January 28, 1990
Have I complained about the cold before? I didn't know what cold was. Cold is lying in bed and seeing your breath frost in the morning air. Cold is wearing your entire wardrobe of sweaters (I have one for each day of the week) every day and still feeling the chill. Cold is teaching in a classroom where you've allowed the students put on their coats, mufflers, and gloves (against school rules) and by the end of the hour you can't feel your feet or hands because they are numb.
I lose patience with the Japanese, though. They laugh at us for wearing our polyester-filled winter coats (at his school they call JQS "Eskimo-kun") and they liken mine to a futon with sleeves. Meanwhile, they were a minimum of warm clothing, but then complain incessantly samui desu (it's cold/I'm cold). They damn well should be cold: bare-legged, bare-headed, and bare-handed. Murakami-sensei got frostbite and I couldn't muster any empathy for her. "Where were your gloves?" "Well, sometimes I forget them." So be it.
Posted by M Sinclair Stevens
January 28, 1990
Share Your Thoughts
Cold and getting colder.