A hot and humid Tokyo summer…
Mushiatsui desu ne! It is muggy! This is our first full summer in hot and humid Tokyo. Coming from the Pacific NW where summers are the best- warm temperatures and low humidity; Tokyo is the stark opposite. Feels like the east coast in mid July!
As I walk around the city, dying of heat and sweating profusely, I look around and notice that the ladies around Tokyo look fine. Their hair and makeup look perfect, dressed nicely, some even wearing long sleeves and pants to cover up, and they don’t seem to sweat! Me, on the other hand, looked like I just went for 3 mile run. A friend in Tokyo mentioned this fun fact: if you grow up in cold areas, you do not develop many sweat pores, thus not able to sweat as much to cool your body down. This makes sense, I grew up in Hawaii and that explains why I must have a lot of productive sweat glands and perspire when it is hot and humid!
When you shop in any drug store around the city, you’ll notice a lot of essential cooling aids. Here are couple of items I decided to try. The neck cooling collar. This totally works. It comes with a slim ice pack that you freeze and slide into a neck collar. (Nike friends, sort of like the Nike ice vest for the Athen’s Olympic athletes). Cooling gel strips for your body caught my attention. The package shows a child with fever. With google translate, it said you can use it to cool your body after workouts or anywhere you want to cool for up to 10 hours. The strip has a gel/slimy consistency and they work like bandaids-sticking to your body. At first it definitely feels cool and soon begins to warm to room temperature. Removing and replacing the strips seems to make it feel cool again. It has a peppermint smell and makes your skin tingle like a minty coolness.
We went to this lovely Kakigori or Shave Ice place, recommended by my friend. It is not your typical shave ice from Hawaii, but it definitely was delicious. They have very creative flavors: Creme Brulee, Mango cake, pistachio with white chocolate, strawberry mousse, etc. We watched the Creme Brulee get a sugar coating before getting toasted with a torch to make the crust. Yummmmm!
Over a Japanese holiday weekend, we decided to escape the hot weather and head to visit Fuji-san (Mt. Fuji). It is about an hour and a half drive without traffic to Lake Kawaguchiko. We decided to visit the Mt Fuji Panoramic View Ropeway. It was cloudy when we arrived, but a lovely ride up the the viewpoint. Once up top we were able to see a glimpse of Fuji-san. We want to return on a sunny day to take in Fuji-san’s majestic views. Lake Kawaguchiko was just as lovely from above. Maybe next summer we can hike Mt. Fuji? Anyone want to join? We will see…
We decided to visit Chiba, a neighboring prefecture to Tokyo. Narita Airport and Tokyo Disneyland are in Chiba. However, we wanted to visit the southern part of Chiba and take the Aqualine from Kawasaki to Chiba. The Aqualine is an amazing 9 km underwater tunnel and 4 km bridge connecting Kawasaki (Kanagawa prefecture) and Kisarazu (Chiba prefecture). Once you come out of the tunnel, about 2/3 across Tokyo Bay, there is a rest stop on the bridge! They designed the rest stop to look like a cruise ship, it has 5 deck levels filled with restaurants, food court, shopping area, arcade, theater, restrooms and places to relax and recharge. We needed to make a pit stop, but next time I think we will plan our trip to stay a while and enjoy.
While in Chiba, we decided to visit the site for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Surfing competition. There were many surfers catching waves that day. From what we saw, Chiba is a great place for beaches. We drove down the coastline of the Pacific Ocean, we passed so many cute beach/ surf towns. We ended to stopping to visit Kamogawa SeaWorld. It was beautiful and so different than in San Diego. The venue was very open, right along the ocean and felt more natural. It combined beluga whales, killer whales, dolphin shows with a beautiful exhibits to learn about sea life around Japan.
Right now as we are still dealing with COVID cases in Tokyo, we are staying home, doing a few day trips, wearing face masks, and social distancing. Tomorrow is August and I cannot believe that school will be starting soon for both boys. ASIJ starts in late August and planning to open with a hybrid model. NYU Shanghai starts in mid September and is looking to start in person, more to come soon from the university. While we are unable to travel to visit family and friends back in the Pacific NW or Hawaii, we do hope you are all doing well through this surreal time. We are enjoying some exploring within Japan while still being safe and respecting the non essential travel orders. Please stay safe and healthy and I look forward to seeing you once borders open and traveling resume. Enjoy the rest of your summer!