Frugal Japan
Living frugally in an expensive world

　　A frugal way to keep your bed warm during cold night is to use a Japanese hot bottle called “Yutanpo”. I found the following website talking about Yutanpo : http://nihonhacks.com/in-the-home/keep-yourself-warm-with-yutampo/ By the way, the Nihon Hacks website has a lot of frugal ideas th [ ... ]

　　I have lived in Japan for a number of years, but I still can’t get used to how cold it gets INSIDE my house in the winter. I try all kinds of things to reproduce the warmth of a house in Canada, but all to no avail. Or, rather, I do know of [...] [ ... ]

　　Okay. I’ll get right to the point. It’s hot. Darn hot. And expensive. If you’re a slightly detail-oriented (i.e. anal) frugalite like me, you already know from tracking your monthly electricity expenditures that the seasonal peaks typically come in January/February and July/August. [ ... ]

　　So, the new Japanese phrase for the day is: ‘dantou,’ the kanji for which literally mean ‘warm winter.’ That, according to the weather experts, is apparently what we are enjoying in 2007. You’ve probably seen the shocking pictures on the evening news: cherry blossom bud [ ... ]

　　How can you stay warm without going broke? Well, *first* don’t do what I do and keep the heater on all the time. Our December heating bill was in the five digits (remember, we’re talking yen here), and is not something you really want to brag about as a frugal writer. Here are a few [... [ ... ]

　　Take a look at your fuse box. On the left hand side of the box there is a big black switch. This is your circuit breaker. Your electricity company calculates the base rate (demand charge) based on the ampage of your breaker switch. For example, TEPCO (Tokyo Denryoku) charge 520 yen for a 20 Amp [... [ ... ]