July 28th.
This will be exactly 1 year since I arrived in Japan to begin this latest chapter in my life and the second go-round for me in Japan.
I thought it would be good to reflect on the past year.
My wife and I arrived in the heat of the Japanese summer without a home, just my mother-in-law's house. I had no job, but some prospects. I had an interview scheduled for 3 days after I arrived with my current company, and I had some other appointments to make. I got a job almost immediately from the first company (but as I first posted in June, this was a mistake that I am still paying for). We had to find an apartment in another prefecture as well as get all the furniture and appliances too. All in 33-35 degree weather.
I worked in 2 different public high schools and now am in a public junior high school (for now as my company has kind of told me that I will be changing schools in September). I have gotten a part-time job to suppliment my income some more, but it is not too frequent, so I am in the hunt for another, or some private students. My ife is not working but concentrating on other things at the moment.
We have attempted to adopt a child here, but that is currently on hold.
We have taken a couple of trips in Japan earlier this year, first to Nagoya and Ise, and the second to Okinawa. Nagoya and Ise were kind of disappointing, because Nagoya Castle is not what I had hoped for (I am a fan of Japanese Castles from the Edo Period) and Ise Shrine is completely surrounded by a tall fence to prevent people from actually seeing any part of the shrine buildings apart from the roofs (essentially you have to pray to a portion of the fence). Okinawa was more interesting as I could visit yet another castle, Shuri-jo. This is a reconstruction, but still a World Heritage Site and completely different than any other Japanese Castle (due to strong Chinese ties). We also saw several memorials to the war too.
Now we are back to the time we arrived last year. Insanely hot and humid. Summer.
Got to do it all over again.
Saturday, July 24, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
The Summer of Sweat
In an earlier entry on this blog, I talked about the heat that is a Japanese summer. Well, it has arrived. And it has brought some friends along too. They go by the names of: Humidity and Discomfort.
The annual rainy season finished much sooner than I, or anybody, expected this year, and as a result, the summer officially began. The rainy season for us in the Kanto area was relatively mild, with not much rain. Other parts of Japan are in a world of trouble from their rains that have resulted in flooding and landslides (landslides are never much of a problem here in the middle of the Kanto Plain).
However, summer is its own burden. We are just a few days into the summer season, and already it is too hot. To recap, Saturday the temperature reached a balmy 32 degrees, Sunday came in at 33 degrees, and yesterday, a holiday, came in at a blistering 36 degrees. Todays forecast? Yep, 36 degrees again.
Add to the temperatures the high humidity, and you got yourself one heck of a day of sweltering and sweating. There is no way to escape it. My wife and I have a system of going out to use someone else's air conditioning (like a shopping centre or big store) to stay cool (plus, we don't have to pay the electric bills).
Even the nights are too warm and humid. Since we do not have any kind of central air conditioning, we have to rely on a complex system of a room air conditioner and an electric fan. Still this does cool sufficiently at night. As a result, I often wake up sweating and uncomfortable.
The good news is that we only have about 2 more months of this weather before the fall.
The annual rainy season finished much sooner than I, or anybody, expected this year, and as a result, the summer officially began. The rainy season for us in the Kanto area was relatively mild, with not much rain. Other parts of Japan are in a world of trouble from their rains that have resulted in flooding and landslides (landslides are never much of a problem here in the middle of the Kanto Plain).
However, summer is its own burden. We are just a few days into the summer season, and already it is too hot. To recap, Saturday the temperature reached a balmy 32 degrees, Sunday came in at 33 degrees, and yesterday, a holiday, came in at a blistering 36 degrees. Todays forecast? Yep, 36 degrees again.
Add to the temperatures the high humidity, and you got yourself one heck of a day of sweltering and sweating. There is no way to escape it. My wife and I have a system of going out to use someone else's air conditioning (like a shopping centre or big store) to stay cool (plus, we don't have to pay the electric bills).
Even the nights are too warm and humid. Since we do not have any kind of central air conditioning, we have to rely on a complex system of a room air conditioner and an electric fan. Still this does cool sufficiently at night. As a result, I often wake up sweating and uncomfortable.
The good news is that we only have about 2 more months of this weather before the fall.
Monday, July 5, 2010
Living in a Sauna
I recently read a story on the World Sauna Championships in Finland (here). Then I read about the heat warnings and high temperatures they were experiencing this week in Southern Ontario and Quebec.
This got me thinking, to prepare for both of these, one should spend a summer in Tokyo.
I am entering my fourth summer in the Tokyo area (fortunately broken up by 4 summers in Southern Ontario), and I can say that this place is just like living in a sauna.
First is the actual heat, right now the temperatures are hovering around the low 30's Celcius and a cool day is about 28 Celcius. So already it is a tad on the warm side. And it will not cool down until November (possibly October, but no one is counting on that anyway).
Just to make it interesting, and to keep you feeling the air around you, there a little matter of humidity. Sorry, that is an understatement. There is an insane amount of humidity here from now until the end of time. It is almost like you can drink the air (a side note, do not drink this air, but more on that later), or at least bottle up the litres of sweat that are bound to pour off you the moment you step outside. Never have I experienced a location that makes you sweat the moment you open the door to the outside.
I am used to a nice hard summer thunderstorm and kind of enjoy them. However, the ones that I am used to in Ontario used to have the added bonus of cooling down the outside temperature and reducing the humidity, somewhat temperarily. Here in Japan, once we have a summer storm (had a couple the last few nights), the temperature and humidity both remain high and there is no respite at all.
As there is this humidity, and the Tokyo area has millions of residents, there is the inevitable smog to deal with. It gets so bad sometimes that one cannot see 50-storey buildings that are less than 5km away from you. It is literally like someone has lifted these buildings and removed them for a few months of the year (I like to say that they left on their own, or have just gone to sleep for awhile). Quite a thing to behold, or not as the case may be. I have even experienced the sight of Mt. Fuji (itself peaking at 3,776 metres) simply disappear and not see it for 5 months.
Add to all of this is the first 8 weeks or so of summer are actually referred to as the rainy season as a rain front covers Japan and stays here to torment us with rain almost everyday. It is not enough that it rains, it is just the mere threat of rain that keeps you griping that umbrella as though your life depended on it, and everyone carries an umbrella here (no trying to be tough or manly, carry that umbrella son, you will need it).
Still, I there is no place I would rather be right now than here.
Bring on winter.
Please.
This got me thinking, to prepare for both of these, one should spend a summer in Tokyo.
I am entering my fourth summer in the Tokyo area (fortunately broken up by 4 summers in Southern Ontario), and I can say that this place is just like living in a sauna.
First is the actual heat, right now the temperatures are hovering around the low 30's Celcius and a cool day is about 28 Celcius. So already it is a tad on the warm side. And it will not cool down until November (possibly October, but no one is counting on that anyway).
Just to make it interesting, and to keep you feeling the air around you, there a little matter of humidity. Sorry, that is an understatement. There is an insane amount of humidity here from now until the end of time. It is almost like you can drink the air (a side note, do not drink this air, but more on that later), or at least bottle up the litres of sweat that are bound to pour off you the moment you step outside. Never have I experienced a location that makes you sweat the moment you open the door to the outside.
I am used to a nice hard summer thunderstorm and kind of enjoy them. However, the ones that I am used to in Ontario used to have the added bonus of cooling down the outside temperature and reducing the humidity, somewhat temperarily. Here in Japan, once we have a summer storm (had a couple the last few nights), the temperature and humidity both remain high and there is no respite at all.
As there is this humidity, and the Tokyo area has millions of residents, there is the inevitable smog to deal with. It gets so bad sometimes that one cannot see 50-storey buildings that are less than 5km away from you. It is literally like someone has lifted these buildings and removed them for a few months of the year (I like to say that they left on their own, or have just gone to sleep for awhile). Quite a thing to behold, or not as the case may be. I have even experienced the sight of Mt. Fuji (itself peaking at 3,776 metres) simply disappear and not see it for 5 months.
Add to all of this is the first 8 weeks or so of summer are actually referred to as the rainy season as a rain front covers Japan and stays here to torment us with rain almost everyday. It is not enough that it rains, it is just the mere threat of rain that keeps you griping that umbrella as though your life depended on it, and everyone carries an umbrella here (no trying to be tough or manly, carry that umbrella son, you will need it).
Still, I there is no place I would rather be right now than here.
Bring on winter.
Please.
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