Post by solveig on Nov 13, 2005 21:18:04 GMT -5
Noble Cousin!
Greetings from Solveig!
Wool was the only thing that helped me survive a 28 degree night at Estrella. Wool socks, wool tunics, Icelandic wool blanket. I actually managed to sleep that night.
Japan, real Japan that is, has blizzards on a regular basis in various areas. Due to pollution and global warming, Tokyo is warmer now than it once was, but even these days you can see significant snow accumulation in Tokyo. Snow country can and does get rather a lot. 28 degrees (I assume that you mean Farenheit degrees) can easily be bested by many areas in Japan.
I do not know where the lady in question lives, but I have lived in Japan, Eastern Washington State, Iowa, and upstate New York near Montreal. As I have survived minus 30 F or better, I think that I have some experience with cold. Parts of Japan, get noticably cold.
All of that said, the Japanese did not repeat did not use getta for cold weather wear. They wore lined straw boots. Straw boots trap lots of air pockets and can provide significant insulation. Getta are for the john and for mucking around in the mud.
Where does this myth of the comparative warmth of Japan come from? I think that it comes from WW-II and fighting the Japanese in the South Pacific where the Japanese were as or even more uncomfortable than were the American GI's. Modern Japanese take Winter holidays in the United States (usually Saipan or Hawaii) and come back with tans. If they were as ill informed about the United States as Americans are about Japan, they would believe that everyone in the United States could happily live in a bamboo hut without a door.
Greetings from Solveig!
makiwara said:
No justification whatsoever on the basis of authenticity, only the fact that the lady lives in a climate that gets significantly colder on a regular basis than Japan does. Wool was the only thing that helped me survive a 28 degree night at Estrella. Wool socks, wool tunics, Icelandic wool blanket. I actually managed to sleep that night.
Japan, real Japan that is, has blizzards on a regular basis in various areas. Due to pollution and global warming, Tokyo is warmer now than it once was, but even these days you can see significant snow accumulation in Tokyo. Snow country can and does get rather a lot. 28 degrees (I assume that you mean Farenheit degrees) can easily be bested by many areas in Japan.
I do not know where the lady in question lives, but I have lived in Japan, Eastern Washington State, Iowa, and upstate New York near Montreal. As I have survived minus 30 F or better, I think that I have some experience with cold. Parts of Japan, get noticably cold.
All of that said, the Japanese did not repeat did not use getta for cold weather wear. They wore lined straw boots. Straw boots trap lots of air pockets and can provide significant insulation. Getta are for the john and for mucking around in the mud.
Where does this myth of the comparative warmth of Japan come from? I think that it comes from WW-II and fighting the Japanese in the South Pacific where the Japanese were as or even more uncomfortable than were the American GI's. Modern Japanese take Winter holidays in the United States (usually Saipan or Hawaii) and come back with tans. If they were as ill informed about the United States as Americans are about Japan, they would believe that everyone in the United States could happily live in a bamboo hut without a door.