It is hot in Tokyo in August… sweltering, for most of the time. And I know many of our friends around the world are experiencing heat and humidity as well. Tokyo is not the only place where “Natsu wa totemo atsui desu.” (Summer is very hot.) But… today is Saturday, and part of our precious weekend to spend together, and it is just too hot to be out!
We look forward to our weekends here. During the week, my husband is busy and working, and I spend my days taking care of household chores, doing the shopping, going to the gym, and learning Japanese. We both look forward to spending time together on the weekends.
Usually for us, that means going out to explore some part of Tokyo that we haven’t seen before, or attending events or festivals, or going out to many of the places that have become our “favorite places” in our adopted city. We both enjoy photography, and so, cameras in hand, we simply enjoy just going out to walk and explore and take photos. It is our favorite weekend past time.
But right now in Tokyo, it is HOT. This past week, Tokyo was brushed by a typhoon (the worst of it went way west of us), that brought at least some temporary moments of respite from the monotonously sunny, hot weather. We had a day of off and on rain showers, and another day of cloudy breezy weather. It was nice — despite the fact that the rain showers increased the humidity even more.
At the moment (at almost noon) it is 93F, with a heat index of 108. Here in Minato City, Tokyo, the public address system has been announcing an extreme heat advisory from the Japan Meteorological Agency… “go chuui kudasai!” (Please use caution!) [** Incidentally — these public address announcements from speakers placed all over the city, are now bilingual in Japanese and English!]
We don’t mind a little hot weather. In fact, we expect it. We both grew up in Kansas, and our permanent home is in Georgia. We are used to hot and humid summers. But… something about the heat here just seems so much worse. Being near the ocean, the humidity is somewhat higher, but also, the sunshine just seems more intense. Maybe it’s not really… Maybe it is just that since we have to walk everywhere, or walk to take public transportation, we end up being out in the heat more continuously than at “home.”
At home in Georgia, when I wanted to go somewhere in the summer, I would walk out of my air-conditioned house, into my garage, and get into my rapidly air-conditioned car. Drive to wherever I wanted to go… walk a few steps in the heat, and then be blasted by ice cold air-conditioning in any store or other public venue I went to. To tell the truth… at home in Georgia, I sometimes would take a jacket with me when I went to shop at the supermarket in the summertime. The air-conditioning was TOO cold.
So here… today… we will mostly be staying in during the hottest part of the day. We have been out running short errands, getting a quick brunch bowl of noodles (cold) at our favorite neighborhood soba shop, making a quick stop at the dry cleaners, and the grocery store. But for this blazing, relentlessly sunny Saturday afternoon, we are inside in our nice cool apartment with the “eakon” running.
Maybe later, when the sun begins to sink down, and the temperature moderates, we will venture out. This weekend is the end of Obon… one of the three major holiday weeks here in Japan. There are Obon festivals still to see, and Bon Odori dances to watch… Hate to miss out just because of a little hot weather!
Four Years in Japan ... and now Three Years in London 