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Japan’s Gaming Kotatsu Futon blanket is here to keep you warm, and gaming, all winter long

Casey Baseel Oct 25, 2023
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Combining two of the best ways to cope with cold winter weather.

It won’t be long before winter once again has Japan in its icy grip. Luckily, Japan also has one of the best ways to ride out the coldest part of the year: just park yourself in a kotatsu, a low table with a heater on its underside to keep you nice and toasty, and wait until spring.

Of course, while you’re waiting in your kotatsu you might also want to play some video games, another great way to keep your stay-indoors spirits up when the weather outside is cold and bleak. So Japanese furniture and interior design company Bauhutte has combined those two winter coping tools by creating a gaming kotatsu blanket.

Kotatsu work by supplying heat from the unit attached to the underside of the tabletop, then using a blanket to trap that warmth underneath, in the area where you stick your feet. Bauhutte’s Gaming Kotatsu Futon, to use the blanket’s full name, is a replacement blanket that can be used with one-person-size kotatsu, and has a number of cleverly redesigned points. To start with, and most importantly, it has arm holes so that you can cover yourself all the way up to your shoulders with the cloth, but still have your hands free for performing Tekken combos, piloting Armored Core mechs, or however else you get your gaming fix.

An especially thoughtful touch is that there’s a slide-through fastener on the back to keep the blanket from slipping off, and also to help keep your back warmer, as opposed to leaving it exposed like other kotatsu blankets do.

The blanket is also roughly one and a half times longer than normal, non-gaming kotatsu blankets, since Bauhutte knows you might be leaning back and relaxing while you wait for your co-op squadmates to finalize their loadouts.

Kotatsu are designed so that the blanket is sandwiched between the table’s frame and its top. Since this blanket is designed for gaming, Bauhutte has added a square patch of grippy, non-slip material in the center right where the tabletop will be placed. That way even if you get a little too excited and start swinging your arms around in the heat of the gaming moment, you won’t have to worry about pulling the blanket out and jostling any pricy hardware pieces set up on top of the table.

Use of your hands will also allow you to scarf down some mikan oranges, another one of Japan’s favorite things to do in winter.

▼ Although you could make the argument that some Gaming Cup Noodle instant ramen would be an even more appropriate choice of fare.

Bauhutte doesn’t list a suggested retail price for the Gaming Kotatsu Futon but it’s available through Amazon Japan here for 12,800 yen (US$85.40). And if you’re thinking you’d have a hard time forcing yourself to leave such a cozy spot even to go to sleep, don’t forget that Bauhutte has gaming beds too.

Source: Bauhutte via PC Watch via Hachima Kiko
Images: Bauhutte
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