Job Discussion Forums

[nawlinsgurl]

About to head out to work and I need to vent before hand. I'm working in this 50 yr.old Buddhist kindergarten. They have NO a/c for like 250 kids. They have these measly fans, that the teachers rarely turn on--like they have to get permission from Buddha first. Meanwhile kids have their heads on the desks in pain, all their hair is matted down on their head and the room temp. says like 30-35 on the wall everyday. Why?????? I always have to turn on the fans, and open the doors and windows. Then I get looked at funny!!! I know the teachers are hot too--some kids even cry cause they are hot. We asked the Encho about a/c and he's always like "gambatte" with these ghetto wall fans!! Maybe old Japanese fighting spirit? Even parents complain. My direct boss is way cool and I love my job, but there has to be something done about the HEAT! It's only June and I still have a month and a half of super sweaty days!

[GreenEyes]

I`m in the same boat. The kids show up to my classes with sweaty hair, and my clothes stick to me. There`s plenty of natural light in the classroom I use, so I turned off the overheard lights to reduce that heat source. It seemed to help a bit. But then one of the teachers came in and turned the lights back on. I thought she thought she was doing me a favor, but noooo. I turned them off again. And she turned them on again. Is there a lights policy I don`t know about? It`s miserable teaching in a sweatbox.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

All you have to do is get your body used to being much hotter than it is in the classroom.

Take steam baths in the shower (turn the water up to 50degrees, and turn the water away from you so you don't get scalded). Be careful if you do this, if you are out of shape then it can be dangerous- heart rate increases a lot etc.

Get used to being in approximately the same heat, but exercizing while you're in it (many of the martial arts places connected with Buddhism don't have aircons and get by with a single tiny fan that does basically nothing). Buy some dumbells and start working out at home after work before opening windows or turning on the aircon.

Spend a couple of weeks in Thailand or someplace that is actually hot so Japan doesn't seem like such a big deal.



Or you could always somehow figure out a way to get huge blocks of ice into the classroom, and put them infront of the fans so that as they melt, the cool air gets fanned out (think 'homemade swamp cooler'). But if you're getting the evil eye from opening windows, then dragging huge blocks of ice is bound to be met with the cross armed X "BUUUUUUU!" X

[J.]

Most people I know want it as bright as possible in any room. Even when there is an abundance of natural light, which I prefer. It seems to be a cultural preference, so whenever possible I just play the turn them off/turn them on game. Don't comment unless someone confronts you. Just turn them off when no one's looking....many times.

The thing I can't get is why they can't afford air conditioning but CAN afford mega-lights.

You could tie a wet cloth around your neck. Helps a little for awhile. One thing my students do during the dog days is put an ice cube or two in a cloth and fold it over into a narrow band that they tie around their necks with the ice cube/s in back. Good for about half an hour of cool.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

[japanman]

You bunch of pansies. You live in a hot place, just get used to it. It's not that hot though. about 31/32 at the moment. If you had felt what it's like to be in 44/45 degress with no electricity or fresh running water then you know what hot is.

[GambateBingBangBOOM]

By the exact same standard, Canadians could call anybody who complains of the cold during winter (even though there isn't any insulation here so it actually is a low grade of cold pretty much everywhere) a bunch of pansies.

For example, a friend of mine stays in a tent for a week at a time when it is minus forty C (-40C), without more than a small camp fire at night (and he does it for fun!). Could you do that? If you tried and weren't used to that kind of cold (as in you are used to living inThailand or wherever), you could actually die in the middle of the night. Heat thins blood out- so if you are used to hot climates, then a Canadian winter is bad, bad bad. The reverse is also true. if you are used to Canada, then a hot country in summer is hot hot hot, and it makes you physically sick, because your blood is actually thicker.

ETA (yet again)

I used to teach immigrants in Canada. We had to teach them how to prepare for the winter because they wouldn't be prepared for it otherwise. It's easy to say "just look at how the people of the country do it, and follow that" but that doesn't always work. At 15degrees C Japanese people start breaking out the lightweight jackets and start "samui desu ne"ing all over the place. In Canada, I used to still be wearing shorts at 15 degrees C (but with long sleeves on top). If people arrive in Canada and are cold at 15degrees, when it gets to minus twenty they'll be freexing. Especially since Japanese parkas look almost the same as Canadian ones, but they are paper thin. Immigrants may not realize that the winter coat they brought from Japan is laughably lightweight in Canada and that they need to spend some serious cash to get anything that is going to keep them warm enough for them. The mid range winter clothes that most Canadians wear and are comfortable with won't keep an immigrant from a hot country comfortable because what Canadians cinsider comfortable and what other people consider comfortable are two very differnt things. You see the same in the arctic with the CDN military. People who've just shown up will be freexing in the heaviest coats they can get, but the inuit people that are teaching them acrtic desert survival are wearing a sweatshirt and a bomber jacket (like the cheap things you get at surplus stores) and are fine.

[TokyoLiz]

Nawlinsgurl, you're spoiled!

You come from the US where people think nothing of turning on the AC when it's hot, and putting the heat on when it's cold. We Canadians are just as spoiled, but out west, the climate doesn't require AC. We do use heating too much out west. Our climate is quite mild, but you'll see houses with huge forced air heating systems. Wasteful, I think.

Imagine, for thousands of years, people in Asia have lived without AC or fans and did just fine.

What Gambatte said! At my dojo last night, my Japanese friend and I were wearing the full uniform, pants, tshirt, and jacket, with no AC to relieve the heat. He said he's had thirty years to get used to the rainy season. I train all year round in the same uniform, hot or cold, in an unheated/no AC dojo.

I lived in Ehime, which has a longer summer season than Kanto, and no, none of my schools had either AC or fans. We did what Gambatte suggested - open the windows, close the curtains and keep the fluorescents on. The kids rolled up their sleeves and pant legs, or wore their PE tshirts. We all sweltered and grumbled and slowed the pace of the lessons.

Don't use your AC at home. Put up sudare bamboo blinds on all the windows, open the windows and put on the fan if you really need it. Go to onsen, use the sauna.

[Gordon]

One thing I do which helps, is take a cold shower (straight cold) just before bed.

[JimDunlop2]

Well, here's a story for you to help get through the hot days....

A Calgarian, driving up to Edmonton on Highway 2 got hit by a crazy Edmontonian driver, and as you might expect, ends up in hell.

No sooner did the Calgarian arrive in hell when he took his shirt off, put his sunglasses on and lay in the heat.

Now, old Nasty, Satan himself, was in his office and he watches this pantomime with interest through his two way mirror. Then he strides out and stands over the Calgarian.

�Hey, you.� Satan says.
�Yeah?� Says the Calgarian, looking up at him.
�Aren�t you too hot?�
�Naahh.� The Calgarian. �It's nice. After all those cold Alberta winters, this is a nice change! Now I�ve been told I can stop here for ever. I like it!�

�Right,� said Satan. He went back into his office and watched the Calgarian with care and then reached across and switched up the thermostat of hell twice as high. Everything went red, burned bleeding unbelieveably hot. And the Calgarian turned over on one side and settled down. And Satan went over to him again.

�Hey, you.�
�You again.� The Calgarian says, �What do you want?�
�You�re too hot, surely.�
�Nah. It's great! I like it hot. Better than home. I could put up with this for ever.�

So Satan went back into his office and grabbed the thermostat and switched it as high as it could go. Up on earth, volcanos erupted, rivers dried up and cities burnt to cinders due to the effect. And smiling, Satan peered at the Calgarian who was lay on his front with his head to one side and his cheek on his arms.

Satan strides out.
�Hey, you.�
�Oh it�s you again. Get lost, eh! I�m trying to get a tan here.�

Satan breathed fire a few times and went back into the office and gripped the thermostat and switched it down, right down.
The heat went off. The ice formed within seconds, cold and blue and getting into everything. Flames became icicles.
Satan peered out again and there was the Calgarian jumping up and down. Satan smiled then realized that he was happy, dancing for joy at something.

Satan walks out of his office only to see the Calgarian screaming at the top of his lungs,

"The Flames won the cup!!!!! The Flames won the cup!!!!!"

[Gordon]

[nawlinsgurl]

Thanks for making me feel a bit normal. I know I'm spoiled a bit, but I'm ok with that-Tokyoliz. The problem is I feel for the kids. The look miserable and I know that it is hard to learn when you are not comfortable. I have asked about opening the windows and using the fans, and pretty much gotten weird looks from all the teachers except a few. I know the kids are hot because of their hair and constant "Atsui"'s. As for the natural light idea, I tried it once and sure enough the teachr came in and did the same thing-turned them back on! I thought it would help but actually the only place I can seem to do that is in MY room, so maybe it comes down to a problem with changing the teacher's personal space?

[Gordon]

[Sherri]

Japan is the only country I have ever lived in where I actually dreaded the summer. The hot humid summer days in Tokyo where the temps would be in the mid 30s. Just going outside is like stepping into a huge outdoor sauna. I went my first 3 years with no air con, it was awful, it was just too hot to sleep.

My husband says that it didn't use to be so hot in Tokyo in the summer. When he was a kid the area west of Shinjuku up to and past Ogikubo was almost all rice fields and you could still be cool in the summer, not anymore.

I would not be able to teach in a non airconditioned classroom and I don't see the benefit of making students sweat it out.

[slowdive606]

I love being in Japan, the only thing I hate is the weather. Last year, I was hot from July to the end of October. It was 16 degrees when I left Scotland last July, and 33 when I arrived here. My students complain of being cold when the air conditioning is set at 23, while I would prefer it to be set at under 20. I remember one day last year when it was 40 degrees, and I was out with a Japanese friend. I was lashed in sweat, but she didn't have a bead on her. My bedroom is like a furnace at the moment, even though I have two large fans at either side of me. And I feel like crying whenever I am on my bike and I have to stop at a red light! As for the lights thing, the Japanese think that if a room is not lit to the max, then the person who owns that company or school is a tight ass. I suppose they have got used to everything being so bright, it doesn't feel normal for them to be in a naturally lit room.