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1 <!doctype html> 2 <html lang="en"> 3 <head> 4 <meta charset="utf-8"> 5 <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> 6 <title>Winter Sounds in Japan - Chris Bracken</title> 7 <link href="/css/site.css" rel="stylesheet"> 8 <link rel="apple-touch-icon" sizes="180x180" href="/favicon/apple-touch-icon.png"> 9 <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="32x32" href="/favicon/favicon-32x32.png"> 10 <link rel="icon" type="image/png" sizes="16x16" href="/favicon/favicon-16x16.png"> 11 <link rel="manifest" href="/favicon/site.webmanifest"> 12 <link rel="mask-icon" href="/favicon/safari-pinned-tab.svg" color="#140f42"> 13 <link rel="shortcut icon" href="/favicon/favicon.ico"> 14 <meta name="msapplication-TileColor" content="#603cba"> 15 <meta name="msapplication-config" content="/favicon/browserconfig.xml"> 16 <meta name="theme-color" content="#ffffff"> 17 </head> 18 <body> 19 <header id="header"> 20 <div class="site-title"> 21 <h1><a href="/">Chris Bracken</a></h1> 22 </div> 23 24 <nav class="site-navbar"> 25 <ul id="menu" class="menu"> 26 <li class="menu-item"><a class="menu-item-a" href="/">Home</a></li> 27 <li class="menu-item"><a class="menu-item-a" href="/about/">About</a></li> 28 <li class="menu-item"><a class="menu-item-a" href="/code/">Code</a></li> 29 <li class="menu-item"><a class="menu-item-a" rel="me"href="https://bsd.network/@cbracken">Fediverse</a></li> 30 </ul> 31 </nav> 32 </header> 33 <main id="main"> 34 <article> 35 <h2 class="post-title"><a href="https://chris.bracken.jp/2011/04/winter-sounds-in-japan/">Winter Sounds in Japan</a></h2> 36 25 April 2011 37 <p>There are a lot of uniquely Japanese sounds. But the two I’m writing 38 about today appear on cold winter nights, and echo eerily through the 39 dark, empty streets between dinner and bedtime.</p> 40 <p>Japanese winters are cold. They’re not -30C cold, but what they do have on 41 Canadian winters is how drafty Japanese houses tend to be, and the distinct 42 lack of central heating. All across the country the appearance of convenience 43 store oden and yaki-imo wagons mark the arrival of winter.</p> 44 <figure><img src="/post/2011-04-25-yakiimo.jpg" 45 alt="Yaki-imo wagon"> 46 </figure> 47 48 <p>Yaki-imo are sweet potatoes roasted over flames in wood fired ovens in small 49 mobile carts or trucks. They’re served up wrapped in newspaper, and are not 50 only delicious, but keep your hands warm too. But the most distinctive thing 51 about yaki-imo is that the sellers sing a very distinct <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4P9yctE9_hQ">yaki-imo 52 song</a>. They typically make the rounds until just after dinner time, 53 and I always found their song a bit eerie drifting though the dark streets.</p> 54 <figure><img src="/post/2011-04-25-hinoyoujin.jpg" 55 alt="Hi no Yōjin"> 56 </figure> 57 58 <p>Central heating is near non-existent in Japan, one result of which is the 59 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kotatsu">kotatsu</a>, but another is that kerosene and gas heaters are still 60 commonly used for heating. Every year, housefires result from people 61 forgetting to shut of their heaters before bed. As a reminder to shut off the 62 heaters, people walk through town late at night, carrying lanterns and clacking 63 wooden blocks together, calling out “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFqRIKoVckA#t=20s">hi no yōjin</a>”: be careful 64 with fire. The sound of the blocks typically carries for many blocks, and you 65 often hear their calls echoing through town, coming and going for up to half an 66 hour as you lay in bed.</p> 67 </article> 68 </main> 69 70 <footer id="footer"> 71 <div class="copyright"> 72 <span xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#"> 73 The content of this site by 74 <a rel="cc:attributionURL" href="https://chris.bracken.jp/about"><span rel="cc:attributionName">Chris Bracken</span></a> 75 is 76 <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0">CC BY 4.0</a>. 77 </span> 78 </div> 79 </footer> 80 </body> 81 </html>