kotatsu

Kotatsu - Snug as a bug under a table

When unsuspecting Japanese asked me what I like about Japan the most, my answer was immediate. Kotatsu. Most of the time they kind of chuckled, surprised, I guess by my answer. My first winter in Japan was hell. It's not that Shizuoka Prefecture gets all that terribly cold (avg. high of 50F, avg. low of 33F at the coldest time of winter) compared to Chicago where I grew up, but as I often explained, my life in Japan was very different from my life in Chicago, and that made Japan seem colder to me. I grew up with central heating in my house, so even though it was often below freezing in winter, I stayed nice and warm in any room of my heated home. In Japan I had only a small electric heater (in the picture above) that barely heated the room, and I had to close all of the sliding doors to heat just the one room. Leaving that room to get more tea or something meant going into the cold. Going out was different in Japan, too. In Chicago, I went from a heated house into a heated car and headed wherever I was going in comfort, only to be greeted by more warmth when I arrived. In Japan, I left a chilly apartment and got on my granny bike, often peddling against the wind, to get anywhere I went. If it was school I was headed to, I would find no heating there, either. I just remember being cold all day long most of the winter, no matter how many layers of clothing I wore. I later found out about the relative efficiency of those little gas heaters (still only capable of heating one room) compared to my almost useless electric one, and life was a bit easier after that.

On these cold days, the only thing that got me through the cold day was the thought of soaking in a hot bath (see the ofuro page) followed by snuggling up under my kotatsu. I couldn't heat the bathroom due to risk of shock (again, see the ofuro page), and being naked and wet in a very cold bathroom was no fun either, but everything after that would be heaven. Getting in the "almost a bit too hot" water and soaking warmed me through and through, and being under the kotatsu maintained the first comfort of the day. A kotatsu is a low table with a heating element underneath that plugs into the wall, and has a quilt on top, and then with another tabletop on top of that. My kotatsu was my favorite place in my apartment. I often bought mikan oranges (very much like tangerines) to eat while sitting under the kotatsu and watching TV until I dozed off. This came fairly naturally to me, but I was told that it was very Japanese behavior.

My kotatsu was like the centerpiece of my apartment, the way many people's kitchen tables are in America and other places. Whenever friends came over, we sat around the kotatsu and talked or ate. I studied for my GRE and paid my bills (though no one uses a checkbook or writes personal checks in Japan - almost everything is done in cash, and I paid all my Japanese bills at convenience stores) under my kotatsu. When I experienced my first earthquake and was scared to death by it, I huddled under my kotatsu while freaking out with another American friend. On especially cold nights, I tried as best I could to actually sleep under my kotatsu, though it was too low to the ground, and it never worked out. In the summer months, the quilt was taken off and the heater not plugged in, but everything still seemed to happen while sitting at my kotatsu.

What a cool idea!

JAPAN PICTURES & STORIES HOME