SAMUI!!

Man, is it cold. I am sitting in my tiny tatami room, with the little electrical heater on, wearing fleece socks and pants and three shirts, and my fingers are too cold to type a long post. It's about 8 degrees Celsius now in the evening, and during the day the temperature still sometimes hits the twenties. Still, I have never felt colder than I do now. I apologize because I foresee the infrequent blog entries of the next few months being nothing but frozen fingered rambles about the progressively colder and colder weather and rants about how a country can be so technologically advanced yet not have such a thing as insulation. Either that, or every entry will contain the same broken record tendencies as those in the following paragraph:

This weekend was good, but cold. I went to the Ibusuki sand baths, which were nice and warm except for the part where we had to walk outside to the beach wearing nothing but yukatas (cotton kimonos, or thin bathrobes), which was cold. I went to a random old Japanese man's house for dinner with some friends and one of said friend's coworker (who happens to know said random man). His wife prepared a delicious meal, which included nabe which is a delicious Japanese traditional soup/stew/hotpot eaten in the cold winter months. This was amazing especially since it was so cold, although the house itself was fairly warm. The next morning was impossible to wake up due to the cold, but we did and then headed to Hayato port to participate in a sailing race. When I say participate, I mean that several of us gaijin were generously invited to sit on this Japanese man's (a different one than that who fed us, but one no less random) sailboat. It was very sunny, but it was also very cold. I wore long johns and three shirts and a scarf and a hat and a coat and was still cold, although we were on the water so I'm sure that has some part to play. Our boat was winning after the first lap, but then the sail ripped and we ended up coming a very cold fourth. Then we ate lunch, and were cold, then had a raffle, where I won a roll of paper towels. Then I came home, where I sat in my bed with the heat cranked up and was still cold.

And now my fingers are about to fall off, so goodnight and enjoy the central heating/insulation you lucky North Americans (and condolences to those that are suffering the cold as well, and apologies for being such a baby about it).