Officially it was 27 degrees - we are in a heat island of apartment buildings where 2 aircon per apartment is the norm - never mind how hot that makes it outside...
I looked for the simple fan that requires no assembly, bought when we had a mid summer visitor.
I couldn't find it. Finding it was this morning's priority....
The days are not so hot at the moment - 34 degrees or so - but the nights.....
I'm not the only one thinking it's hot yesterday, according to today's Japan Today 4 people died of heat stroke and 900 were hospitalised yesterday.
The advice to avoid heat stroke -
The Fire and Disaster Management Agency is urging people to drink plenty of water, increase their intake of salt, make sure their rooms are well ventilated and use air conditioning.
It's a perennial rant of mine, but why anyone needs to up salt intake in a country with soy sauce as a staple, and a strokes as one of the highest causes of death, is beyond me... Aircon! Great idea, crank up the aircon and the nuclear plants at the same time...
5 comments:
I'm going to do my best not to go on a rant here, but these constant newspaper stories about heatstroke and deaths … I don't geddit. Japan is not the only hot country in the world, though if you were to believe the media and complaining Tokyoites, it apparently is. Is heatstroke as common in Australia? Doesn't it get a heck of a lot hotter in Australia? Queensland is fairly horrendous?
My mother's family comes from the Northern Cape, where 40 degrees is regarded as normal. I can't recall anybody being rushed to hospital, despite a total lack of air con.
Anyway. Let me go toyi-toyi in today's heat, and see if I'm still as brave! ;) If I faint, just pour Salty Watermelon Pepsi down my throat. NB, salty. :p
PS: We're still not using air con at night. We're lucky: 11th floor, no surrounding buildings, windows on three sides. It ensures a nice breeze. Not sure for how much longer though.
Rant away. It boggles my mind. And aircon is effectively seen as a 'human right'....
I can:t say with much certainty about heatstroke numbers in Aus, but I can say with certainty it is not considered newsworthy material. Here it's rather like the death by mochi - a seasonal ritual that needs to be played out.
I'm willing to bet that Mr NHK and Mr TEPCO (I can say with full confidence that neither is a Ms) are drinking buddies.
I am all prepared with my waterbottle. It:s an area very light on convenience stores - they are inside the buildings which you need passes to enter... If need be I will tip out the water for orangina, but I can:t promise watermelon pepsi, salty or otherwise!
Living for 30 years in Saipan (tropical island) we rarely ever used the cooler during the day-the power bill would have killed us! We did use it at night thought-the dampness made it almost impossible to sleep and without sleep I'm really grumpy. I rarely use the cooler during the day here but there are times when I just can't stand the heat in the house. It gets to the point where my head feel like it will split open. Then I hibernate in the classroom for a bit and cool down. We do use the cooler to sleep at night. Our bedroom has absolutely no air flow and hot flashes on top of high heat would put me completely out. But most days the fan does me till the evening comes and we cool down. Although all throughout the day I'm a complete sweaty , sticky, smelly mess-hair plastered to my head...the whole bit.
I know, the advice for extra salt, people get too much salt in their diets already! I told Sam that I usually don't eat anything until late afternoon or so because I get too hot and he told me about the salt. Uh, it's not like I'm running a marathon.
I really struggle to understand the salt thing - it's like a bit like the Korean "fan death" phenomenon ...
Hiro is getting tired of sleeping in the heat - the temperature has increased a lot since a big building with lots of aircon was built in front of ours...
I will not succumb... but the idea of people blowing hot air to the outside to make themselves cool on the inside would have to be one of the most inane concepts ever...
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