HEAT

(The photo shows pumpkin plants in my garden wilting in the late summer heat.

I find that many of these points were covered in Blog 65. Apologies for repetition.)

It occurred to me that I have a lot of blogs about cold weather, but not many about hot weather. I guess this is because cold weather bothers me more than hot weather does. Right now we are living through a spell of no rain with 35 degrees C (about 90 F for my US readers) and it is taking its toll in discomfort and short tempers. I admit I looked at videos of heavy rains in other places and couldn’t help feel a stab of longing – they look so cool! And of course, those people probably looked at videos of places with no rain and felt envy too.

Yesterday I went to an art class where everyone (except me) said that they have A/C in every room and keep it running all the time. In our house, we have A/C in two rooms: one is for napping and the other for working and watching TV. We usually nap through the hottest part of the day (1:30-3:30 pm) and never have the air-conditioning on at night (though I may have a fan blowing on me). Makes me think about winter, when we will probably limit rooms with heaters to the ones we use a lot as well.

In the old days, when our house was built (admittedly it wasn’t as hot – or cold – at that time) there was no such thing as A/C, not in private homes anyway. Houses were built to catch the cool; I have a theory that Japanese people are bothered more by heat than by cold. When I first came to this house it was July, and the house at midday seemed like a cave, much cooler than outside. Large floor-to-ceiling windows/doors were flung open to catch any breeze going. (I remember my MIL scolding me for not opening windows all the way to the back of the house so any breeze could flow right through.) If breezes didn’t arrive on their own, they were created with hand-held or electric fans. How different from modern houses, with their tiny windows that can be easily shut to keep the A/C in!

The other thing that keeps older houses relatively cool is gardens and green surroundings. Everyone has noticed how much cooler (relatively) the countryside is, and this is largely due to the green of trees and shade. Our house now has two large formal gardens and beyond this, veggie patches, large trees, etc. which help to make breezes and keep the inside cool. Modern houses not only don’t have gardens or veggie patches, they sometimes don’t have natural lawns. They take up too much time to take care of, it is said, and it is true that natural green doesn’t stay exactly as planted, like cement; it needs to be taken care of. (What are people doing with all the free time they save now that everything is so convenient? I’m not sure I want to know, although I have my suspicions.)

Another things that keeps us cool in summer at night is the traditional towelling blanket (towelket). Large ones are used instead of sheets on the bottom, because (this is something I learned recently) rough surfaces are cooler than smooth ones. Why? Probably it has to do with the management of sweat. I won’t go into that, but it is true that a towelket or straw matting under one can help with heat at night. The towelling blanket is also used as a top layer, just a wisp of covering for which one can be very grateful in the cooler small hours. These disappear in winter but are indispensable in summer.

So, older houses, with their large shaded corridors and glass doors that are opened to let in the breeze surrounding the house, the cool dark interior, and the green planted around, are very different from modern houses, with their small windows and very few, if any, plants in the yard; even the color of the newest houses is often black! Seeing this, I wonder how people can live inside these houses and not be swamped with heat – and answer is, that they are all air-conditioned 24/7.) I now ask myself if these newer houses are engineered with A/C in mind, as older ones were engineered without.

This leads me to another topic – how expensive is it, from the point of view of electric bills, to have an A/C running versus two or three electric fans? Is our electric bill small or large if we don’t use A/C? This, as well as the configuration of homes, is important to know if you consider that many older people don’t put on their A/C unit because of the cost, and may die of heatstroke as a consequence.

So, how do I keep cool in this kind of weather, aside from the above? Well, the ice machine in the refrigerator is my friend, as is sweetened iced tea that I grew up with, of which I make 2 liters and drink every day. These things, like the towelling blankets and summer doors, are put away around early October, to be gotten out again when needed next summer. I also learned an interesting trick when working outside (sometimes inside). I sweat a lot, to the extent that I often have drops raining down when I am working, from the head and face area (which is the most prolific area of sweating on my body, as evolution dictated that these parts must be kept cool). Enter the Japanese hachimaki… a cloth that is tied around the forehead to keep sweat from running into the eyes. The Japanese gesture meaning “we need to work hard now”, or gird up our loins, is this jerking of the knot that ties the hachimaki in the front or back of the head. Students used to wear the hachimaki when studying, both to manage sweat and as a gesture meaning hard work was in progress. I can testify that it really works to keep head sweat from raining down (and blearing my glasses) when I am working outside, which usually happens from 6:30-9 am.

And let us not forget the mentholated talcum powder, thoughtfully provided by friends who live in hot parts of the world like Singapore. (I haven’t figured out the Japanese equivalent.) Also don’t even think about wearing synthetic clothes—nothing touches this body but 100% cotton during this time. And window coverings, prevalent in Japan, which hopefully let through breezes and not sunshine.

And how about you in this increasingly hot time of year? Kudos and commiseration if you are dealing with extreme weather. How do you manage?