Central heating is a luxury most people don’t have in Japan. The first time I visited Tokyo, it was bitterly cold. After a long day of sightseeing, I would return to our rented apartment, plop myself in front of the gas heater, and crank it up all the way. A few seconds later, I would blissfully thaw out, and a few seconds after that, I would singe all my arm hair. A less traumatic way of warming up are room heaters (the opposite of air conditioners), which pump hot, dry air to warm up the room. The downside is that all this hot, dry air makes your skin and lips shrivel up like dried apricots, and your hair frizzes out into a brittle, staticky mess. Between all this frizzy hair and burnt hair, winter is a very unattractive season for me.

Now from Sengoku Works, Ltd., comes high-tech electric heaters that have sensors to prevent singed-hair accidents and non-polluting humidifier panel heaters to warm up the air without drying it out. It’s a heater that puts new emphasis on environmental friendliness and safety, which is a more modern, less flammable way of warming up.