Speaking of the eating/drinking of hot items. Many Japanese tend to believe that one problem with Westerners (mainly US) is that we drink too many cold liquids. They say that it isn't healthy to always drink ice laden drinks. (Of course the Japanese love ice cold beer!) But if you notice, they usually drink coffee or warm/hot tea.

They say these warm liquids help in the natural movement of energy in the human body.

My wife loves her soup extremely hot...so hot that I usually have to wait 10-15 minutes for it to cool enough to eat it. She thinks this is strange, but I too think she is strange, so it evens out!