Monday, August 8, 2011

My sincere apologies!!!

Easy! I'd let Aquaman live!
I just realized that we're now already into August in a Tokyo that has "power saving" propaganda constantly on TV, posters around town and constant reminders on the Internet, and I still haven't written my traditional seasonal "It's way too hot and I want to get out of here" post!

I know that for many of my readers, that post is the highlight of the year on my blog and I can't believe that I have still not written this post. And it's hot... ... really hot this summer. The long train ride is almost unbearable as the air conditioning is turned down to a bare minimum in the packed train, today was sunny, humid and almost 35 degrees Celsius making sweat come gushing out of pores of my body that I didn't even know could do that. Previous years, taking refuge in a refrigerator cold store (usually resulting in the annual "summer cold" after going from dripping to sweat into freezer cold store), but now, even the stores have turned down their airconditioning to a mere 28 degrees...

No longer is the office any refugee to speak of either... To begin with, the temperature is set to 28 degrees and gradually lower it as the day progresses and to top it off, they turn it off completely at 17:30. The idea was to make people leave earlier, but since this is a Japanese office (even though the company is foreign) and getting people to leave on time is next to impossible and add to that me feeling some significant pressure to not be among the first to leave as the I'm the new guy and you have some serious sweating going on that doesn't let up until I get comfortably back to the Salaryman HQ.

So, in short, it's sweltering hot all the time when I'm not at home (we do not take any extreme measures when it comes to power saving...) and with little Toddler Sunshine we don't really have any easy escape to cooler places lined up for us either... Two more months of this and it should be getting better... So yeah, it's hot, it's really really hot...

8 comments:

Chris said...

I remember leaving a comment when you were talking about TEPCO that THIS would be the hottest Summer in Tokyo you'll ever have.

As far as home....aircons are like S&M...whatever goes on among consenting adults in the privacy of their homes is legal.....bottom line!! ;)

F. said...

it IS bloody hot. God, wish autumn was here already.

Anonymous said...

I guess thats the usual remark. Just recieved an email from my ex opening the email with "its so hot here" but with no A/C must be trylly terrible

aimlesswanderer said...

you need one of those inflatable kiddy pools, as long as there isn't a water shortage too.

Working from home sounds like an excellent idea. Pity you don't get many holidays - the Southern Hemisphere is in winter after all.

Will said...

Almost 35? As long as it's not 33.33, which is 92F. At 92 degrees Fahrenheit, "The day drags by like a wounded animal..." Good luck.

TheOctopus said...

Hmm, I have the opposite problem, my (Japanese) colleagues in the office seem to think they are penguins and set the temperature to match the inside of the office fridge, which is a little too chilly even for my vaguely North European self. However this is not much of an issue as I only usully need to go into the office to pilfer supplies and confirm that I am not dead, and can arrange my day around locations set to the temperature of my preference.

Mr. Salaryman said...

Chris - Yep, now that you mention it, I remember that too and right you were! But I bet that if our aircons had a voice, they would not consent to the abuse we put them through ;)

BiJ - Yeah, do like me and keep repeating "just two more months" in your head and it might feel better...

Canthus - Yeah, I understand that everyone has to pitch in to avoid the blackouts, but they better fix it by next summer...

Aimless - We have one of those, but it's a bit too small for me...

Will - Huh, I actually googled that and felt a bit embarrased that I didn't get the Siouxe reference (I have a few albums but never were a huge fan)

The Octopus - Well you can just wear a cap, gloves and thick jacket when you're in the office to send some sublime signals to your polar colleagues?

Anonymous said...

You spelled refuge as refugee.

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