Overview:
This is my first winter in my home in Japan. I’m sharing my winter preparations for first timers like me.

My goal:
Do the absolute minimum and spend as little money and resources on home winterizing my home in Japan. This is basically how the locals prepare with some added luxuries of gas and heat pump heating systems.

Overall, I don’t want to over engineer and overspend unnecessarily. Instead, my preference is to find a comfortable and economical in between.

What I did in this video:
Outside
1. Clear the garden to make snow removal easier and avoid crushing my things.
2. Marked out the water and sewerage points to make it easier to find them when snow covered.

Inside
1. Added gas heaters to the kitchen and chill rooms upstairs. I found these second hand, just a couple of years old, online for just $200 which are more than $2000 new.
2. Installed new heat pumps to the bedrooms for roughly $1000 each including installation cost.
3. Added simple curtains to close the space which were surprising effective.
4. Replaced/repaired the washi paper in the shouji doors to close air gaps. I could really feel hot air entering the room where some holes existed in the paper!
5. Added a kotatsu, a heated table, which was great to snug up on a cold winter day.
6. Added an heater to the bathroom.

What I didn’t show:
1. I covered the windows with wood when the snow level increased to avoid the glass caving in.
2. I made sure I have enough shovels and snow removing equipment for the winter.
3. I took down my gutter downpipes to avoid ice clogging and cracking the pipes.

This was my first attempt to an economical approach for winterizing my Japanese home. There were a lot of lessons learned that I’ll add to another video.

About Myoko Kogen:
Did you know that Myoko Kogen is deep snow country. In fact, close to this area is one of the snowiest places in the world. The temperature is usually well below sub zero throughout the winter months.

Take a walk around the neighborhood if you have the chance to visit snow country Japan. You’ll see that locals, especially the older generations, really have incredible winter stamina. They have barely any insulation, use kerosene heaters, close off the house and only use a few rooms in their homes, and work hard to clear snow.

Feel free to give me more ideas in the comments!

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