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| A kotatsu |
For several years I've wanted to buy a kotatsu. In case you're not sure what they are, they are tables with an upper table that you can take off in order to drape a thick blanket over the base of the table. You shove the upper table part back, and voila, you have a table with a blanket.
You sit on the floor to enjoy your koatsu, usually on cushions.
I forgot to mention the best part of these lovely tables: They come with a little stove attached to the bottom of the base table, ensuring your lower body (or all of you depending on how swallowed up you become in the kotatsu) is toasty warm.
I finally bought one last year, and I haven't looked back.
Kotatsus are quite possibly the greatest invention for winter that has ever been thought up.
They are also like the black holes of the universe, though. As soon as you turn on that little stove and have a nice clementine or two within arm's reach along with a nice cup of tea, you may never leave the kotatsu. Like a weekend of random club hopping and binge-drinking, your entire weekend could be swallowed up in a heart beat, and you may never realize it.
As it finally feels like it may be winter here (which I find deeply unfortunate), I've set up my kotatsu for the winter, and I'm currently nice and warm as I write this, and quite unwilling to get up and do anything, which may include making dinner.
Somehow these nifty devices make winter a little more bearable, but I have yet to figure out how to willfully turn the kotatsu off, get up, and do something remotely productive. Why bother when you can sit here, instead?
I have a dream of one day buying this one, featuring a Mickey Mouse pattern: http://www.bellemaison.jp/disney/102/pr/3202013C/150580/?SHNCRTTKKRO_KBN=0H
America, why don't you have these yet?
