A Small Pillow That Changed My Summer - 氷枕 -

Looking back at one small thing that made the hottest nights a little easier

Summer is beginning to feel quite far away now.

The days can still be warm, but the evenings are different. The air is cooler, and at night the temperature can drop to around 15°C, sometimes even lower. Sleeping has suddenly become easy again.

There is that familiar feeling in the air that autumn is coming — and that before too long, we will be thinking about the cold again.

Perhaps that is why I have been thinking back to this summer, and just how hot it was.

And strangely, one of the things I remember most is a pillow.

Not a beautiful handmade object or a special piece of Japanese craftsmanship.

Just an ordinary Japanese ice pillow.

A Very Hot Bedroom

This summer, we had some very hot days in Switzerland.

I have a portable air conditioner in my living room, which helped enormously during the day. But the bedroom is separate, and there is no air conditioning there.

On the hottest nights, the problem wasn’t only the temperature. The air seemed to stop moving.

I could open the window and try to create some airflow, but there were nights when the bedroom simply felt warm and still. I was tired, I wanted to sleep, and I couldn’t quite get comfortable.

Then I remembered my Ice-non.

Ice-non is a familiar Japanese cooling pillow filled with gel. You chill it and place it beneath your head, usually wrapped or covered so that it isn’t too cold against the skin.

It is an extremely simple thing.

And somehow, it made an enormous difference.

The Room Was Still Hot

This was the part that surprised me.

The ice pillow didn’t change the temperature of the bedroom at all. The room was exactly as warm as before.

But when I rested my head and the back of my neck against the cool pillow, I felt comfortable enough to sleep.

The first time it happened, I remember thinking: How can this make such a difference?

My whole body wasn’t being cooled. There was no cold air circulating around the room. Just my head and neck resting against something cool.

And yet I felt better.

Cooling the head and neck can influence how we perceive heat and help us feel more comfortable in hot conditions. But lying in bed, I wasn’t really thinking about the science of it.

Instead, it reminded me of something much older and very familiar from Japan.

The Ice Pillows I Remember

When I was growing up, using an ice pillow when someone had a fever was completely normal.

I remember the older kind made from rubber. You filled it with cold water and ice, closed it carefully, wrapped it in a towel and put it beneath the person’s head.

It was just one of those household things.

I don’t remember anyone explaining the theory behind it. If somebody was hot or had a fever, cooling the head was simply something people did.

The modern gel pillow I use today looks different, of course. There is no water to pour in and no melting ice to deal with.

But lying on it during those hot Swiss nights, I realised that the basic idea hadn’t really changed very much.

Something people had been doing for generations was helping me sleep through a European heatwave.

There was something quite comforting about that.

Small Ways of Living With Summer

Of course, an ice pillow is not a solution to extreme heat.

Modern cooling systems, good insulation, ventilation and thoughtful building design all have important roles to play as summers become hotter.

And there is nothing uniquely Japanese about finding simple ways to stay cool. People living in hot climates around the world have developed their own methods, materials and everyday habits for dealing with summer.

The ice pillow simply happens to be one of the things I grew up with in Japan.

Perhaps that is why I had never thought of it as particularly interesting.

It wasn’t “Japanese culture” to me.

It was just an ice pillow.

Living outside Japan has made me notice things like this more often.

Some of the objects and habits I barely noticed when I lived there have become more interesting to me from a distance. Not because they are necessarily better than what exists elsewhere, but because I can finally see the thinking and experience behind them.

Sometimes the most ordinary things carry a surprisingly long memory.

What I Brought With Me

I certainly didn’t bring my ice pillow to Switzerland because I thought I was carrying a piece of Japanese wisdom in my suitcase.

I simply thought it might be useful.

And this summer, it really was.

Night after night, when my bedroom was too warm and the air felt completely still, I put it beneath my head.

The room stayed warm.

But I slept.

Now the nights are cooler again. Soon, I suspect, the ice pillow will go back into the cupboard and I will start thinking about warm blankets instead.

But I don’t think I will look at it quite the same way next summer.

It reminded me that sometimes an old, very simple idea can still have a place in a completely different time and place.

And this year, far away from the summers I grew up with, I was very glad to have it.

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A Small Piece of Japan

氷枕 — Kōri-makura

Kōri-makura literally means “ice pillow.”

Older versions were traditionally made from rubber and filled with ice and water. They were commonly used at home when someone had a fever or simply needed to cool down.

Today, reusable gel cooling pillows offer a modern version of the same simple idea.

The materials have changed.

The idea hasn’t changed very much at all.

A Thought to Take Home

Sometimes the ordinary things we grow up with are the ones we notice least.

It may take another country, another season — or one particularly hot summer — to make us look at them again.