Hey, Mr Kerosene Man

February is cold!

Ok, it’s not a special seasonal tradition, but winter in Japan is cold, and houses are generally not centrally heated (though I did visit an apartment with under-floor heating, which was very comfortable). We live in an old Japanese house with tatami mats and wooden floors. In winter, it gets really cold, so we stay mostly in the living room, with an electric carpet (since we sit on the floor), and a kerosene heater. Kerosene is much cheaper than electricity for heating, but you have to get jerry cans of kero and use a battery-powered  pump / siphon to fill the heater. It's also a bit smelly; you need to keep a door or window open a little to keep fresh air circulating. Like most families here, we keep a kettle of water on top of the heater, to humidify the room. This means there’s always boiling water for tea, but it’s also noisy. Every weekend the kerosene man comes in a little truck, which plays dinky music.

Our friendly local kerosene man

It costs a little more than going to the petrol station, but he’s very cheerful and he’ll carry the full jerry cans to your front door. In Japanese, kerosene is "touyu". During the big earthquake last year, a lot of houses lost power, but they could still keep warm with the kerosene heater. It has an automatic shut off if it gets tipped over. 

The other advantage of a kerosene heater: you can toast mochi on it! My husband loves to do this in winter. Mochi is very cheap, being basically pounded rice, and it’s quite filling. It starts as a hard white block – kind of like plastic – but when you toast it, it becomes crisp on the outside and fluffy & stretchy inside. The easiest thing to do with toasted mochi is to dip it in soy sauce and wrap it in a piece of nori, to make isobe mochi. It’s salty, chewy and delicious!

Toasting mochi directly on the kerosene heater. It's a bit of a pain to clean after.

I also used the toasted mochi to make a more filling soba soup, with some crispy fried prawns.

Soba with tempura ebi and toasted mochi.