When compared to the Canadian winters of my youth, the season of Jack Frost in Japan is rather mild.
After my first few years living here, I had become accustomed to the weather in Japan. For the most part I can tolerate the hot and humid summers, and I complain along with everyone else about the 'freezing cold' in the winter.
In reality the temperature only dips down below zero a handful of times each winter.
As I grumble and complain, people more often than not respond with, "But you're Canadian!" At which point (for the umpteenth time that week) I explain the differences between winter in Canada and Japan.
"To start with, Canadian winters are dry. When crawling into bed at night it doesn't feel like you're entering a partially frozen swamp."
One particularly cold winter I took to heating up the bottom plate of my tajine and putting it in my bed to dry it out. Sure I could have used a hot water bottle but where's the 'old world' fun in that? Anyway, it worked for about a week until I overheated it one night and burnt my sheets.
"As well, we have central heating in Canada which means that there is no need to avoid certain areas of your home for fear of frostbite."
At the next Winter Olympics I propose that Speed Toweling be added to the roster. The athletes enjoy a nice hot shower and are then forced to towel dry and get dressed in an unheated bathroom before hypothermia sets in. I think Japan would be a major contender for the gold medal.
"Finally, for the most part, Canadians do not ride bicycles or commute by train in the winter. We go from our nice warm houses to our nice warm cars, suffering the cold for only and few minutes at a time."
Sure Canadians use subways in the winter but that is different because they are underground; there is no bitter wind howling into the car at each station. And those Canadians who travel by bicycle in the winter are mentalists and not indicative of the general population.
Usually by the time I have finished my rant, the listener is wishing that they had never brought up the topic in the first place. Even now, with the temperature in the low 30s and winter long gone, I can't control the feelings of (dare I say it?) hatred that I feel for that particular season, no matter which country it occurs in.
Hmmm. It seems that I have long ago strayed from the original topic of this post. I blame it on winter.
My apologies. I shall now get on with it.
My story begins last Christmas (I knew that there was a winter tie-in lurking around somewhere) and one of Kio's Christmas presents was a bicycle helmet. Shin and I combed websites and sporting goods shops in order to find one that we felt would suit Kio.
This is what we came up with...
I think that it is probably more Shin's style than Kio's, but it's pretty damn cute nonetheless.
The next step was to buy a bicycle with a baby seat so that I could take him to nursery school, and then head directly to the station to board the train to work. A fine plan except that the day we decided to go bicycle shopping happened to be one of the coldest of the winter. I then realized that there was no way that I would be strapping my baby onto the back of a bike until spring.
There's winter rearing its ugly head again.
Thus from January until April I walked with Kio to our car (our parking spot isn't at our apartment, we save ¥6000 a month by walking 5 minutes), drove Kio to daycare, drove back to our parking spot, walked back to the apartment, picked up Shin's bicycle and set off to the station.
Not exactly the most convenient system, but it kept Kio warm.
Once spring arrived it was time to dust off Kio's bicycle helmet and get shopping for the ultimate 'Mama's Bike'.
There were a few 'features' that I deemed necessary for this particular ride: more than 3 gears, a frame large enough to accommodate my taller than average stature (in Japan anyway), a basket big enough to carry a bag of diapers and my diaper bag, and finally the colour had to be dark so that Shin could use it if needed.
Obviously cool didn't factor into my decision. Because seriously, the second you throw a basket into the mix, cool is out the window.
After a few weekends of combing bicycle shops in our area, the search was over and Blue Mama joined the slowly expanding Hirano fleet.
I love this picture, I think that Kio looks like 'The Fonz'.
Eehhhhh!
Kio is the best little passenger and doesn't mind wearing his helmet - a total surprise as keeping a toque on his head during winter was an ongoing battle. As well, not having to return home after dropping him off means that we can spend more time together in the mornings. Of course, now that summer has arrived, and the humidity is starting to set in, I'm one sweaty mama by the time I reach the train station.
But I shan't complain. No, I'll save that up for next February when I'm dramatically freezing half to death.
