Thanko is already gearing up for winter hijinks, this time with a wearable kotatsu--Japan's impossibly comfy furniture for staving off the cold. If you're not familiar with kotatsu, they are ...

In winter, many people find it difficult to get out of their futons due to their kotatsu or electric blankets, and they don't want to go out or even move around the house. I discovered an item ...

The most commonly used Kotatsu today is comprised of a table with a comfortable blanket or futon topped with a flat table. Attached to the table is an electric heater, which distributes heat from ...

I'll never forget my first winter in Japan when I heard that some Japanese people sleep under the kotatsu. The kotatsu, as you may know, is a small table with a heating element under it and a ...

As Japanese houses aren’t exactly well insulated and central heating has yet to make inroads, the kotatsu is an absolutely essential piece of furniture for surviving the chilly season.

One of the contest's winners took inspiration from an age-old Japanese design: the kotatsu, a special heated table. Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories. As temperatures dip and the ...

The Japanese heated bed table is one of those very inventions. The masterful piece of ingenuity is called a Kotatsu and it’s responsible for how some people in Japan keep themselves warm in the ...

Japanology Plus explores Japanese life and culture. In this five-minute digest, we look at Kotatsu: low tables with a heat source and a quilt. For generations, people have gathered around them in ...

A couple of weeks ago we introduced you to kotatsu dining at Casita restaurant. After discovering another restaurant offering a similar deal, we're beginning to suspect a new trend might be ...

MORIOKA -- A train equipped with "kotatsu" heated tables has begun operating this season on a rail line running along the coast of the northeastern Japan prefecture of Iwate. The Kotatsu Train ...