Warm Feet

Nowadays we have a lot of new technology but sometimes old fashioned ideas are best.

All Japanese people should know what the orange thing in the picture is, but if you are not Japanese, can you guess? This thing looks very different in Australia and I guess not so many people use it now...

Have you guessed? It's a hot water bottle! Australian ones are flat and made out of rubber and sadly they get cold pretty quickly. This Japanese one is made out of special heavy duty plastic and stays quite hot of most of the night. I put it down the bottom of my futon to keep my feet warm. Actually, the water is still warm enough the next morning and I can use it to melt the ice on my car windscreen. Saves water and gas!

You can still buy metal hot water bottles in Japan but most are now plastic. Mine is a basic one that I bought cheaply at a pharmacy but you can get cute animal shapes or doughnut shaped ones. The doughnut ones keep the water in the middle and the outside ring doesn't get hot. These can be used for babies or small children.

One thing you should keep in mind with a 'hot' hot water bottle is that you can get burns from a low heat applied for a long time. So make sure the water isn't super hot and that you wrap the bottle in a towel as well as a cover.

I use this orange one in my futon every night but when I worked alone from home, I used to use it in the day too! I would put it under my desk and put my feet on it. If I dressed warmly and used the bottle, then I didn't need to use an airconditioner or heater. Very frugal! However, now I have to use an airconditioner - I don't think students at my school would be very impressed if I said "No heating, just hot water bottles!"

frugal - 質素な