1) In summer, what temperature feels too cold?
Full air conditioning is rare here, and natural conditions almost never make it cool down much. Evening during the rainy season might make me a bit chilly, simply because the air is soup and the temperature drops to about 65ºF.
Regular summer is suffocatingly hot, all the time, and the humidity is constantly around 60% or higher. Even at night, it rarely gets cooler than about 85ºF, which is still hot enough to make it uncomfortable for me to get to sleep, even though I sleep naked. I hate summer here. At least in my home state of California when it was 115ºF during the day it would drop to a more bearable 80 or so at night, with low humidity.
2) In summer, what do you set your thermostat to?
If I could, I’d keep it at about 75ºF or lower, but that’s not an option most of the time (see, 1) The only installed air conditioner is downstairs, and the main living area is upstairs, so I just have to put up with the heat most of the time. I’ll typically strip down to underwear as soon as I’m in the door, so I can get some relief from the +95ºF heat. Of course, the house is usually even hotter than that until I can open the windows and get some air moving in there. Have I mentioned that I hate summer in Japan?
3) In winter, what temperature feels too hot?
Anything above 65ºF will have me peeling layers down to a light long sleeve shirt or a t-shirt. Work and many public places crank up the heat to 11 in winter.
Swear to Og, I feel like beating people to death with the heater because they all like to set the damned things to 28ºC (82.4ºF) or higher. Trains are the worst, because the heaters are under the seats. Parboiled testicles, anyone? Between the overwork and over-heated crotches, no wonder the birth rate is low.
4) In winter, what is your thermostat set to?
Central heating is non-existent in Japan. My kerosine space heater at home is usually set to 18ºC (64.4ºF) but the actual air temperature is probably a bit lower in most of the room. My wife likes it at 19 or 20 (68ºF at the top end) which makes me warm enough to strip down to a t-shirt most of the time.
Housing here is shitty, so in your own house it’s usually only about 5ºC (9ºF) warmer than the ambient conditions until the heater gets the temperature in the room up, and you pretty much have to run the heater all the time to keep it warm. On particularly cold days, like a run of about -15ºC (5ºF) we had once or twice this year, the room loses heat fast enough that the heater is lucky to keep the temperature up to 17–18. I’ll temporarily crank it to about 20 myself on those days, but it’ll only be about 60ºF in most of the room.
5) In your area, which month starts getting too hot?
In April there’s usually a sudden change in temperatures toward the end of the month. One week is still long shirt and possibly sweater weather, next week you’re sweating in shorts and a t-shirt. It’s about 14ºC right now, so I’m still in long sleeves with a light jacket for outside.
6) In your area, which month starts getting too cold?
I like it relatively cold, so it starts getting comfortable again for me in October, and starts getting hot for me around the middle of May. If the outside temperature gets down to about -10ºC (14ºF) or lower, then I’ll feel pretty cold and bundle up a bit when I go out. That usually happens around the end of December, or early January.
I’ve never lived in really cold places, like Wisconsin or Saskatchewan. I’m sure my perspective on cold would change considerably if I had.
7) In spring and autumn, what temperature range determines when you put on a sweater or take it off?
Until I get adjusted, after the first couple of weeks of temperature changes, I’ll probably put on a sweater at around 60ºF. After I get into cold mode I’ll be comfortable in just a long sleeved shirt, assuming the wind isn’t blowing, until about the mid- to low-50s.
I’m usually still in short sleeves when everyone else is exclaiming samui! (It’s cold!) and wearing sweaters. There’s a lot of social pressure to dress like everyone else, and the dress code changes by date, not by actual temperature. I’ll hear variations on, “Aren’t you cold?” several times a day in spring and fall. I like being comfortable, so I put up with the comments, even though they annoy me.
