My son is quite a little scientist, reading books on physics and atomic theory for relaxation and occasionally wearing his official Future Gadget Laboratory coat from Steins;Gate around the house. Yesterday he offered a new theory to me: “The flow of time is slowed by a factor of two when you’re sitting in a kotatsu playing with a cat.” A kotatsu, of course, is a low table with a heater inside that’s popular in homes here, where it becomes the hub of a Japanese family in the winter as everyone gathers for meals or to watch TV. Another common way to heat rooms during the winter is with an old-timey kerosene space heater called a “stove,” They’re frankly a lot more dangerous than the more modern “fan heaters” which are kerosene heaters with thermostats and safety features, but there’s something about a stove, glowing orange with a kettle of water boiling on top to keep the air from getting dry, that transports me back to a simpler time in Japan.
Time slows when you’re inside a kotatsu.
