Keeping warm in Japan

I’m in Japan at the moment just as the weather is getting very cold. This is the second most industrialised nation in the world and yet I’m staying in a new house which doesn’t have central heating or insulation either in the walls or roof. Even more surprising is the small amount of electricity that can be taken from the supply. A microwave and toaster are enough to trip it       (2.0kwatts). So how do people stay comfortably warm?

The approach here is to be active and to dress in much thicker clothes. When this is not enough, people heat much smaller areas in their homes than we do. The carpet -and even the toilet seat -can be heated.
 A low level table can have a blanket to drape over it and an electric heater under the table warms chilly legs. A favourite trick is to soak in a hot deep bath before going to bed made cosy with luxurious duvets and fluffy pile blankets.

The shops are full of ways of keeping warm with the minimum of power. Fleecy material is a lot thicker here and finds its way into all types of clothing , slippers and blankets as well as the kotatsu pictured above. Retaining body heat is taken very seriously. Perhaps the strangest thing I came across was a mattress cover made from a ceramic material (yes it did feel rather hard) called “Hot Black”. Silky to touch but if you laid you hand on it, after only a minute or so you would definitely say it was warm. This really demonstrated how much heat we do generate and how little we retain. Mind you, I’m not rushing out to buy a “Hot Black” as it cost £150!

The Japanese are good at taking ideas from other countries and using Chi concepts from China leads to a range of simple clothing to keep you warm. Leg warmers, wrist bands , neck collars and head bands (hats with no top) are all garments that are in every store that we don’t see in the UK.

Some of the ideas in Japan would not fit in with our way of life but two certainly would. Firstly , their idea of keeping individuals warm rather than the whole room is sensible. Normally our living room is the warmest room in the house. Many of us mainly sit on the sofa and watch TV there. So why isn’t it fashionable to have scatter blankets arranged over the sofa so that when you sit down, you can snuggle under one and keep toasty warm ? The fleecy clothes you buy for indoors in Japan are as thick as the ones we normally would wear outdoor. Fleece track suits are considered as indoor leisure wear and leg warmers seem the height of fashion with women - and they really are effective.. It seems to me that it is high time for clothing manufacturers in the UK to design genuine warmth into their offerings for both men and women.

If we used some of these ideas we could drop the setting on our central heating thermostat in order to save energy and reduce our carbon footprint. It sounds an easy option but there are pitfalls . We could be seriously risking our health .

Being cold is harmful. It is not because of the risk of hypothermia (the condition when your body cannot maintain 36.7C internally ) but of higher blood pressure and resultant stroke, blood clot or heart attack. In the UK the death rate is higher in winter because of this. When you are cold, surface blood vessels contract so that blood migrates to the centre of the body to reduce heat loss .Then the heart has to work harder to keep pumping.

This is the reason why it is not advisable to try and condition your body to the cold by just being cold. It is better to warm your body naturally through physical activity such as walking. The body heat generated will protect you against the health risks posed by cold temperatures.

Living here for a month has made us realise how easy it is in UK to flick the central heating switch rather than organise more eco friendly strategies to keep ourselves warm. Similar products to those that can be found in Japan are available in the UK but the big difference is that keeping warm is more of a priority for everyone here at this time of year. In the UK if you are wearing thermals or hiding under a blanket in the living room you are considered to be an old fogey and to be pitied. But if we are going to reduce our dependance on energy we should consider resorting to at least some of the eco friendly alternatives.

Roger Khanna Nov. 2009