Only people who have lived in Japan during the winter period would understand what I am about to say 😅 - It is really hard to describe how cold the houses in Japan get during the coldest months, especially in the northern parts of Japan. So only those who have experienced it first handedly will understand why we decided to check into a local hotel for two nights.
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| Washington Hotel Sendai |
It was for the warmth, the bath and just for being able to sleep without a hat, gloves and woollen socks. And not to be shivering or complaining... It is very common for people to spend their evenings in their houses with their coats on here. When walking outside you may see people cooking in their kitchens having their jackets on. That's how cold it is inside some of the houses. And we just haven't got used to it. And I don't think we ever will.. We saw a good deal and decided to book two rooms for the weekend.
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| Amazing bathroom - felt like an onsen |
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| Free toiletries so didn't even have to pack the toothbrush... |
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| Tasty breakfast made for us in the morning (and didn't have to wash the dishes...) |
It was so nice to have a warm bath in the deepest bath tub ever, to have WiFi that worked, to sleep comfortably in a nice room temperature, to have breakfast ready made for you... And not to be cold... I know it sounds a bit extreme, but extreme conditions require extreme measures 😅. It will start getting warmer here soon, but I would recommend anyone staying in the northern parts of Japan for the winter period to prepare themselves mentally for the living conditions. The locals are so used to it, they hardly ever complain. Which makes us feel so bad about criticising the houses lacking central heating or proper insulation. Our house is very old and doesn't heat up at all. We have several different heating devices but they just don't seem to heat up the whole apartment. So in order to stay warm, we closed the other side of the flat, so the master bedroom as it was the coldest room as it was situated next to the hallway and entrance, and decided to only use the other two rooms which were on the other side of the apartment.
Unfortunately the heaters we have do not heat up large areas. Our air conditioning unit has also a heating mode, but it only seems to heat up the ceiling of our apartment and dries the clothes that are underneath it (and having it on for around 6-8 hours everyday + the water boiler costs around 24000 yen per month...). Our favourite heater is the portable heater which the children like to have blowing into their faces in the morning when they wake up. This same heater follows them to the kitchen while they are having breakfast, to the living room when they watch tv or are on their devices, and to the shower room. Well the changing room as the shower room cannot be heated at all 😳 so the best thing is to just turn the hot water shower on and then bravely enter the shower.
I sometimes wake up with a terrible headache as my body has been so tense during the night, as it has been so cold, which has created tension in my neck, shoulders and head. The floors in our house (and typically in Japanese houses) are so cold, that walking without slippers is being extremely brave 😆. But anyway, spending the weekend in the hotel was warm and relaxing. We went to the local LOFT department store, as they have a LUSH store there, which sells all sorts of bath stuff. As we haven't been able to use our own bath at the place where we are staying - as our house and especially the bathroom is so cold - we really wanted to make the most out of our weekend. And the girls of the family certainly did that 😂, as you can see...
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| Bath-bomb by ColdStone |
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| Bath-bomb "Intergalactic" by Lush |
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