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How to survive the sweltering heat of Japanese summer

05:18 07/29/2024

Aside from its rich culture and diverse cuisine, one thing that Japan is famous, or infamous for, is its extreme weather: Japanese summers are notorious for being extremely hot and humid.

Thus, the last thing that anyone would want to do during these hot summer days is to go outside and suffer under the blazing heat of the sun, and the deal option seems to be locking yourself inside an air-conditioned room all day to stay cool. 


As temperatures are increasing and summer is creeping up in Japan, in this article, GoEMON will provide you with all the countermeasures on how to stay cool and survive the sweltering heat of Japanese summer! Make sure to check till the end, since this year’s summer was forecasted to be the hottest ever!


1. UV Umbrellas

The first must-have item when it comes to “survival” during the summer in Japan is a UV umbrella. Heat comes from the sun, and so the most obvious way to escape (or at least alleviate) the heat is to shield yourself from the sun. Coming to Japan during the summer, you will see that almost everyone here will have an umbrella with them.


Source: Fun!Japan


Getting some sunlight is good for your health, but you may have to think twice considering the hellish sun and insanely hot temperature during the summer here. Things get even worse with the country’s high humidity levels. Thus, walking directly under the sun without protection for long periods without protection could be very damaging to your health and skin and can even lead to heatstrokes. In fact, summer here is so brutal that heatstrokes and death resulting from them are not uncommon in Japan. 


Therefore, we highly recommend getting yourself a good UV umbrella! These umbrellas are available in various sizes, colors, and designs for you to choose from, and you can easily find them literally everywhere, from convenience stores, and online shops, to department stores. 


2. Cooling clothing 

Summer in Japan is super hot, and what happens when you feel hot? You sweat, and then your clothes get stuck into your body, not only causing discomfort but also making the heat even worse. One solution to this would be to wear a layer of cooling undergarment during the summer. In Japan, one of the most famous options for cooling undergarments is Unqlo’s Airism series. In fact, it is so famous to the point that virtually every Japanese person or anyone living in Japan will have at least one item from the Airism series. 


Source: Uniqlo


What’s special about Airism is its wide variety of products, from innerwear, outerwear, and loungewear, to even masks and bedding. Make sure to drop by Uniqlo to check out its Airism line before summer officially comes! 


3. Cooling sprays, wipes, and neck rings

As an innovative country, the Japanese are very serious about developing useful products to help their citizens combat the hellish summer sun, in which three of the most commonly used and famous products are cooling sprays, cooling wipes, and cooling neck rings. 


Source: SoraNews24


The names of the items themselves are pretty self-explanatory: cooling wipes are wet wipes that create a cooling sensation when in contact with your skin and cooling sprays work in the same way but in the form of a spray where you would mist it on your clothes instead of directly on your skin. Cooling neck rings are a bit different in the sense that they are rings that you wear on your neck, which emit cool down the neck area and consequently the major blood vessels close to the skin surface and ultimately lower body temperature. 


4. Portable fans

Another simple yet effective method is to use a small portable fan. These usually come in two forms, with the more common type being the normal handheld ones and the other being those that can be worn over your neck like headphones. The fans are relatively cheap, usually rechargeable, and also come in all sorts of sizes, colors, and designs. You can get them in drug stores convenience stores, home centers, and even 100-yen stores like Daiso. 


Source: BBC


5. Stay hydrated 

Another crucial thing that you cannot forget to do during the summer is to frequently hydrate yourself to make up for all of the sweating. Additionally, no cooling products can work effectively if you are not properly hydrated. So make sure to drink plenty of water and try to always keep a bottle of water by your side whenever you are going out!


Source: Tsunagu Japan


Some popular drink options in the summer are sports drinks (such as POCARI SWEAT or Aquarius) that can help maintain your electrolytes, or Barley tea (Mugicha) - the go-to summer drink for many Japanese people. 


In this article, GoEMON has introduced to you some of the best methods to stay cool even during the hottest months of summer in Japan. Also, feel free to comment down below if you have any other suggestions on measures to take to beat the blazing summer heat! 


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