"Natural selection acts only by taking slight, successive variations. She can never take a great and sudden leap, but must advance by short and sure, though slow steps." - Charles Darwin
When autumn and winter comes along, the temperature outside drops. Here in Japan, that corresponds to an equivalent drop in temperature IN the house. Fortunately, although not pleasant to sleep in near freezing bedrooms, and pee in icebox restrooms (and you wonder why we have electrically heated seats and warm running washlet water for rinsing?), my body has adjusted to it, so that I can survive.
After a brief 20 years, my body has adapted to this climate, showing once again how Darwinian Biology and his Theory of Evolution and Natural Selectioin may not be all that we have been taught in school biology classes, and may not be the whole explanation for the processes of life as we are just beginning to understand it (on the evolutionary clock).
It never ceases to amaze me the constant evolution of the Japanese electronics. Look at the Wii system, for example! It is a masterpiece of advanced technological gaming! Everything from cell phones, to fuel efficient automobiles, to mp3 players, through digital cameras and digital video cameras to HDTV. It is a marvel to live in this country.
Except for one teeny little factor.... why the hell could the Japanese not have put some thought into advancing the technology of housing? I mean why do even relatively new houses have to be so freaking cold everywhere except the room in which you are heating? What is the purpose even of insulated walls, when 10 minutes after turning the heat off, the room is already cooling down, and by morning, the inside temperature, is about the same as the outside temperature?
When I talk to Japanese people about this, they always come back with, "oh, it is so humid here that if there was not air movement there would be too much moisture buildup in the walls", and "we don't have any natural resources so central heating is far too expensive, unlike in N.A. where oil is almost free".
OK, fine. I can accept the reasons that are stated above, but absolutely NOT the logic because Japan has always been freakishly hot and humid in the summer, and freakishly cold and humid in the winter so much so that the Japanese even invented electric carpets and low tables that you drape thick duvets over, and heat underneath electrically with a radiator attached to the underside of the table! And if this has been going on forever... then surely, with such ability to create the electronic technology they can today, they SHOULD HAVE BEEN ABLE to SOLVE the humidity, and expensive resource problem decades ago! This is not a new phenomenon.
There is one thing, though, that I have not yet mentioned, and it is called "gaman" (我慢). This is a buddhism term that refers to patience, endurance, perseverance, self-control under duress in order to grow and expand spiritually. This spirit is very much in the Japanese culture. It is why the traditional bushido "ways" (judo, kendo, karate-do, etc.) usually go out at the beginning of the new year into the snow, or the freezing rivers, and oceans, and practice their training exercises under extremely harsh conditions. It is why I was told not to drink any water during my kendo training in the middle of the blazing heat of summer when everyone was pouring sweat, getting dehydrated by the minute, and becoming faint during keiko, or practice. It was, and still is important for "bushido", or the way of the warrior, and warrior spirit.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to have translated well into modern-day living because Japanese living accommodations suck! And I can say this because I have lived here for a good 20 years and seen old homes to new ones. And in summer they are boiling hot, while in winter they are freezing cold, regardless of the age. The only thing that differs is the amount of wind that whips through the walls...
And because it is too expensive to heat the entire house when we are not using but a portion of it (kind of smart, actually... why waste energy on parts of the house that people don't use often, right?) the room we use for laundry gets very cold in winter. And it stays cold. Therefore, the laundry can take up to a week or more to dry, which means....
... in order to have dry non-mouldy laundry we have to live with it on a daily basis from about November, to the end of March when it finally warms up in the house enough to dry the laundry in other parts of the house.
Even Keiko the "incredibly disappearing cat" has a battle with the laundry!! (he can't see us when he comes to be fed, so has taken to scratching the glass to get our attention). It never ceases to amaze me what a weird, complex and contradictory society this really is. But the good thing about that is you never get bored! You never know what to expect next over here in Japan.
If something doesn't change, I fear that before long we will be "selected out" of the living quarters, naturally!
Have a wonderful day!
I love you!
Cam
