This time the kids have gone too far.

I walked into school today to be confronted by the strong smell of a highly flammable liquid, and the sight of twenty odd petrol canisters. "This time, the students have gone too far," I thought to myself. I know that there are a handful of slightly disruptive students at my school, but I never thought they'd go as far a dousing the place in petrol and burning it to the ground.

However, it soon became apparent that arson was not on the agenda after all (at least not that day). You see, Japanese buildings don't have insulation or central heating. To me this seems absolutely insane; in a country that is 30c+ all summer and sub-zero C all winter, why would they chose to omit such vital, yet simple elements from their structures? WHY? I am still waiting for a sensible answer on this one, but one of the excuses I have been given is that due to the frequency of destructive natural disasters such as earthquakes, typhoons and floods, buildings have an much shorter lifespan here, so why bother with the extra expense of insulation and central heating? Personally I don't buy it, but that's the way it is, so you have to put up with boiling hot/freezing cold interiors.

The method they use for heating their buildings is via paraffin burning stoves. Granted, they do keep the rooms warm, but this heat comes at a price, the constant smell of paraffin fumes. I wonder how safe it is to be breathing these noxious gases in all day, but nobody seems to think it might be detrimental for health, so we all just sit there and inhale.

There are several other amusing devices that the Japanese employ in the war against cold, which I will cover at a later date, but just to whet your appetite here's one of my favourites - a heated table.. I kid you not... more weapons of warmth coming soon.