 We
stayed with Tod and Kristen in the 4th house they've lived in in two years.
Since they'd moved after we left Tokyo, we didn't know where their new
house was located. Therefore, we figured it was easier to go straight from
the aiport and meet them at Brendan's pizza Kaiya restaurant. Plus, it
was a Wednesday night and Wednesday night pizza at Brendan's is a weekly
event for them. Their new house is very Japanese. It, of course, had the
Japanese features we'd always known about: high-tech toilet, high-tech
bath and non-fogging mirrors. However, actually staying in their house
for a week gave us more insights into Japanese housing. First off, we slept
on futons. They were 100% fine. We don't know if sleeping in more than
fifty beds over the past ten months has made us accostumed to all sorts
of bedding, but a futon on a hard-wood floor was much more comfortable
than I would have expected. We also learned what not having central heat
means first hand. This fact was very important on the first Saturday we
were in Tokyo because it was actually snowing that day! Tara heard from
her Japanese teacher that it had been 27 or so years since it had last
snowed during hanami season. I guess we were just "lucky". Anyway, different
parts of Tod and Kristen's house were so cold that Tara took to huddling
close to the portable gas heater and wearing her blanket around the house
as a skirt. She also deduced that the lack of central heat in Japanese
houses directly led to the invention of the heated toilet seat. |
