Good day ya'll, Hope you all having a wonderful day!
It's 7am here and damn it's HOT!. No I ain't overreacting though. Coz IT IZZZ!!
I come from a tropical country but DAYMN it's hotter here, not that kind of hot were you can just use a fan when you are sweating and you cool down kind of hot, Oh no ser!, I mean the type of you ain't sweating too much and you use a fan but the air still hot type of HOT. And that shit worse ma friend.
On this blog let me introduce Japan's summer, ooh yes! The 2nd most hated season here in Japan. Yup only second coz on Spring people be getting allergies and stuff so, spring's the most hated.
But ooh man, can't wait to tell you guys about summer, well it's not all bad, there's are a lot of perks as well. Now let's dive into it.
Summer in Japan has an average temperature of 23°C - 33°C. Well you might think, well... "That ain't so bad"..., Yup that actually doesn't sound so bad, coz back in my home town it's like almost 22°C - 35°C - whole year. Don't get me wrong it depends on the place though, like if you live in Hokkaido then you won't feel the summer heat that much, but if you live on the middle all the way down south of Japan, then things tend to get a bit extreme. I tend to describe the heat as INESCAPABLE.
Let me try to explain it on my own words.
Imagine you sweating because of the heat of the sun and then you thirsty af, you think to yourself "man I gotta get some shade", so you bought a cold beverage, find a shade, preferably a tree, you sit there, take out your phone, drink your beverage and the wind comes, you all good. Ah ha! But that ain't the case here. Even if it's not that hot, it's soo humid that even if you ain't sweating that much it feels hot af! So let's have the same situation but in Japan's summer. You sweating, then you went to a store, get a cold drink then find a nice tree to take shade and rest.
When you sat there you feel that things didn't get any cooler. Because first of all the wind that is blowing is hot, you will feel like even when you are in a shade a heater is blowing hot air, and with the humidity it's harder for your sweat to evaporate so you will feel gritty all the way, that's how Japan Summer do.
Summer here is considered dangerous to old folks or people who has weak tolerance with heat. A lot of people die from heatstroke and stuff. So everyday you will see on the news body counts of people that died coz of the heat. But don't worry too much most of the people that dies have a weak tolerance with heat, so if you healthy, you got nothin to worry about.
Also in summer, the days tend to get a bit longer, on the peak of summer you will find it's already 8:00pm but the sun just started setting and on 4:00am it's already starting to get bright.
So bad news for ya'll who likes long sleep. 😅
But that's my two cents for Japan's summer, like I said, it varies on the place, so people from other places doesn't experience my summer here, other people may have tougher or easier experience when it comes to summer. But it ain't all bad though. There are good things also that comes out only in summer.
Some food only comes when it's summer and it's amazing. One of the most common food that comes out when it's summer is 冷麵(reimen) or literally translates to "cold noodles", Yup, complete with COLD SOUP! WTF cold soup?!,,, yes! I know, I know, it sounds a bit weird to some people but hear me out. It is absolutely "FIRE"! "FUEGO!" -no pun intended. because we talkin about summer and heat and stuff,... Well anyway...
On my country we tend to associate a noodle dish with soup, as a hearty food, that will make you warm up on the inside. So it was a bit weird for me also when I first tried one.
(A cold noodle from a local ramen shop near my place)
As you can see, it doesn't look too different from regular ramen. This is a normal one, some shops actually put ice on their ramen to make it even colder, it sounds weird but the taste is AMAZING! I'm not even exaggerating, for me that's the best food you can try during summer in Japan. There are also a variety of 冷麵reimen, on the picture that's a normal cold ramen, you can get also cold soba, cold udon, cold tsukemen(dip noodles), and you can get these stuff only in summer, so if you want to try it, come to Japan during the summer. It's a good experience. But I doubt people would come just for that so we need to make things more interesting. Moving on.
(kamikouchi, Nagano Japan)
Aaah yes, now we talkin, Japan has a lot of beautiful landscapes. It's a very mountainous country, so it's not rare that you can find a lot of nice mountains here.
Now you think to yourself "wouldn't be nice if I can go hiking there...", But the weather is ridiculously cold and it can be dangerous, so you change your mind.
And don't be bull shiting me by saying "Oh.. but I'm physically fit, I can take it", trust me! If you don't have experience hiking on a really cold mountain, then you need to take a seat and listen when I say, "IT IS RIDICULOUSLY HARD!", Especially if you goin on winter, might as well hang yourself from a tree, that would be faster, saves time and effort as well. 😊
Now going back, if you are in summer then you don't have much of a problem when you decide to go hiking, because then it won't be too cold. And a lot of mountain hiking packages are also open for tourists during summer, but that's a bit expensive so I recommend DIY, but be careful.
When hiking in summer you are bound to see more rather when hiking during cold seasons. flowers, animals, all them nature ish stuff.
(kamikouchi, Nagano Japan)
(kamikouchi, Nagano Japan, disclaimer: this certain photo not mine, asked permission from a friend to post this )
If you watch anime, to some point you've seen festival scenes, You know were the main protagonist has a double date with his bestfriends, with women that will obviously will end up with them. I am glad to tell you that those vibes are real af.
In summer we here have a thing called fireworks festival, and you can experience it all over Japan, because a lot of cities celebrate it.
Festivals in general is based on the place, there are some festivals that only exist in some certain places, but a lot of cities celebrate the 花火祭り(hanabimatsuri) fireworks festival.
On festivals in general a lot of people wear Kimonos, same goes for fireworks festival. It's a magical experience so I recommend experiencing it at least once. But big cities tend to be very crowded, for example on 2019 I went to Osaka fireworks festival, and man! There was soo many people it took an hour just to get out of the venue, so now I go to the fireworks festivals of not soo crowded cities, I mean it's just me, I don't like crowded places. But you do you, whichever you prefer, fireworks festival in big cities tend to be grander but again the crowd, so if you up to it, be my guest.
(A picture I took at a fireworks festival a few years back, Osaka, Japan)
(people on the way to the firework show)
PS: Sorry I don't have any pictures of the festival itself, I don't really take too much picture. I only started taking a lot since I started blogging.
Yow, straight up, if you didn't come to party at the beach, then I reckon you don't go. What can I say? There's not much to say really, unless you're in Okinawa or at the tropical side of Japan. You won't find the relaxing vacation beach vibe in mainland Japan.
Beaches here you won't find much. Hey don't blame me, I live in a tropical country so I have high standards when it comes to oceans and things. But you can give it a try if you want to party.
But for me "meeeh".., but seriously, who the heck comes to mainland Japan for the beach right? You must be a psychopath if you ever thought of that.
(Suma,Hyogo Prefecture, Japan) Typical beach in mainland Japan
Well this is far as I go, thank you for reading ya'll, once I get more pictures I will try to update this. Sorry for taking much of your time. Hope you enjoyed it 😄
And please look forward to future blogs. This is cookie singing off!
