暑い!

That character in the post title means "hot". It's freaking hot here! Tokyo summers are nortorious for being hot, muggy, and uncomfortable, and this year is apparently exceptional.

At breakfast today I asked Kurumi (Kuri's sister), "去年と今年は同じ暑いですか？" (which means, "Last year and this year are together same hot?"). It took her a few seconds, but she replied, "もっともっと暑い！" (which means "much, much more!").

So what's a summer like here? I suppose it's just a really intense version of any other day. For example, take the typical rush hour train commute and imagine that everyone who is in that train just stepped out of a sauna. It's not uncommon to be covered in someone else's sweat by the time you step off. Add to this the fact that Tokyo is still saving energy due to the Fukushima power plant incident. Kuriko's office shuts down the air conditioning after 5:00pm and on weekends (in fact, she's there right now and it's Saturday!).

The weekends are pretty good, though. If you can take the heat, summer is actually a pretty lively time to visit Tokyo. There are a lot of events, especially around Obon. People take advantage of open spaces like parks and you can sometimes catch markets or watch performances. If my wife wasn't at the office I would probably have taken her to the horse racing track. Come to think of it, we've got a nice breeze today. Makes me think why I'm blogging on a Saturday morning.

Alright, I'm out of here...