How Hot and Wet Do You Like It?

Very hot, and very wet. Summer, that is. This is the first time I've spent an entire summer in Japan in ages and it was so hot that I've had to rethink my favourite season. It's always been summer, I love the heat and the lushness of summer greenery and not having to wear socks and eating fresh summer fruit and going to the beach and of that stuff. But I'm starting to not love weeks and weeks of temperatures that relentlessly stay above 30C.

The hottest temperature I experienced this summer, 38.8C during a visit to Osaka, is not the hottest temperature I have I have ever experienced: that would be 47C somewhere in the desert on the drive from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, a few days after I got married. But- don't roll your eyes, it's true- that was a dry heat. When the temperature is in the mid-30's and the humidity is at 90%, you start to not like summer so much any more. This wasn't even my hottest summer- 2010, when I was at the end of my pregnancy, was worse. I think it's on record as the hottest summer recorded in Tokyo, ever. Yet this time around it's much harder. Not that lugging around an extra thirteen kilograms of weight in record-breakingly hot weather was easy, but with the baby still inside me I didn't have to do much to keep it entertained. This time around, the baby was now a very active toddler, incapable of staying at home all day with the air conditioning on. This active toddler wanted to go out.

Thank god for splash pools. Thank god specifically for the one that is open from the beginning of May till the end of September, an unusually long period for Tokyo. We have a splash pool right across the street (and another just up the street) but it's only open during official school holidays, for about 6 or 7 weeks in July and August. So despite the fact that it's a 1 minute walk away, we only actually went there a few times this year. We went to the May-to-September splash pool, a 20-minute bike ride away, much more often. Just yesterday, in fact. Because the heat of summer doesn't confine itself to school holidays.

Shuma, of course, loves getting wet, and I know most little kids do, but he loves it with a zeal that I rarely see in other kids. He just goes nuts in the water. And he is not picky about temperature. The first time we went this year, in early May, he stayed in the water until he shivered, and then he stayed until his entire body was cold to the touch, and then he stayed until his lips turned blue. I kept asking if he wanted to get out and warm up and he kept saying no, and I am not a worrying, helicoptery type of parent so I decided to let him have his fun. A little drop in body temperature wouldn't kill him, right? But there is a point at which the distinction between relaxed parenting and wilfull neglect disappears, and that point is when your two year old's lips turn blue after three hours in ice-cold water on a warmish spring day, so I got him out of there. And I had to drag him out kicking and screaming. He loves the water that much.

And I love it too. Many of the mothers huddle under trees and/or their parasols, with their sun hats and long-sleeved UV protection hoodies and shorts over stirrup pants, watching their kids from afar while complaining how hot it is. I am not one of those mothers. There really is no better way to cool down on a scorchingly hot day than sitting on the side of a kiddie pool with your feet in the water, watching your child go berserk in the fountains.

So I survived the summer, and thanks to splash pools and a water-loving little boy (OK, and air conditioning) I am not quite ready to declare spring or autumn my favourite season. Just don't expect me to stay in Japan for the entire summer next year.

Aobadai Koen, May 10th.

Hikarigaoka Koen, with friend Leo on June 7th.

July 19th, Aobadai Koen.

Oizumi Chuo Koen main pool, July 22nd.

Oizumi Chuo Koen main pool, July 27th.

Oizumi Chuo Koen second pool, August 5th.

Aobadai Koen, September 14th.

Comments

[jennifer]

So happy you are posting again! And so grateful I don't have to endure summer in Japan! ;)

I had to comment -- a set-up with water flowing down a set of stairs seems like its a recipe for disaster!! I wonder if there are many accidents? Or am I just seeing things through litigious American lenses? lol!

[Amy]

Jennifer, one of the things I kind of like about Japan is the relative lack of the hyper-safe mindset currently prevalent in North America (which results in playgrounds being deemed "unsafe" and taken down, never to be replaced, or Kinder Eggs being banned as choking hazards). But you're right, a fountain flowing down steps is a shockingly unsafe design.

It gets worse: the steps are in a square pattern so each level has four sharp corners sticking out. I don't have a picture that shows it well but you can kind of see one of the corners here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bluelotus/9756183295/

And the steps are slippery as hell. Shuma loves them, of course. He learned to crawl up stairs on them actually :)

[joeinvegas]

Did you take him to the ocean at all? I can see him running in the waves and playing in the sand.

[Amy]

The beaches near Tokyo are awful, but we did take him to a beach south of here for a weekend trip. And to Jamaica in the winter. He loved the waves and the sand!