Weather

So far the weather here in Sagamihara and Machida has been pretty hot. At the house we have a TON of sliding doors and windows and screens and so on. We’ll take my window for instance. On the inside it has sliding shoji screens which are basically made up of rice paper attached to wooden frames. Then, behind the shoji screens, there’s a glass window which can also be slid open (sideways). Behind the window is a screen, just like in America, that can also be slid open. And, finally, behind the screen is a metal gate thing that, I’m guessing, is used for security purposes.

So, every morning I get up, fold up the various parts of the futon and put it in the closet. I get dressed, slap on some Gold Bond powder (because it is SOOOO hot) and then I go wash out my bite guard (because I grind my teeth while I sleep). Once I’ve said good morning to my “parents” I ask them if Haru-chan (my “sister”) is awake. If so, I go back to my room, open the shoji doors that connect me to the hallway and the storage room, unlock the glass door to the back garden, open it up, push aside the screen, and then unlock the metal gate and push it aside. It folds up like an accordion, but it’s kind of loud. I do the same thing for my window which has an oh-so-lovely view of the apartments just next door.

Basically we leave the metal gates, glass windows and doors, and shoji screens open all day to let the wind in, which is actually kind of nice. Of course, we leave the screens in place to keep the bugs out. But this is only in the back of the house. The front door is just like a western front door, always closed and locked. However, the back of the house is open pretty much all of the time unless nobody’s home or we’re all sleeping.

And of course Japan is really big on conserving water and electricity. So the air conditioning is rarely on. In fact, the only time I’ve ever felt air conditioning in the house is when we had guests over and they were preparing lunch for us. The university, however, doesn’t seem to use air conditioning. It’s so hot! In fact, it’s usually cooler outside than in the university. However the buses and trains usually have air conditioning.

Plus, when you’re taking a shower, you can’t just leave the water running like you do in America. You have to rinse yourself, turn off the water. Wash yourself with the soap, rinse yourself off, turn off the water. Wet your hair, turn off the water. Shampoo your hair, rinse it out, turn off the water. Condition your hair, rinse it out, turn off the water. I mean, it actually makes a lot of sense to do it that way, but it kind of feels like I’m camping or something.

And they also don’t have dryers here. They have washers, but no dryers. So when you do your laundry, you have to hang it outside when the weather is nice. Outside where everyone and their dog can see your underwear hanging out to dry in the sun. It’s actually rather embarrassing.


I also wanted to say thanks to everybody who's been reading this blog! And I really appreciate your comments! If you have any questions please feel free to leave a comment.