KJ200701: Winter in Japan (2/2)
Let’s enjoy the winter warmly!
Hokkaido and other particularly cold regions build homes with various devices, such as double-paned windows, to keep cold out and warmth in. Some places are kept warm enough to walk around in your tee-shirt in the dead of winter! Shikoku, a region that stays comparatively warm, has colder houses in the winter. So how do people here warm up in this cold weather?
“Hanten” quilted short-coats are popular, as are the delightful kotatsu, low tables with a heating element affixed underneath and a thick comforter draped over them, with a top over that so it may still be used regularly. People eat mikan, citrus fruits full of vitamin-C, and enjoy oden(a bubbling pot full of different foods, all simmering together); also popular is nabe cooking, in which a pot is placed on a burner on the table in front of everyone and the food cooked right there. Another seasonal favorite is atsukan, regular Japanese sake enjoyed warm. In these ways, people heat themselves from outside and inside and pass the winter as warmly as they can manage.
If one feels a cold coming one, an old folk remedy is tamago-zake, warmed sake with egg yolk and sugar mixed in and drunk before bedtime. Some people gargle when they get home ; this and washing of the hands are good ways to ward off infection at this particularly susceptible
time of year.
