Heating

Japanese houses don't have central heating.  They use space heaters.  Old Japanese houses had a square fire hole recessed in the floor.  I kind of wish we had a fire place.

The problem with kerosene space heaters is that you can only use them when you are home.  When you get home from work, it will be the same temperature as it is outside.  You can't really run them while you sleep, so when you wake up it might be just above freezing in your apartment.  At least, that's the coldest it has gotten so far.

I'm asleep in my bed and I'm slightly worried about the pipes freezing.  This is an adjustment.

I'd never have expected a cultural adjustment to come from the way I heat my house.  It isn't a big adjustment, it is just one of the unexpected things that you don't think about when you move to a foreign country.   And the fact that the amount we spend on kerosene at the gas station is so much cheaper than what we would spend on natural gas in the US is nice.

Onomatopoeia

Onomatopoeia are words that sound like sounds.  You would think that they would translate well from language to language.  If that's the case, try taking the test below.  Translate the sounds into the English equivalents.  I'll do the first one.  To see the answers, highlight the text.

pushin - snap
tonton - knock knock
buu - beep
gon gon - ding dong
fura fura - wobble wobble
chirin chirin - ting a ling
gohon gohon - cough cough
hikku - hic
musha musha - munch munch
kan - crack
pon pon - pop pop
riin - ring
kashan - crash
kii - squeak
pashaa - splash
gagagaga - rat-tat-tat
pachi pachi - clap clap
goku goku - gulp gulp

How many did you get right?  Isn't it interesting?  If I can find a list of animal sounds, I'll do those as well.