Even though I grew up in a tropic country, the heat and sun are two things I never learned to get along after all this time. And I definitely wasn’t quite prepared to be boiling in the heat wave of Japan that has been hitting the peak of 40 degrees at one point of time. This heat wave was like nothing we’ve experience before; because for every 10 minutes we walk out on the street from the air-conditioned shop feels like jumping from inside a fridge right into an oven.
Yet for all the heat and humidity, for all the dabbing of the forehead and the beads of sweat rolling down my back, I had the time of my life. I tried to find the bits and pieces of my memories when I first stepped into Japan twelve years ago; I was fifteen and a huge fan of the Disney world. (Wait! I still am right now!) Japan didn’t leave quite a deep impression for me except for the toilet system and how cleans it gets even for a public toilet. Plus, I manage to experience the unselfish act of the Japanese where they are all generous enough to let you stroll around their shops under the air-con even though you might not get anything out of it.
Every shop is air-conditioned. Every ice-cream shop is a stop. Every drink is iced. I can’t recall how I just ignore on the price of the cab and hop on because the heat was just unbearable anymore. But I wondered, while it’s bearable for someone like me holidaying for a week, what’s it actually like living there? Do they experience this kind of summer every year?