I can't feel my toes

Today’s lovely precipitation combination of sleet, snow, and rain has inspired me to blog about winter in Himeji. It’s miserably cold. The temperature stays right around freezing, and considering that central heating just doesn’t exist here, it’s miserable! It’s just impossible to get warm!
I’m sure you’ve heard me complain before about the unheated classrooms. I literally can see my breath in them. The boys are in their uniforms with many layers underneath, but the poor girls are in uniform skirts with bobby socks, so their legs are bare! I really do not know how they can concentrate! Then, for some unfathomable reason, the teacher or one of the boys will open the window. It’s snowing outside for heaven’s sake, why on earth would you open the window?? It’s the Japanese love for “fresh air”, no matter what the temperature!
At least the staff room tends to be heated, although it’s with a kerosene heater so it’s not a very stable temperature. It gets wicked hot and then the heater is turned off until it becomes too cold to move your fingers. Then the heater is turned back on until it’s hot again. The cycle continues many times throughout each school day.
I have begun to dress like an Eskimo. Today I am wearing tights under my pants, as well as knee highs, and a fleece blanket over my lap. I have on a long underwear shirt, a long-sleeved shirt, a sweater, and a fleece jacket. I only take off my scarf and gloves when I arrive at school, and the fleece jacket is rapidly becoming my second skin.
Now to tell you about my apartment, which the previous inhabitant affectionately called “The Icebox”. It’s nice and quiet because it’s away from all the other apartments and none of my walls are shared with any other apartment. But that means that every wall is an external wall, and apparently insulation is an unheard-of concept here in Japan. I only turn the heat on when I am in the apartment and awake. So in the morning when I wake up, it’s usually 45 degrees! I turn on the heater and sometimes a space heater while I get ready for work, but it only warms up to 50 degrees or so by the time I leave. In the evenings, I crank the heat again, but except for the weekends it never gets a chance to warm up to “room temperature”. I’ve learned to be satisfied with 60 degrees. Well, not satisfied exactly… I’m counting the days until spring!
P.S. Don't believe that temperature module on my blog. There is NO WAY it was 45 degrees today! 35 degrees at most!