Japanese Heat

The most common word spoken in English in America is the word I, according to linguists. Some see this as a reflection of the individualist behaviour of the American populace.

UPDATE: http://www.weather.com/outlook/travel/businesstraveler/
wxclimatology/compare/JAXX0040?sfld1=Kobe,%20Japan&sfld2=
Spokane,%20WA,%20US&clocid1=JAXX0040&clocid2=USWA0422
This is a url to a comparison of temperature of Spokane, WA, to Kobe (my nearest climatological comparison to Midori ga Oka). As you can see, it is probably almost always at any time warmer here than there...and the humidity is very high. This tool may find use for others of you in any case. Feel free to change "Spokane" to any other major cities (e.g. Minneapolis, Little Rock, Harrington?) I'm not sure how precise it will be.

The most common word in spoken Japanese in Midori ga Oka is the word Atsui. Atsui is the word for "hot" as in "hot weather." The most common attachments to this word are mushi (mushiatsui), mechi (mejiatsui), and totemo (totemoatsui). The mean, in order, something like "incredibly hot," "mighty hot," (as in the "mighty" used in the American South) and "Totally hot." In this wannabe linguist's opinion, this a reflection of the weather of the Japanese Island. One of the former students of Kansai Kyokusai Daigaku, an American whom I had some email contact with told me: "When I first got there, I couldn't believe how hot it was...I wasn't comfortable outside until late November." November is coming too slow. Also mentioned, "Even the people who grow up there are miserable in Summer."

Since leaving the Spokane area, my heat-dodging skills have improved. Anything that is in the path of the Sun is, if possible, to be avoided. Before, I just stayed on the North side of buildings. Now, I plan ahead: where will I cross the street so I can stay under the canopies of a row of shops? Will I even go out until near sunset? Should I try to go when it is early, and it is only 80 degrees with super-high humidity, or wait til it is 90 degrees with high humidity? At 34.5 degrees N, there is very little shade excepting that of night. In Kansai, unfortunately for the shade, most buildings are 1 or 2 stories tall, so they provide very little shelter from the heat. However, any shade you do go into, it takes no more than 2 seconds for me to instantly feel refreshment, although it is still quite hot in the shade.

The shade itself is an amazing feeling on a partially-cloudy day. When a cloud rolls across the path of the sunlight streaming downwards, the plastic garage/car covers with UV blocking tint that keep new cars looking newer and keep the rain off, CRACK! Sometimes, loudly. The first time I heard a wave of cracks coming down the road at me from behind, I swiveled my head around to figure out what it was that was chasing me down the road through people's yard. It literally is so hot, that when a good cloud comes along to block-out the sun, that the cooling is so fast as to relax the metal back into its proper place, intsead of being stretched against the bolts tightly.

The worst is when you have a heavily clouded set of low clouds in most of the sky, and the Sun is out through a hole. We are in the mountains, so the clouds trap the moisture and reflect the heat back in, and the sun pounds mercilessly. On a clear, blue sky-day (few of them happen this time of year) the humidity might drop as far as 28% or so if it lasts most of the day. It tends to float around 50% humidity in the general Midorigaoka area most of the time, though.

But how do I KNOW when it is hot? Well, I can ask a native! If they tell me it is hot, (or if I just listen I will hear people complaining about the heat almost anywhere anytime) then I know for certain that it is hot. But what if I am not convinced? Well, then I have a friend who can help me. Trang is from Southern Vietnamese forested rockland. There is enough forest to trap in alot of heat, enough rock to absorb and reradiate it, and she is at almost the perfect latitude for maximum temperature averages. Once I hear her compain about the heat, I know that it is time to accept that I am the first person to live this far south in my bloodline in perhaps thousands of years, and find somewhere airconditioned rather than keep fighting to be mobile and outside. Generally if she compains then most of the rest of the people in the area have already almost given up on trying to move. And, unfortunately, I think that since she has gotten here (1 day before me) she has probably complained every day about the heat but perhaps one or two.

And so, Atsui remains the word of choice in Japan at the moment. People from West to East, North to South are complaining about the heat. And if a Japanese person can complain about this, I've decided that I, a Swedish, Irish, Englishman can complain too! When I get up and try to move this chair, as happens almost every day, it will be stuck to the floor, so I won't be able to scoot it back. You have to pick up chairs first in my house to move them. The whole thing is a bit ridiculous!