Holed up

This apartment, like almost all Japanese apartments, has no central heating. Instead, Japanese people use the heating function on their air conditioners or huddle around a kotatsu, which is a table with a fitted duvet and heater.

Since we have none of those things, it's pretty cold here even with the winter temperatures nowhere near as low as those of Scotland. To make things worse, every room in this apartment has windows as about 50% of the wall space and wooden floors - not great for keeping in any heat we do manage to generate. But I shouldn't complain - those windows and wood will be a God-send come summer time which is much harsher than the winter here.

Anyway, today I've been holed up on the futon in the little tatami (straw mat) room with a small fan heater blasting, drifting in and out of sleep, trying to fight the jet lag.