As a companion piece to the Quebec heat wave thread, Japan has recorded a record-breaking high of 41.1 degrees yesterday (106 Fahrenheit). Thousands of people have gone to hospitals and 77 people have died. I understand it was stiflingly humid, even raining, at the same time.
Are onsens in Japan only hot? Or can you go somewhere and sit in a cool onsen all day long?
Onsen means hot springs. There are lots of lakes and rivers, not to mention beaches. But people are working and mostly can’t go to those places. Air conditioning is fairly widely available, although it may be set to 78 degrees or more to conserve electricity.
I have in-laws there, including an 89-year-old SIL, although they mostly live on the Sagami Bay coast southwest of Yokohama, so I expect it’s a small amount cooler there. They seem to be doing OK so far.
That temperature in the OP was recorded in Saitama, which is an inland flatland city north of Tokyo and so pretty far away from any cooling breezes.
Scrolling down the MPSIMS page, I see that Quebec also has a problem with heat-related deaths this year.
You could book a vacation in Australia.
Sorry for the sweltering Japanese. Here in central Ohio we’ve gone from having an unseasonably warm and wet spring to a cooler-than-normal and soaking summer. Someone needs to turn off the faucet.
The high temperatures here lately are bad enough, but the high humidity is what makes it very uncomfortable. And then, working in Central Tokyo, we also have the Urban Heat Island effect.
Besides, the Japanese way to deal with heat is to soak in a really hot bath and work up a good sweat. Then sit in front of a fan and drink some ice cold milk.
Although most big public bath & onsen facilities have at least one cold bath.
How does that work physically? Seems like a recipe for hyperthermia, very quickly. Hot air + hot bathwater = no way for your body to cool down and you’re going to go from 98 to 99 to 100… F really quickly. And even if you work up a big sweat, you’re simply cooling down back to the default temp you were at before before you went in the hot bath. One could just pour cold water over oneself then immediately get to the fan and beverage to shortcut the process.
Unless I’m really overestimating the time they spend in the hot bath before they go to the fan and cold milk.