HOW THE JAPANESE KEEP WARM

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And yes: As you might have suspected, we did wear more sweaters and other such garments indoors than folks need inside a centrally (over)heated U.S. home. You can look upon our need for the extra layers of clothing as a nuisance if you choose but I found it quite pleasant to wear them. Besides that, as I'm sure you know, medical authorities almost unanimously agree that the reduced temperature change encountered when moving from a cool house to frigid outside winter weather is much less of a shock on your body than the change encountered as you move from a hot house to the same

outside weather. You'll probably stay much healthier, in other words, if you spend the winter going back and forth from a 50° F building to 30° outside conditions than if you go back and forth between a 70° building and 30° outside weather.

So much for getting up and getting out in the mornings. It wasn't until I came back home from school during the afternoons that I really used traditional Japanese ideas for staying warm with little energy. For, as soon as I returned from my lessons, I'd generally join the family and Yukikosan who were already snuggled into the kotatsu. (Those readers who've spent any time in Japan are probably having fond memories of their own kotatsu right about now.)

A kotatsu is a heater that's placed on the floor with a low table over it. A special quilt called-what else?-a kotatsu kakebuton is draped over the top of the table and ,a second top rests on the quilt. That's the way poor people do it anyway. Wealthier folks frequently have a special space for their legs recessed into the floor under the table and a second-smaller and deeper-hole for the heater located in the center of the first one.

However it's constructed, the kotatsu is the center of a Japanese family's activities during cold weather. When we lived in Japan, we spent most of our time in the winter closely grouped around our little (about three feet by three feet) square table playing footsie in the kotatsu and being careful not to lift the accompanying kakebuton so as to let a draft of cold air underneath.

Such a life requires compatibility, to say the least. And the Japanese do have a remarkable ability to remain pleasant in crowded conditions that would drive many Occidentals completely berserk.

Think about it: It's too cold to go anywhere. So you spend every afternoon snuggled up with your whole household (which typically includes Java sparrows perched on your head and shoulders), doing your homework while everyone else is doing his or her thing all on the same three-foot-square table. It's obvious, under the circumstances, that you either become an extremely close-knit family or you go nuts or freeze. I think every family needs a kotatsu.

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