under the kotatsu

When I was in College my girlfriends and I used to crash under the coffee table after a night out on the town. We used to call it the "bomb shelter" because it was the only safe place when the room started to spin. After graduating from college, I never thought that i would find myself crashing under a coffee table ever again...then I moved to Japan. So after a late night of drinking and Karoke (I know this sounds so fraternity boy, but "dude you should have seen the beer bongs at this bar..they were literally 5 feet tall and could fill 15 pints") I found myself at my girlfriend S's house. Attempting to sleep under a Japanese coffee table (the kotatsu) between 2 other people. Now to really understand how necessary and ridiculous it is to sleep under said coffee table, you must understand that S's apartment (like ever other JET's apartment in this country) has no heating. The warmest place in the apartment is under the kotatsu (or heated coffee table....the greatest japanese invention ever.) So there I was, marveling at how crazy the world really is...when I realized I was not just warm and toasty...but BURNING up....It was hotter than hell under that table...In fact I think my skin may have been melting. So for the rest of the night I wandered from icy subzero couch to 110 degree coffee table. I don't think any of my collegiate practice with coffee table bomb shelters could have prepared me for a Japanese Kotatsu.