing.
And this is where the next great invention comes in. If you want to host a dinner party but you don't know what to cook, nabe is the answer. Nabe translates simply as "metal pot". Nabe is actually a stew-like dish served in a large pot on a gas cooker in the middle of the table (usually a kotatsu). Nabe is one of the most inexpensive, easy to prepare, healthy and delicious ways to survive winter in Japan. And I mean really easy. You don't have to be any world-class chef to attempt this dish. All you need is a large pot (usually a deep dish made from either steel or clay), and a small gas cooker called a "cassette konro" which you can purchase from your local supermarket or Joyful Yamashin. Throw any number and kind of raw items- vegetables, chicken, beef, pork, seafood, noodles, tofu, kimchi, or anko (not to be confused with anko, the sweet bean paste, this anko is a type of fish that is used in traditional Ibaraki-style nabe) and some easy-to-make broth into the pot, cook to your liking, and dig in! Remember, in preparing nabe, the only rule is that there are no rules.
Next on the list of winter survival tips would have to be kairo. Kairo are the small sachets of chemical powder that become warm when you scrunch them up. They come in a variety of different sizes and brands, and you just put them in your pockets to keep your hands warm. Some Kairo even come with adhesive strips so that you can stick them on your body or to your clothing! Mmmm. . . .
Have I forgotten to mention onsen?! Onsen are oases of pleasure to be found all over Japan, particularly in the mountainous regions of Tōhoku area and Western Japan, but also in our own lovely Ibaraki. Probably the best onsen in Ibaraki would have to be in Daigo or Kita-Ibaraki. Daigo is known for its mountain rotemburo (outdoor hot springs), and Kita-Ibaraki for its onsen with seaside views. I would have to recommend Daigo's Mori-noide-yu, a rotemburo where you can relax in an outdoor rock pool, close your eyes and listen to the birds' chorus (or as I did, watch the naked old ladies frolicking like babes in the woods, picking wild apples . . . what a sight!). For those of you who are a bit shy of stripping off to your little gaijin birthday suit in front of an audience of curious Japanese, you could always opt for an ofuro in the privacy of your own apartment. It doesn't have the same atmosphere of course, but at least no one will be able to hear you singing along to your favorite Barry White album.
But winter should be about more than all-day movie marathons, basking in front of the heater, and gorging. Don't forget that the best way to appreciate the warmth inside is to go outside and feel the real cold. Winter in Japan is also a great time for festivals (New Years' and the Sapporo Snow Festival), temple viewing, and snow sports. And let's not forget Ibaraki's own Fukuroda Falls in Daigo town. The Fukuroda falls are known as one of the three most picturesque waterfalls in Japan. Each season it paints a different picture, and in winter it is a particularly spectacular one. In January, the falls actually freeze over to create a 120m, four-storied wall of ice.
Interacting with people who live around you is a basic component of living anywhere, whatever the termperature. Especially when living abroad, getting to know people often is the starting point for getting involved in virtually anything else that the country has to offer. Depending on your winter interests, you may have more time to meet people and to further your study of Japan.
Many of the ways to connect with people are the same in Japan as anywhere else. First, if you want both to meet people and to get a better sense of the community you live in, you have to go where people are. No doubt each of us has explored our communities: the shopping areas, the main thoroughfares, the parks, lakes, shrines, trails, etc. Meeting someone at any of these venues may begin with something as simple as a smile. Or an innocent question in garbled Japanese. Or a not-so-innocent question in garbled Japanese (don't go there . . .).
By design or happenstance, interaction at some point becomes more substantive. How do you get to know this person that you're playing cross-cultural charades with? A common component of self-introductions is to state one's hobby or hobbies. Stating your hobby in a self-introduction gives people a handle on at least one of your interests and provides a ready-made topic of conversation.
The fact that hobbies are included in self-introductions differentiates the role of hobbies in Japan. In North America, hobbies seem to be a pleasurable, leisure-time pursuit that is forsaken when one's interest wanes. In Japan, hobbies seem to include a component of self-development; one pursues the hobby ideally as long as one's health allows. The goal is to persevere through the vicissitudes of interest and impediment to a more elevated vantage point. In the West, any life lessons and personal development gained via a hobby largely are viewed as serendipitous rather than intrinsic to the pursuit itself.
One benefit of getting to know a person through his or her hobby is that a hobby is likely to be something the person is committed to, if not passionate about. What better way to get to know someone than through his/her passions? I once spotted a man kneeling on a sheet of cardboard in front of his house. He was trimming his bonsai tree: a rarefied, exquisitely tended fruit tree that supported a life-sized pear. I asked him to describe the effect that he was after, and we ended up chatting for the better part of an afternoon. I got to know the man and learned something about the esthetic of bonsai.
Rather than rely on fortuitous encounters in the depths of winter, you may choose to focus your time studying the language or a particular subject of interest. Your local community center (kouminkan) is a wealth of information, even if you don't know what you're after. Depending on the size of the community in which you live, there may be more than one community center. Thus, if your calligraphy class is not offered at one center, another may have it. Or they may know of a teacher with whom you may make private arrangements.
I ventured into a nearby community center a few months back wanting to join a men's volleyball team. There were none, but I got an invitation to become an "assistant coach" on a women's team. OK, I know squat about volleyball, but this weird foreigner showing up for practices every week seems to work for them. Perhaps I'm more of a mascot (or a manly sort of "cheer girl") than a coach. At any rate, everybody's happy. I passed out pieces of red licorice after one practice and told the coach, who owns a 7-11 store, that every 7-11 store in North America carried this strange stuff. They looked at the red licorice and wanted me to categorize it: was it gum, candy . . . what was it? I was intrigued that they sought to understand the stuff primarily by having me categorize it rather than simply experiencing it. International understanding sometimes proceeds along little-used byways. The point is, you never know where things may lead. Ask around, take a chance, and another, until your winter social calendar doesn't allow you to take any more chances.
 |
Speaking of taking chances, I joined Ahiru kai, a local choir in Mito (pictured in rehearsal). So simply joining an existing group may meet your needs. During the brief tenure of our membership, the choir has sung material in Latin, German, and Japanese. All Japanese is sung in hiragana, so knowing kanji isn't necessary in order to sing Japanese material, although sometimes the tempo requires rapid-fire reading. But then what are rehearsals for?
I believe that the goal is to strike a balance between deepening your understanding of Japanese culture and continuing with the pursuits you nurtured before coming to Japan. Continuing your prior pursuits enables you to offer something potentially of interest to members of the local community. And in the realm of international exchange, reciprocity is in everybody's interest.
Armed with these strategies for enjoying winter, you need not wince when you think of that period from December to March. Stay focused on Christmas presents, New Years' parties, snow fights, kotatsu, nabe, onsen, pocket kairo, and sundry activities and hobbies. If these things still fail to bring the warmth back to your apartment and your heart, perhaps you could resort to a bit of retail therapy in a heated department store, a Starbucks Hot Caramel Apple Cider, or a couple of weeks in Bali.
