Hot Japanese Summer
The end of the first term is quickly approaching here in Japan, and so the topic of summer plans seems to be more and more on people’s mind. It certainly feels like summer here, as the temperatures have been rising, along with the humidity. I always looked forward to summer’s back home, but this Canadian isn’t quite sold on summer in Japan.
Let’s start with the elephant in the room, it’s hot. I’d like to issue a formal apology for ever thinking that people in Japan were over exaggerating just how hot their summers can get. I used to spend summers in California, where it would get over 38 degrees, and I managed relatively well. So far, we’ve hit similar temperatures, but unlike California, it’s far more humid.
It’s one thing to have a dry heat, but it’s another when you walk outside and feel the thick, wet air wrap around you like a blanket. Even short walks to 7-11 and back would cause me to start sweating from nearly every pore. Without my AC I’d certainly melt, and when I have to leave an air conditioned room to move to another part of my apartment, I better be sure it’s worth it.
My kitchen might as well have been a greenroom the other day. I went to grab a protein bar after a workout, and found it soft and melted into its wrapper. With only individual AC units, I’m not sure how to keep my house cool, and cooking has gotten significantly less appealing the past few weeks.
One fun saving grace has been smoothies. Proving once again that convenience stores in Japan are just better, 7-11 here sells frozen smoothies. You buy your desired flavor, mine has been blueberry, then use the smoothie machine located in the store. You scan the barcode, take off the wrapping, place it inside the machine, and press go. It adds some milk or fruit juice (I assume) and blends the frozen fruit all together. After about 30 seconds, you have a delicious cold treat.
I recently broke out a cooling towel, which I’ve used during extreme heat waves back home, and those remain an excellent option. I had a few hand fans in my house that were left by the previous ALT, and while I never turned to fans before, I’ll try anything when it’s this hot. It’s been a great stop gap to prevent myself from overheating while my AC gets going, and refreshing when I’m trying to workout.
I’ve seen students use small electric hand fans pretty often. The classrooms at schools aren’t usually air conditioned as well as the teacher’s room, where I get to spend most of my time. Depending on where I sit in the teacher’s room, I even get a little chilly if I’m right under the AC. In fact, most places I visit lately seem to have the AC up so high that it takes a while to adjust from the heat outside.
I’ve seen this reason cited as one of many possible reasons that Japanese people still opt for things like long sleeves, long pants, or even layers in the dead of summer. Back home, as soon as summer rolled around it was almost everyone was in short sleeves and shorts, not so much here. Perhaps my theory that Japanese people don’t sweat has more to do with the AC being cranked too high, or people don’t like to expose their skin to the sun.
Personally, I’m still rocking shorts, short sleeves, or even a tank top whenever I can. Sadly, at work I’m stuck with long pants and a dress shirt with long sleeves rolled up to my forearms. I care a lot less about having my tattoos showing in my free time, but at work it’s probably still best to play it safe. The other teachers wear short sleeves sometimes, but it seems like we’re all still stuck with slacks.
PE teachers or teachers that supervise club activities seem to change into a T-shirt and shorts at times, but it would be rather odd for an English teacher to follow suit. I’m hoping that over the summer I can dress a little more casually, since we won’t have any classes, but I’m not planning to hold my breath. I’ve honestly been dreading the summer, since I’ll still have work 5 days a week, but likely even less to do.
It’ll be a decent chance to get my lessons ready for next term, but I can’t imagine that filling a whole 6 weeks of summer vacation. I suppose it’ll give me some time to think about how I want to spend my summer, because currently, I’ve got nothing planned, other than trying to go to the beach. Though given how hot it’s been lately, I can’t say I’ve been too motivated to do much other than lay on my couch and drink smoothies.
I’m hoping I’ll gradually acclimatize to the heat, it is my first summer in Japan after all. It’s been quite the departure from summers in Vancouver, but that’s not entirely a bad thing. There’s still future beach days, and even summer festivals complete with fireworks to look forward to. I might have even more time on my hands at work, but that gives me time to come up with some fun summer plans.
Between the constant sounds of cicadas, the humidity, and school drawing to a close, summer is about to hit full swing. Once I find ways to combat the heat, I look forward to enjoying my summer here in Japan. I have to find fun things to do so I have more stories to tell afterall!
