Being from a warm place like San Diego, winter definitely isn’t my favorite season, and part of getting used to living in Japan involved not just adapting to the colder climate but learning to deal with the limitations of Japanese houses, which are are usually built with thinner materials (back during the bubble era everyone tore down their house every 15 years and built a new one), with no custom of central heating at all. Still, there are some aspects of winter I like a lot, including the first prayer for good luck on New Year’s Day and sitting with my legs inserted into kotatsu heater table while eating mikan oranges and playing with my cat. Another good thing about winter is nikuman or “steamed Chinese meat buns,” a delicious treat sold at convenience stores during the colder months, which are a joy to bite into while standing on a freezing train platform. The Japanese love assigning days to random products, and January 25 has been designated nikuman no hi or Steamed Meat Bun Day. This day in 1902 saw the coldest temperature ever recorded in Japan (-42 degrees C/-41 degrees F), which made it as good as day as any to encourage everyone to eat something delicious and warm.
Taiga gives the gift of hot nikuman in winter.
