Saturday, July 3, 2010

The harsh summer cold

Well, now being into the fourth summer of this blog, I've probably written about it one of the earlier years, but I can't really be bothered to go back in time and look, and even if I had maybe my take on it has changed a bit.

You see, Japan has now entered fully into the summer season with the rainy season now in full affect for another few weeks until we reach the real summer heat of July, August and a large part of September. It's really hard to say which I hate the most; summer or winter in Japan. After a few weeks of this heat I'm inclined to hate on Summer the most, but ask me in January or February and Winter will probably get the number one position. Ok, it's not really comparable with the utter darkness, harsh cold and long time of the Swedish winter, but it's basically the lack of central heating and proper insulation that get to me the most with the Japanese winter.

But now we're in early summer and the inevitable has happened, something that happens to me every summer that I have spent in Japan; the early summer cold. This is before the body has properly adjusted to the heat and the sudden transitions between being super-hot and drenched in sweat from entering a department store, supermarket or so, with the aircon setting somewhere between freezer and fridge...

So far I've managed to stay clear of any serious fever but I'm probably losing liters of body fluid from my runny nose and baby Sunshine vocally express her annoyance with my coffing and sneezing when she's trying to get some sleep on my chest. I really should try to set up an office in the northern region of Hokkaido during the summer months considering that they're away from the tropical climate...

6 comments:

Climate Morio said...

As an ex-Helsinki-ite, i could not agree with you more. Especially after the summer of 2008, which i spent in hell. I mean Kansai.

I am curious though, i have never been here during the winter. How is it? I am about to switch apartments and, being used to Scandinavian insulation, am dreading the terrible cold...

Gaijin Wife said...

Definitely in agreement on summer being the worst season - well at the moment anyway. At least winter doesn't have huge bugs with it, although being in Tokyo you probably don't get mukade and spiders the size of your hand anyway?

Hope the 'summer cold' goes soon.

Unknown said...

lol, love that comic you found to go with the post.

aimlesswanderer said...

I've been told that it isn't good for you to be extra quiet if the kid is asleep since it will get used to that, and any noise will be wake it up. Much better to have them used to noise.

Mr. Salaryman said...

Climate - Well, a bit of a lazy answer, but I think I've posted about it quite extensively earlier, try searching my blog for "winter" or something. But it's pretty cold and the poor insulation means that you can't really escape the cold. Different type of "cold" than that in Scandinavia in the sense that you can't escape to central heating...

GW - No bugs here so far and considering how much I hate/fear bugs, that is probably a good thing...

Foggia said...

I still have to understand why most people here think they should use AC to feel hotter in winter (around 23°) than in summer (around 18°)...

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