I grew up in Japan in the 60’s and 70’s. Hot summers! But now with the extended summer months it really can wear you down. Now living in CA we get fairly erratic temperatures these days. This summer has been milder than some but now in September I’m using the AC for the first time.
Thanks for sharing! The stories about your childhood are incredible to me, someone who’s only known a much much hotter Japan.
I have some kind of secondhand nostalgia for Japanese summer probably because of how many games and anime I grew up watching happened during summertime, the time for kids to imagine and have adventures.
But I mostly just stay inside mid July through mid September until the sun goes down, if I can help it.
The British upper classes have strict rules about what to wear and when. In any given context (time of year, time of day, type of activity, place, etc) there is only one correct way to dress. It's how they know whether someone is "People Like Us" ("PLU"). Having to have such a large wardrobe, made by the right makers and often involving multiple changes of clothes every day, is inevitably expensive and therefore exclusive of hoi polloi. It's why you see in period dramas British officials of, for example, the Indian civil service, gulping their gins-and-tonic on the veranda of an evening, dripping with sweat while inappropriately (for the climate) dressed in dinner jacket and stiff shirt and collar. They were following the dress code of their class instead of using common sense to choose what to wear. Common sense also works well with yukata in Japan. Change is a constant. We, and our culture/traditions, must adapt constantly to remain strong and not look foolish like those officials of the British Raj.
I grew up in Japan in the 60’s and 70’s. Hot summers! But now with the extended summer months it really can wear you down. Now living in CA we get fairly erratic temperatures these days. This summer has been milder than some but now in September I’m using the AC for the first time.
We adapt. We have to.
I feel your nostalgia.
Thanks for sharing! The stories about your childhood are incredible to me, someone who’s only known a much much hotter Japan.
I have some kind of secondhand nostalgia for Japanese summer probably because of how many games and anime I grew up watching happened during summertime, the time for kids to imagine and have adventures.
But I mostly just stay inside mid July through mid September until the sun goes down, if I can help it.
The British upper classes have strict rules about what to wear and when. In any given context (time of year, time of day, type of activity, place, etc) there is only one correct way to dress. It's how they know whether someone is "People Like Us" ("PLU"). Having to have such a large wardrobe, made by the right makers and often involving multiple changes of clothes every day, is inevitably expensive and therefore exclusive of hoi polloi. It's why you see in period dramas British officials of, for example, the Indian civil service, gulping their gins-and-tonic on the veranda of an evening, dripping with sweat while inappropriately (for the climate) dressed in dinner jacket and stiff shirt and collar. They were following the dress code of their class instead of using common sense to choose what to wear. Common sense also works well with yukata in Japan. Change is a constant. We, and our culture/traditions, must adapt constantly to remain strong and not look foolish like those officials of the British Raj.