Over the past few months I've been out and about during the peak of the summertime heat. Thermometers are pushing beyond 36˚C by noon and there's no respite from the brilliance of the sun directly above our head. As a result, when I get home in the evening, it takes a good deal of willpower to bring Ayumi outside for her evening walk before I risk sitting on the sofa. More than once this summer I have passed out in the evening only to wake up after midnight and shuffle over to the bed for a proper night's rest.
A quarter century ago the heat was almost never an issue. Summertime temperatures in Southern Ontario in the 90s were not that different to the temperatures in this part of Japan today, though there was a lot less humidity to contend with. I would often play baseball all weekend without thinking much about the weather so long as the game wasn't rained out. Some days hit 38˚C without a cloud in the sky, and it was no problem at all.
This was before air conditioning was as prevalent as it is now, though. In the 90s, if my family wanted to enjoy some air conditioning we would have to visit a shopping mall. Even our cars did not have the luxury of an A/C unit. If rolling the windows down as insufficient, then all you could hope for was a long empty road with no cops so you could bury the needle to simulate a breeze … which was still too warm to feel refreshing.
For much of the following decade, air conditioning remained something that shopping malls had but I did not. In 2002 I left Ontario for British Colombia, where air conditioning might be needed for one or two weeks per year, making it an expense most people could not justify. This was fine for the most part, as I worked indoors and would commute during the cooler times of day. If the temperature in my apartment was too hot during the summer, there was always a coffee shop where I could sit for a few hours to read books and enjoy their climate controlled spaces.
Japan is different, though, where most people all over the country have at least one air conditioner in their home and another in their car. Despite what many newspapers might say, the highest temperatures reported in the well-populated parts of this country are not that different from what someone in the Niagara region of Ontario might experience1. What is different is the humidity.
This morning I took Ayumi out for her walk just after 7:30am when the thermometer read 28˚C. Within five minutes of being outside, though, my shirts were soaked with sweat and sticking uncomfortably to my back. According to the phone's weather app, that 28-degree temperature "felt like" 37˚C. By noon, when the sun radiated heat from above while concrete radiated heat from below, the 36-degree reading "felt like" something closer to my age rather than a respectable summertime temperature.
Regardless of what the mercury might say, though, I wonder how much of the heat exhaustion that I succumb to is the result of being spoiled by air conditioning. People in Japan have long had issues in the summertime heat and there are reports of deaths from exposure going back over a thousand years. It's nothing new over here. The endless stretches of heat-reflecting concrete are new, though, as well as the luxury of air conditioning. I make great use of both and couldn't imagine life without either. All this said, I can't help but wonder if I might be making too much use of the A/C in a manner that makes it difficult for my body to naturally regulate its heat while I'm out and about.
Between 32˚C and 38˚C for the most part. When Western news organisations report temperatures in Japan exceeding 40˚C, they're not telling you that it's in the less-populated areas where one finds volcanic activity and plenty of hot springs.