Brrrr... Japanese January

I'm trying, I'm trying. I have yet to figure out the photo thing, but I will attempt to keep writing while I brainstorm. Of course, I am looking to do it for free and that may or may not be possible. We shall see.

Anyway: I definitely should document the fact that I'm having the most terrific January in recent history. Maybe February will just truly bite, but so far this winter has been a real blast. Last week was perhaps my best week of teaching yet, then on Thursday we got almost 2 feet of snow, and on top of all that I should have a car by the end of the day!!

Ok I will slow down. After Christmas in Hawaii and New Year's (plus) in Tokyo at Tom's apartment, I was surprised at how happy I was to return to Misato. The man who runs the train station welcomed me home, and though it was just a random greeting, it was exactly how I felt. It was butt cold here when I got back. Literally half of my house was frozen. The kitchen sink was thankfully still working, but my bathroom sink water was frozen solid, as was the water in my shower and bathtub. Here's an image for you: My shower head is actually attached to a hose which links to the bathtub faucet. I usually leave it hanging on the wall in "shower position" but sometimes take it down to rinse out the tub, etc. Well, the water inside the hose had frozen... so when I tried to take it down it wouldn't even budge from its snake position!! I was a bit shocked. Fortunatly it thawed a few hours after plugging in a space heater and closing the door. Not so lucky with the washing machine. I thought it was fine, but halfway through my first post-vacation load it just stopped... soap suds, frigid water, and clothes hanging out in a lovely laundry stew. After some head scratching I realized that the hose & drain combo were frozen... so I could fill up and start laundry... just couldn't finish it. I was forced (by images of frozen scummy mildewy clothing) to reach in and rescue the clothing then bail out the soapy water. My hands were bright red (have I reminded you that the inside of my house in spots without a kerosene heater reach freezing regularly?) but the clothes were now out of the laundry and instead in a drippy corner of my shower. I then boiled pots of water and dumped them into the laundry machine until I successfully got the laundry machine to start draining. I am a genius!! Thank you St. Olaf!!! (sarcasm warning).

Oh, but the BEST part of my frozen water situation was the bathroom sink. The hot water faucet remained frozen for a few days. In retrospect, I guess I probably had turned it on and off (to check for water!) so many times that I simply forgot which way was "off". On this side of the "incident", this seems like it should be an important thing to remember... but I had yet to learn my lesson. Boy did I. When I returned from school on our first day back, all dressed up and ready to (sigh) relax.. the first sound I heard when I opened my door was water. The gloss of the floor really resembled that of water. I won't share the first WORD I said aloud when I turned on the light to see my entire first floor covered in at least 2 inches of water. The faucet had thawed (duh!) and instead of being on a trickle... it was on full blast and flowing into a sink bowl that drains pretty slowly. Hence the water and overflowed and had been doing so for hours. The water streamed out of the bathroom, through my hall and spread throughout my entire kitchen. I'll sum up by saying it took Jaclyn and I over an hour, 2 brooms, countless towels, and all my heaters to clean up the mess. Of course since it was so cold, all the water swept out of my house instantly froze into my very own front step skating rink. Lesson learned.