Chicken Soup for the Soul, Part II

I am putting your Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys/Bobsey Twins skills to the test. Look at the pictures and short descriptions and try to piece together what happened (or didn't).

A) View from my bathroom at 7:30 AM, January 13, 2009---the first day back at school.

B) View from kitchen at the same time. (Hint: There's a lot more white than I am used to)

C) January 13th was a Tuesday, which meant that I had Japanese class at 6:30 PM. I took some leftover chicken soup out of the freezer and put it on the counter with the idea that I would have a quick dinner ready when I got home.

D) Kitchen counter, 5:00 PM that day.

Did the last 8 hours not happen? It looks exactly the same as it did when I removed it from the freezer.

E) Maybe Thursday of the same week. My alarm clock that has a thermometer in the the bottom right corner. This is right next to where I sleep, and had read 39.9 before I turned on the space heater and ran to get my camera.

So for those of you who live in even colder climates, it's not that Japan's winters are really that brutal....it is usually above freezing, but older buildings (like my apartment) and elementary/junior high schools (where I teach) have no insulation or central heating. The clothes I wear inside are often the same clothes I wear outside---coat, hat, and scarf on top of the long underwear, turtleneck and wool sweater underneath.

To paraphrase another ALT, how is it that Japan has some of the most advanced technology in the world, but cannot properly insulate a building?