Goodbye June, Hello July

Apparently this June was the hottest on record since the 60s. The months to come are getting similarly hot predictions. I'll be out of the country for most of August, but even September is shaping up to be torture. Ugh.

Along with the heat comes all the fabulous odor, constant damp state, extra strength viruses, mold, cockroaches and skin disease. Don't bother to try and console me with comments on how wonderful it must be for my skin. I learned better long ago.

The other seasons in Japan are so incredible, though, that I really shouldn't complain. To be honest, I have nothing to really complain about yet this season. I know full well that things will get much worse. We're just getting started. I am still able to wear my work clothes to work (they are 90% dry when I get there and 100% dry before class starts) and the air conditioning still has some effect in the classrooms and in our office. Muggy, hot days are mixed with less humid, breezy days and overcast muggy days with sporadic monsoon-esque water dumps.

Our first summer got to be incredibly miserable, with clothing completely soaked through within a few minutes of stepping outside and classrooms that were hotter than outdoors. All that year, people kept telling us that things had been much worse a few years before and we shouldn't complain.

I guess we're going to get a feel for what that's like after all.

If you don't approve of negative attitude, you may want to skip over my next few months of entries. Feel free to duck back in for August in the USA, though. Things will get back to normal (likely even extra positive) in October when things start to cool down again, too.