Job Discussion Forums

[Ai]

This is my first summer in the Tokyo area. The humidity is killing me already and I know it's just going to get worse.

Anyway, yesterday I was shopping yesterday and to my dismay neither the shopping center I was in nor the coffee shop I ate at were air conditioned. Is this normal? When are they going to turn on the AC?

[Apsara]

I would be very surprised if the places you had been weren't air-conditioned at all. It just depends on where you go- some places have the temps down quite low already, some may be following "Cool-Biz" and trying to save energy by not turning the temp down too much- Tokyo's overuse of AC actually contributes to the "heat island effect" and in the end makes the city hotter, so there has been a government campaign for the last couple of years.

However, by Tokyo summer standards it's still pretty cool. If you think today was hot and humid, in another month's time it will be 5-7 degrees hotter and even more humid- better to let your body acclimatise to it a bit than spend too much time in air-conditioning- we haven't used our air-con in our apartment at all yet.

I find it takes me a couple of weeks to get used to the humidity, but by about mid-July I don't mind sweating so much.