Holy Heatwave

I like summer. I like it a lot. I think I always have. Summer just has a lot to offer. Summer is the time of year when it stays light until after 9:00. School's out, so even if I've had a job, and some of my worst have been during summers, there is considerably less stress. My birthday is in summer (technically late Spring, but summer vacation had/has always already begun, so I call it summer--take that, equinox). Everywhere is air-conditioned, and since I'm a burning inferno year-round, summer is basically the one time when I enter a building/room/car and don't have to offer a fire safety suit to the people near me. Also, with the summer holidays from Memorial Day to Labor Day, I am almost always guaranteed grilled food at every event. What's not to love here?

Enter Japan. It is July 6 here, and I am already wishing for the days when I can pull out my winter coat. I saw my scarf in the drawer and a montage with faded edges began running through my mind of shoveling snow on Valentine's Day and getting stuck multiple times in the snow. I remembered the times walking back to my apartment after a long day at the library with my scarf wrapped around my mouth and nose because I was worried about my lungs freezing. I even thought longingly about the nights this past year in Japan when I slept with gloves and a scarf at night to try and stave off the icy grip of an uninsulated-apartment winter.

This is what the Japanese summer is doing to me! Let me try and paint a picture of the last month...

First, imagine Tarumi (cue dream sequence)... apartments and houses line the road, children run down the sidewalk from school in their summer uniforms, and people walk their dogs or chat with friends as they walk to and from the local grocery stores. Now, drop a ridiculously humid haze over everything. Turn up the temperature to the nineties. Add those wavy heat mirage blurs to the road ahead. Filter in exhaust from the buses and cars. Also, throw in some mutant large beetles, centipedes, and spiders that hang out if there's a tree within a kilometer.

Great. Now we have the setting for the perfect summer dream. Next we need to build the scenario. On trains and buses, air conditioning may or may not be turned on, and if it is turned on, the vents conveniently seem to blow only to the places where people are least likely to sit or stand. In the shopping areas, the temperature is well controlled, but in the workplace, it seems to be virtuous to work in steam sauna-like conditions. 95% percent of the population carries a fan (yes, the asian style fan that is such a novelty in America) and a less elegant towel to wipe away the gallons (or liters) of sweat, because a small wedge-shaped piece of paper, as it turns out, does nothing except look elegant as it gently wafts super-heated air over your shiny, damp face. I think the fan is meant to pull attention away from the hot mess you become as the sweat saturates the upper half of your body (note: right now you might be thinking, 'yeah, but you're overweight,' but I assure you, I am not in a minority of grossly moist people kickin' it around town). Also, if you happen into a restaurant, be assured you will be met with a nice piping hot cup of tea (with free refills!). Ah, famous Japanese hospitality.

This is my summer... Oh, and by the way, school is still in session, grilling out is considerably less common, and it starts getting dark around 7.

Sigh. It's tough working a job that only has about 11 weeks of vacation spread out conveniently (and coincidentally) around major US holidays and living near some of the most famous culturally rich locations in the world doing a job I'm happy to be doing most days. I'm basically living in a giant open air dungeon. I guess I should get over the slightly uncomfortable rainy season, and accept the fact that my love for summer is based on a prescribed set of luxuries afforded me by my thermostat-controlled culture.

Incidentally, I am now accepting applications for a new favorite season while I live in Japan. Resumes can be attached in the comment section below.

Peace.