For windy winter worriers

(P.S. This post was written by Emma)



I’ve always suffered in winter. Its frosty mornings, biting cloud-covered middays, bitter evenings, with nothing but night’s miserable cold for bookends. Indelible memories of moments in high school classrooms spent trying to will blood to return to the ends of sore blue toes will be forever attached to its very utterance.

It was with caution, then, that I approached Japan’s winter, undoubtedly much more severe than any I had experienced in Perth’s temperate climate. And now after 2 months of winter already past, I feel (hopefully not prematurely) assured that not only will I survive Kobe’s worst, but indeed thrive in it.

Now, it’s not that my circulation has improved or that it’s unseasonably warm, it’s that my outlook for winter dressing has changed. (Actually I am told that it is a little warmer than last year, but with maximum temperatures not exceeding 5 and 6 degrees, I feel safe in saying that comparative to Perth, it’s cold).

During a Perth winter, wearing stockings, knee-hi socks, wool fully-lined pants, long-sleeved nanna vest, turtle neck, wool jumper, wool cardigan, hooded knee-length down jacket, scarf, insulated gloves and beanie would get you laughed all the way to Tasmania. But here in Kobe . . . well actually I get laughed here too for my super doper heat retaining shield (commonly known as clothes), every single day in fact. However, the difference is that here in Japan I am a foreigner, so it’s perfectly acceptable for me to be “soft.”

Nonetheless, and this is a lesson I will be taking home with me, when it’s cold it’s okay to wear too many layers because, as I have learnt, being ridiculed pales in comparison to having a happy winter!

For those Perthies wanting to take the “Keep Warm this Winter 2008 Challenge,” here’s the bare minimum of layers needed to stay toasty warm no matter where you are:

Do this and you to and kill the winter blues!