Pic of the Day: Stove

In Japan, the word stove is used to refer only to household heating devices. It does not apply to a kitchen stove, which is called a かまど. Recently, my school installed several "stoves" in classrooms. This is a picture of the stove they've installed in the teachers' room:

It has been placed directly in the middle of the room, making it very inconvenient to walk around. Be careful not to touch it! The stove has no cover, so touching any of the exposed metal will burn you. A pan full of water (or sometimes a tea kettle) is placed on top of the stove to absorb some of the heat. Not to make tea. As you can see, there is a huge metal tube running from the stove to a window, so that smoke from the gas-powered behemoth doesn't flood the room.

Good ol' Japan!