The flu strikes, and I need to buy kerosene

There aren't a lot of events going on at the moment, because it's finals time, and all the students are studying or finishing their thesis'. But here is perhaps some insight into life and my experience of winter in Japan.

For being what seems like one of the most advanced countries in terms of technology and medicine, it seems strange to me that there seems to be some sort of flu epidemic in this country. For the past month, I've seen people left and right getting sick with the flu, and/or other sickness. For now, it's a blessing that my house seems to be immune to the effects, but recently it has not been uncommon to hear about schools closing due to 25-35% of the school population being home sick with the flu! I remember that happening once in middle school, and it was a big deal. I get the feeling this isn't a rare occurrence around this time of year in Japan.

I'm not trying to sound dramatic, nor do I want you to feel like a quarter of the population of Japan is bedridden. That's not true at all. My house has been blessed with what seems to be an immunity for the time being, as not one has gotten sick here as of yet, but it's still winter and still cold.

Something that can not be truly articulated in a blog, or letter is how it is cold here. Not "how cold it is", but "how it is cold". I'm not going to say it's cold here, because compared to home in Pennsylvania it's nothing. Let's see... I'm checking the weather... and in Philadelphia it is between 10-30 degrees (wow...) Here it is between 30-50 degrees. So, it would seem like your high temperature is our low temperature. BUT! the difference is my house is not heated... Well, that's not entirely true. But, our fireplace is mainly for when guests are over, and the kerosene heaters can only effectively heat one room, and it's not cost effective (at all) nor Japanese (at all) to just turn them all on to heat the house. Tack on the fact that this house, and any typical Japanese home is not well insulated (for good reason, but I don't need to get into that), and you have a cold environment outside, a cold environment inside that heats slowly, and does not retain heat for periods of time. And right now we are out of kerosene, so there is no escape from the cold. (I think I've been using too much, which is why we are out, but I'm not sure) So, I am telling you this not for sympathy, but to demonstrate my hunch as to why so many people are sick. If I can see my breath indoors, that can't be good for health!

On the more positive end of this, having it being cold all the time forces us into the same room to conserve energy when heating a room. So I've been able to spend some good time with my roommates as we are all sitting, huddled underneath Daichan's kotatsu, which is essentially a heated table (*see here). If we're going to be cold, at least we can all be cold together, right!?