Futons are a pain in the neck. Literally.

I feel like sleeping on a futon is only marginally better than camping.  Both seem novel and exciting, but the newness quickly wears off and you are left sleep deprived and sore.  Do I sound bitter?  Cranky?  Tired?  I am.  For a week I have been waging a nighttime war with my futon resulting in casualties in both hours of restful sleep and sanity.  For a week, I have suffered through a stiff, sore neck.  At one point I couldn't even turn my head to the left without searing pain shooting down my spine.  While the pain has abated somewhat, my range of comfortable movement is still severely limited.  Sadly, this isn't an isolated incident.  It has happens about once a month.  I feel old.  Much older than I should.

When I first got to Japan, I was excited to pull out my futon every night and fall asleep to the sweet, earthy smell of tatami just inches from my face.  But as weeks turned into months, I began to long for my queen size bed back home.  I miss the other tenants of my American bed the most (some nights it was me, Anata, and three fur babies), but I also miss my pillow, my flannel sheets, and the support of an innerspring mattress.

Futons just weren't made for western bodies.  That is the long and short of it.  And I do mean short.  While the average height of Japanese people is growing, the humble futon remains the same size.  Personally, this leads to short blankets and cold feet.  I honestly feel I would have been better served by an arctic rated sleeping bag.  At least that keeps the heat inside instead of letting it all escape when you accidently kick the blanket up in the night.  With a futon, there is nowhere to tuck the covers in, you just spread the duvet (there is no sheet) over the top.  Then there is the problem of support.  To combat the cold feet, which it gets really cold during the Japanese winter, I would curl myself into the fetal position.  While this helped with the cold, it led to other problems.  The humble futon offers nothing in the way of support.  When you sleep on your back, that is okay, but for someone with hips trying to sleep on her side, it is decidedly not okay.  After only a short time, I wake not just cold, but in pain as well.  I attempt to roll over, without disturbing the covers, and try to sleep on the other side.  This repeats every half hour or so throughout the night until the alarm startles me from the lightest sleep at 5:30 (if I am not up before).  Creaking and popping I gracelessly manage to stand.

Okay, so maybe I am exaggerating a little.  Part of my sleep deprivation might come from other factors - like the cell phone I use as an alarm that rests on the floor next to me and chirps, beeps, and vibrates throughout the night as friends and family in the U.S. update Facebook, email, and text.  Or it might be from the copious amounts of tea I drink throughout the day.  I try and cut back on the caffeinated kinds before lunch, but tea is warm and the staff room can be cold.  It might be stress over the next day's lesson or adventure.  I can't blame it all on the humble futon.  Still, I dream about sleeping in a real bed again.  When I dream at all these days.