▒▒▒▒　　▒▒　 　 ▒▒▒▒ 　 ▒▒　 ▒▒▒▒　 　 　▒▒ 　 　 　 　 ▒▒▒▒　 　 　▒▒　 ▒▒▒▒ 　 　 　 　 ▒▒　 　 　▒▒▒▒　 ▒▒　 ████████ 　 　 　 　 ▒▒　 　 　▒▒　 　 　▒▒　 　 　 　 ██　 　 　 　 　 ██ 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 ▒▒　 　 　 　 　 　 　██　 　 　████　 　 　██ 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 ██　 　 　 　 　 　 　██　　████████　 ██ 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 ████　 　 　 　 　 　 　████████████ ████　 　 　 　 ██▒▒▒▒██████████ 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　████　 ██▒▒████████████████ 　 　 　 ████████████████████████ 　 　 ████████████████ 　 ████████████████████████████████████ 　 　 　 　 ██▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒██ 　 ████████████████████████████████████ 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 ██▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒████ 　 　 ██▒▒▒▒▒▒████████████████▒▒▒▒████ 　 ██▒▒▒▒▒▒██　 　 　 　 　 ██　 　 　 　 ██▒▒▒▒████ 　 ██▒▒▒▒▒▒██　 　 　 　 　 ████　 　 　██▒▒▒▒████ 　 ██▒▒▒▒▒▒██　 　 　 　 ██████　 　 　██▒▒▒▒████ 　 ██▒▒▒▒▒▒██　 　 ████▒▒████　　██▒▒▒▒████ 　 ██▒▒▒▒▒▒██　 ████▒▒▒▒████　 ██▒▒▒▒████ 　 ██▒▒▒▒▒▒██　 ██▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒██　 ██▒▒▒▒████ 　 ██▒▒▒▒▒▒██　 ████▒▒▒▒████　 ██▒▒▒▒████ 　 ██▒▒▒▒▒▒██　 　 ████████　 　 　██▒▒▒▒████ 　 　 ██▒▒▒▒▒▒████████████████▒▒▒▒████ 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 　 ██▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒████ 　 　 　 　 ████████████████████████████████████████ ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒ ぽかぽか

Three thin wisps of ▒ rise in the top left, the middle one from row 6 and the outer two from row 5, all reaching row 1, and each one sways: it climbs, steps one square to the right, then steps back to the left near the top. The middle wisp starts right above the tip of a spout, and the spout belongs to a kettle sitting on a round kerosene heater, the kind many Japanese homes light every winter in place of central heating. This original pixel-art AA, made for this site, draws its 29-line picture with just two characters besides spaces: █ (FULL BLOCK), a solid black block, and ▒ (MEDIUM SHADE), a fine checkered texture that reads as gray. Each square is two of the same character side by side; in this site's font, two █ take up almost exactly the same width as the distance from one row to the next, so the grid is nearly square and round shapes stay round, though a thin white seam shows between rows. The heater's top, rows 13 to 15, is a band of ▒ between two lines of █, and on row 14 the rim pokes out one square farther on each side, so it reads as a flat oval. The body, rows 16 to 27, is filled with ▒, edged by one column of █ on the left and two on the right for the shadow on its round side, and its top two and bottom two rows step inward to round the corners. In the middle, a black frame surrounds a white window 8 squares wide and 8 rows tall, and inside stands the flame: a teardrop of █ with a ▒ core, one square at the tip on row 18, widest on row 23, closed on row 25, its top leaning slightly right as if flickering. The kettle, a black silhouette toward the right of the top, has an arched handle hanging from a four-square bar on row 4, a knob on row 6 and a ▒ glint on rows 9 and 10; its spout, two squares thick, climbs in a staircase from the body on row 11 to its tip on row 7. Row 28 is the base and row 29, 48 ▒ wide, the floor. Below a blank row, the last line reads ぽかぽか (pokapoka), the Japanese word for warmth that slowly soaks into you. A kettle on the heater keeps water hot for tea and adds moisture to dry winter air, and in Japan this blocky style is called ドット絵 (dotto-e, "dot pictures"), the look of 1980s video games.