I’ve long dreaded summer; it’s my least favorite season, at least in Japan.
Back in Europe, I didn’t mind the summers because they were dry. It’s early July; the rainy season is more or less over now in Japan for this year, and temperatures are already mirroring those of last year on some days.
It seems that during the summertime in Japan, no matter where I go, the heat keeps constantly bugging me.
To Survive The Summer In Japan
Here are some tips for surviving the Japanese summer heat –many of these tips will help you beat the heat and humidity of a Japanese summer.
DRINK WATER
I’m not kidding. I don’t know how to emphasize this enough. Your body needs water, and lots of it.
The amount of water you lose through sweating needs to be rehydrated.
DO NOT underestimate the heat
It will bring you down, and you may suffer a heat stroke. Heat strokes happen every single day in Japan because people don’t stay hydrated. Don’t take this lightly as it’s really dangerous.
I used to drink a 500mL bottle of water a day back in Europe, but after coming here, I started drinking 2-4L of water per day. If you notice that your head suddenly starts to hurt, it’s because you’re dehydrated. You need to re-hydrate ASAP.
The most important thing is to stay hydrated. A cold drink of water with lots of ice can do wonders to cool your body. In addition, it’s calorie-free.
Buy an Air Conditioner
Yes, this is the most obvious one, but some apartments may not come with one, like mine. I managed to survive a Japanese summer without the use of an AC up until the first week of August.
Yes, it was hard, and yes, it was hot, but it wasn’t impossible.
However, when August came around, the nights became too hot to handle, and I had to buy an AC. I don’t personally use it during the day, just at night so that I can sleep comfortably.
Open The Windows
Try opening two windows on opposite sides of your house or apartment (if you have the setup). This allows for a great cross-breeze if the wind is blowing.
Close your curtains, blinds, and windows during the day, and open them up at night. Hopefully, your windows come with a screen, or else ginormous bugs will come flying in. You don’t want the sun's rays and heat to warm up your house during the day, but you do want the cooler breeze to come in at night.
Install a fan in your window and turn it on at night
Install a fan in your window and turn it on at night. This will bring a cool breeze inside your house. You can also buy more than one fan and install them in various places in your house to get the airflow going.
Utilize Ice Packs
If you don’t have enough money to buy an AC, then freeze some ice packs and install them in front of your fan. This will send wind through the ice packs and make the wind feel a bit cooler.
You will need to repeat this process a couple of times per day as the ice packs will melt pretty quickly. You can also use frozen water bottles and place them in front of or behind your fan.
If you’d rather buy a fan that does that for you, you can buy a cooling fan and just add ice to the bucket inside.
Sleep With An Ice Pillow
An ice pillow?! It’s a gel pillow that you pop into your freezer, and it freezes halfway so that it’s still squishy. Once it’s frozen, you place it inside the pillowcase and sleep on it. This way, your head will stay cool during the hot summer nights.
Invest In Some Cool Mattress Pads
Japan sells these cooling pads to go on top of your mattress. They keep you cool while you sleep. An alternative to this is to fill hot water bottles with ice water, wrap them in cloth, and put them in your bed. Nothing like a cool, refreshing sleep to leave you recharged and ready to go.
Carry a Bag of Ice Packs
Some of my Japanese friends do this. They carry a cooler bag and load it with four large ice packs. Whenever they feel too hot, they either hug the pack until they cool down, or they grab one ice pack and rub it all over their body to cool down.
Fight the heat during the daytime
If you’re home and don’t have an AC, you can always wet a long towel and wrap it around you. This only works until a certain point, though. The wet towel will no longer be effective after July as the air temperature is just too hot to make a difference.
Wet a long towel and put some ice cubes in it. Wrap it around your neck or place it over your head. This only works until the ice melts off. It’s a good temporary solution.
Ice towel
An inexpensive way to cool off when you get home is to have a stock of frozen towels in the freezer. All you have to do is use the washing machine, fold the wet towels, pop them in a freezer, and take them out to wipe your sweat when you get home from the heat.
After wiping, just put the towel back in the machine.
Buy Cool Towels
You simply need to pour water over the towel and wrap it around your neck. The towel supposedly keeps the water cool until it has all evaporated, at which point you can fill it up again. They sell these at various department stores.
Buy Sweat Wipes
We don’t have these in Europe, but they’re awesome! I buy the cooling wipes. These wipes are used to clean the sweat off your body, leaving a cooling agent on your skin. This works for 10-30 minutes.
Sense and Uchiwa
If you’re outside in the heat, then you’ll need to carry a portable fan. They sell them everywhere or give them out for free in front of stations, at festivals, or in convenience stores. The word for these is sensu or uchiwa.
Buy a Sun Umbrella
This is great if you don’t want to tan or make your body absorb all the sun's rays. It really does help when you’re outside all day in the sun.
Make sure to stock up on antiperspirants
Some stores in Japan have a wide selection of foreign products - American brands like Speed Stick, Secret, Old Spice, Biore, etc.
For natural deodorant products or those avoiding potentially harmful chemicals like aluminum (the active ingredient in antiperspirants), this is a great place to shop.
For example, Amazon offers a variety of options. Stick deodorant is not always easy to find in stores in Japan for some reason.
Here is a selection of stores where you can find good, effective deodorant products:
- Tokyu Hands
- Loft
- Don Quixote
- The Flying Pig (Costco)
Visit Somewhere Cool to Relax
It's also a good choice to go to a cool place on a too-hot day.
Go to the malls for some shopping
If you aren’t too keen on raising your energy bill or adding to the pressing energy problem, you can always mooch off someone else’s air conditioning. Department stores, shopping malls, food courts, all of these places have cool, refreshing air conditioning.
Go to the movies.
Movie theaters are fully air-conditioned.
A visit to the beach at night.
If you’re close enough to get there, the beach can be surprisingly cool at night. You don’t even have to swim either. Just hike up your pants and wade into a bit of the expanse that is the Pacific to beat the heat.
Visit a swimming pool.
I’m sure there’s some type of pool near where you live; it’s just about finding out where it is and how much it costs to use. It’s great exercise, too. Get in shape and stay cool? You can’t really beat that.
Ingenuity at Home
You can spend your time comfortably at home with just a little ingenuity.
Buy a Dehumidifier
The reason you can’t sleep at night isn’t just the heat; it’s the humidity. Your furniture, clothes, bedsheets, and so on all have this layer of humidity on them. Getting a dehumidifier will make your apartment so much more comfortable to live in.
If you have one, a dehumidifier can help take moisture out of the room or the bathroom, closets, etc. It can also dry clothes, especially if you can’t or don’t hang your garments outside to dry.
I found that the best model on the market is the Panasonic Hybrid model. It’s a little pricey at over 30,000 yen. It’s also possible to get all-in-ones — dehumidifier plus air purifier plus humidifier or different combinations of two of those.
Netsu Sama Sheet
If you need to cool down right away and you don’t have any ice on you, then you can use these fever stickers called Netsu Sama shi-to. People usually use them when they are sick and their head is boiling hot. Stick it on any part of your body that feels too hot, and it’ll automatically cool it down. These work for 5-10 hours.
I showed them to my friend from Serbia when she came to visit me and told her it was for her head. She took the box and stuck them everywhere on her body.
Get Cotton Sheets for Your Bed
Any other fabrics will just absorb the heat and bake you as if you were in an oven at night. Speaking of cotton, wear cotton clothing. It’s breathable and perfect for summer.
DO NOT wear polyester clothing. It absorbs all the sweat and traps it inside, making you super uncomfortable all day/night long.
Turn off Electrical Appliances
Turn off your computer, lights, and appliances when you’re not home or at night. These not only use your electricity but also generate heat.
This is what was happening at my house: the sun warms up the house all day long, so it’s basically a little oven. Your computer generates heat (in my case, my iMac) plus all the heat that’s been accumulated. It’s gotten to the point that my furniture, yes…my furniture is now HOT.
My chairs, my bookshelves, computer desk, carpet, etc., are all hot. I swear I could fry an egg on my desk. Also, my iMac has been shutting down automatically because it’s becoming too hot for it to handle.
Unfortunately, you can’t do anything about the solar heat that comes into your house, but you can try to limit the heat by turning off your computer and other electronics that may be using heat.
Here is a good personal tip
I often get some fresh orange or fruit juice, pour it into an ice palette (a section divider is usually the best), freeze it overnight in the refrigerator, and then when desired, you have fruity ice cubes to enjoy with water or on their own.
The occasional visit to Cold Stone Creamery or Baskin Robbins never really hurts anyone.
Which reminds me... Advanced age does not diminish the extreme disappointment of seeing your scoop of ice cream fall from the cone!
