Japanese rooms and lifestyle

[steven]

Originally Posted by GoNative

Up here in Hokkaido I find most Japanese houses and especially offices to be oppressively warm in winter. I would say on average up here they seem to like to keep the temperature at something around 24 degrees. I find this way too warm. As I say to them if it was that warm in the house in summer you'd want to put the aircon on! I've had many minor battles with Japanese staff over the years about how warm to have the heating in the office during winter. I prefer around 19 degrees but they'll often set it at 28 and still wrap themselves in blankets at their desk!

This is something I think we agree on very much. While I find Japanese houses too be a bit to cold in the winter, offices and shopping areas and the like are kept TOO WARM. If you don't like breakin' a sweat during the summer because of the heat, then why'd you wanna do it in the winter? When the frost on the windows starts sweating and turning into water, then you know it's gone too far. However, I was under the impression that the whole "cool biz" , "warm biz" was to fight the temptation of cranking the heater or airconditioners too high.

I'm probably gonna die from a heart attack some day in the summer or the winter from walking in a conbini that is like 15 degrees hotter or colder than the temperature outside.

[dirtyroboto]

From what I understand, the Japanese body tempreture runs a little below the western body tempreture. This may be because of the large amounts of history the Japanese spent as vegetarians. In the west we have been required to digest meat and meat fats to a larger degree, this leads to a higher metabolic average. The westerner will need to cool down (loose internal heat) before the Japanese, the inverse is also an issue, where in the hot humid summer the westerner can't remove heat as well as the Japanese.
This is just an average observation as many people will fall above and below the standard metabolic for their race.

As for buildings, the main requirments are safety and cost. Japan is very aware of carbon footprints, to the point that, if importing materials to build a house would negate the enviromental (and cost) issues, then a more harmonious build would be used. This would use local or very low carbon materials and would not envisage a structure that would last over 100 years.
If it lasted longer, Hooray!

Glass fiber as I recall, is not easy to recycle. If you demolish a house with GF then most of that get's dropped in the land fill. I am not saying that you can't recycle it, just that the cost involved is greater then producing more glass fiber.

[steven]

Glass Fiber materials are usually made up of a good amount of recycled materials if I understand correctly.

Incidentally, my body temperature runs even LOWER than Japanese. I think Japanese have a body temp of 36.5 (?) degrees on average. Of course this means that there are a lot of people who run lower and a lot of people who run higher. But kids get sent home for a 37 degree fever from school all the time (37 degrees is about 98.6 F by the way). I have a body temp of below 36 degrees (about 96F). If anything, I feel fine when people feel cold. I also feel hot when people feel fine. There are times when this isn't true, but that's generally how I seem to be.

On the other hand, I've had two of the gnarliest fevers of my life in Japan. I've had 104 degree fevers twice since I've moved here which is 8F higher than my body temp. (a little more than 40C... which is 4C above my avg body temp). The first time was from cleaning out my apartment when I first moved in as it had an incredible amount of dust and mold... the second time was from my tonsils.

[Nyororin]

I know this is a bit off topic, but I`ll join in.
My normal body temperature is 37.8C. I don`t consider it a real fever until I am hitting 39, and will shoot up to 41 quite easily. I`ve been hospitalized for a fever of 42, and lost hearing partly in one ear because of it... (I only notice it when I`m listening to something on headphones as I will need to turn one side louder than the other for it to sound even.) Our policy now is a cold shower and trip to the hospital if it goes over 41.5 after taking fever medication.

My mother in law was nearly in shock when I was ill with a fever of 39, but still fine and able to be up cooking dinner. My husband is about 36.4 average, and my son jumps around so much I really can`t even guess what his average is. I have seen them both in the 35 something range. (I think I`d die if I dropped that low... I`ve never been below 36.5, and that was only once - I was so cold that I couldn`t stop shuddering.) Both of them are literally collapsing at anything over 37.5.

Japanese people do have a lower average body temperature, but it is my understanding that it is only 0.2C less than the average European. Most people I know average about 36.8C (Yes, I ask...) I don`t really think this would have a huge effect on the impact of heat on the body.

I think it really comes down to the individual and not their core temperature. I am happy with my high base temperature as I seem to get sick less and get quick high fevers that kill everything off, so I get better very quickly.

My temperature is quite high, but I am still fairly fine in the heat of summer - and don`t even really sweat all that much so must be doing alright at regulating my temperature. I am also quite comfortable in the cold of winter. However, despite my high temperature, I have a mild form of Raynaud's phenomenon which can make winter a bit of a pain. People find this stunning as they always assume it is linked to a low body temperature because doctors lump it in with 冷え性 - something anyone who gets cold and shivers loves to complain and say they have.

[protheus]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

My normal body temperature is 37.8C.

Normal for me is 38.2 C, for a few years now, but at me it raised after a shock.

It's strange, with a higher body temp. it seems I feel cold at higher degrees than before.

[steven]

I think it's what Nyororin said, it's not really about someone's base temp... it's more just about the individual. I've heard that having a higher base temp is better for your health simply because it's harder for bacteria to live in hotter temperatured environments (hence fevers... as far as I know). I have nose problems and all that good stuff... so since I've been in Japan I've been sick quite often (since I'm not good at dealing with such drastic seasons yet). It's funny because most of the Japanese people I talk to think that a big nose=really great breathing. If only .

I'm going to make a random comment about Japanese living/lifestyle: Too much noisy TV. The TV seems to be on constantly in most peoples' houses I've been to. Something about Japanese TV that I just can't stand is how compressed the audio is. To sum it up, the compression that they do takes quiet things and makes them louder and takes loud things and makes them quieter... so you end up with sound that doesn't really have any dynamics. It also allows the TV stations to crank up their sound louder than they normally would. So you get this constant barrage of noise coming from TVs all the time. I don't know why it is, but people feel the need to have their TV's on almost 24/7 here.

[dirtyroboto]

Again, off topic!
@Steven.

From your posts I get the impression that you are into sound recording! And I would also think you have a higher then average sensitivity to stimulus.
If so, then we are in the same boat. I used to be a professional recording engineer back in the UK and I am also sensitive to the ultra compressed audio on the box. It is quite distracting at times.

I tend to hear everything, so compressed audio washes over other ambient sounds that I am used to. This can be very frustrating as the frequency the TV dominates is one of my most sensitive.

[Nyororin]

TV speakers in general are horrible. I have yet to see a television with decent speakers built in. Add that in to the sad fact that most of the programming is monoaural, and it sounds horrible.

We`re not big television watchers to begin with (the tv gets about 8 hours of watching time a week), but still removed the speakers from our television (they were removable from the sides of the LCD panel) and run the audio through a proper sound system to decent speakers.

I also don`t understand the "have the tv on all the time" thing either, but it seems to be about the same in Japan as it was in the US. People who have the tv on all the time have it on ALL the time. I know tons of people both in the US and Japan for who being awake = television on. When I was small, my family was like this as were the families of all my friends. It`s the same with my husband`s family.

Even though I was raised with that being the norm, I still don`t like it. We record all the programming we want to watch on the HDD recorder and then watch it when we want to watch - usually while eating dinner. I`ve had people tell me that we should never watch tv while eating dinner, but as it is never on any other time watching it while eating a meal certainly doesn`t cut into any "family" time.

It also fills me with some sort of strange internal joy when my son is perfectly happy playing and not interested in the television at all - while other kids whine about not having it on.

[steven]

Yea dirtyroboto, I'm into sound recording very much. I don't claim to have like super good hearing, but I think I've learned to hear more detail than what is probably comfortable. Compressed audio does often wash out ambient sounds... it also seems to occasionally bring up those ambient sounds to unnatural levels (which is like bringing up the noise floor in a weird kind of way). Either way, there are certain aural cues that people are used to hearing in the natural world that just get obliterated on Japanese TV programs. All that noise and sound just makes it hard for me to even stop and think for a second so I can't stand it. Coincidentally, a lot of Japanese pop music is over compressed in my opinion as well. Sometimes really good songs just get wrecked.

And combining what you and Nyororin said-- the frequency of the TV sound (which because of the speakers is limited) can really get to me too. It's like only having tweeters or something. That mid-upper range only business can be fatiguing. I'm getting a new TV soon and I will definitely connect some speakers to it (and new TV's seem to have a lightpipe output for connecting digitally through lightpipe).

Dirtyroboto, do you happen to live in Japan?

[dirtyroboto]

Yes, living in Japan and loving it most of the time!