One things is the climate, both being warm in summer (though much more humid here!), but what stands out is the equally mild winters. Around zero at night, and quite sunny during the daytime with degrees up to 10-15.
Most houses here seems to be build for that hot summer, with those living in older houses/apartments enduring the winter with a burner, a heater under the living room table (kotatsu) and just warm clothes. Though being around zero, there are usually never enough clothes to feel really warm as the damp air gets to you.
It is not unusual that the bedroom has no heating, and bathroom for that matter (will wake you up in the morning for sure), which explains the extra thick bed covers to keep you warm in your futon. This is where the Japanese warm baths (ofuro, or at a hot spring spa - onsen) just fits in perfectly as one of the daily highlights during wintertime. With a water temperature of about 45 degrees, it will certainly restore warmth in every part of your body.
Another similarity is that there is a market for water here. You can drink the tap water here, though there is a smell to it if you don't mix it with something or have a water filter/purifier (there are small ones that you can attach directly onto the tap). You can sense that when you fill up the bath tub, which reminds me of the chemicals added to a public pool. As you can guess, we do not have any large market of still water in Sweden.
The normal size bottle is 2 liters, which costs about 100 yen. Found one for 88 yen the other day, though I can't remember now where it was. :) As you see in the picture, apart from the domestic brands, you can find in this larger food store some French brands - Volvic (comes for 100 yen per liter), Evian and Vittel.
