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Essay “The Sound of the Heart”

February , 2022
So Cold!

This winter is so cold, and I wonder if it has ever been this cold in the past.

February seems to be particularly cold, as the coldness has been gradually building up since December, turning everything in this world into a “freezer”. The buildings, the chairs, floors and roads are all chilled up and they freeze you up to the core.
I have always been sensitive to coldness and so it is troubling me.
My hands and feet are cold throughout the year, and even when I ‘m sweating in a hot summer day, somehow my hands and feet get cold.

Even when I’ve been playing the violin, my hands were always cold, and I always had to have gloves with me. When I went to elementary school, I used to put disposable hand warmers inside my gloves and shoes. When my hands really got cold before going on stage, I used to have plastic bottles with hot water inside and held them in my hands until the concert. But one day when I warmed my hands for a long time with the hot water bottle before going on stage, my movement got so slow, and it was so hard for me to play the violin in the usual way. I was so surprised as my fingers got so numb and could only move them slowly.
I wonder if it would be the same with the body.
It is true that when we stay still, sitting in a fairly warm room, or sitting at the kotatsu, eating something delicious, we don’t want to move anymore. We don’t feel like doing anything.
We start using things which we can grab without moving from the spot and start eating things you can reach, spending the rest of the day being lazy.
Trapped in a vicious circle.
It’s too bad getting too warm and lazy though the cold is tough.
Though it is a difficult task, I better find a way to control the temperature to the right level in order to feel like working.

When the weather is so cold, I feel like going to some hot spring resorts. These days with the corona virus still active, soaking in the bath at home is all I could do, but there is on the other hand, the public bath. Public baths are more spacious than our baths at home, and it would be more relaxing.
You can find public baths with hot springs in Tokyo, and even if it’s not a hot spring, you can find a variety of types of different baths there. When I’m soaking in a massaging type of bath, I feel so glad I was born in Japan.
It is fun to going to public baths in Tokyo like that, but when I think about the still active corona pandemic, I feel that I should refrain from going yet.
Even if I’m told that I would be safe in the hot bathtub with high humidity, it makes me nervous if I see several people in the changing room and feel so scared when they are talking to each other without wearing masks.
Soaking in a hot spring or public bath will make you feel good, feeling relaxed with cool air afterwards, and it would no doubt refresh you and keep you in good condition.

I wonder when the day would come, when we will be able to relax in a public bath or hot spring without any fear or worries.
I think about such a day, while pouring in some bubble bath into my own bathtub.