The Heat is On (but not so much for the students)

It's getting colder in Ise. We'll drop down to freezing tonight, about the same as Portland, but tomorrow is a crazy weather day with 30-plus mph winds (gusts at 50) and a "feels like" high temperature of 23.

Today was the coldest day I've seen in Japan (not sure what the temp was). In the hallway at school, I could see my breath, a first-time in-doors experience. It was the first time I joined Sam in really truly complaining about the cold. Usually while she is shivering (she's from Singapore, where it's warm ... always), I am talking up how the cold doesn't get to me. Today, it got me.

Japanese schools, like Japanese homes, do not feature climate control. No central heating. No century-old furnaces in classrooms. At Yamasho, not even space heaters in the classrooms.

Only the administrative office and the teachers' rooms host kerosene heaters. I sit right next to one of them, which is nice on the cold days and annoying on the sorta-cold-but-not-really days.

The students freeze all day. They probably make up excuses to come into the teachers' room to get a few seconds by the heater.

But mostly, they suffer.

It seems cruel. It's certainly unusual. Why no heaters? Is it a budget thing? Are they trying to build character? Has no one thought of it? Should I tell them?

"Hey, uh ...," I could say to the principal after the morning meeting, "don't you think the students might be a ... err ... a little too cold ... to ... what do you call it? ... study?"

Maybe this simple comment would set it motion a revamping of the entire educational structure in Japan. The new system would involve heaters. But, you know, of course it wouldn't, so I'll keep quiet.

I really don't understand why there are no heaters. Or air conditioners for the brutally hot/humid summers.

Also, this: They are forced to study in their cold classrooms and the girls can't wear pants. Now, I don't have a lot of skirt experience, but I imagine pants provide a little more warmth. But no, during class and in the halls, the rules state that they must wear their uniform "correctly."

So. This issue annoys me. I cannot change it. So I blog it. That's life.