Empty Blog

I am trying to think of something to write about but the incessant, stifling heat we are suffering through, but nothing comes to my basted mind. We are enduring a rice strewn version of Dante's 'Inferno'. Last week, despite the calendar telling us that Autumn had arrived, we had three days in a row of plus 30 degree temperatures (for my American readership - Hello, Ben - that corresponds to 450 Kelvin). If the mercury dips below 25 degrees (398 Kelvin), we regard it as a 'cool' day, and dress accordingly - fleeces, down jackets and electric blankets.

For the three months of summer just gone by, 2010 has broken all sorts of records-since-records-began: hottest summer, highest average nighttime temperature, hottest day, number of days above 30 degrees, hours of sunshine, sustained humidity levels, largest number of whiny, woe-is-me blogs about the subject.

Now all this is taking place in Hokkaido, more famous for its harsh winters, than its sub tropical summers. Everything up here is designed for the cold, our house included - radiators everywhere, lashings of insulation, triple glazing on the window, thick, coarse, heat retaining chest hair (that is now, much to my horror, spreading over my shoulders and down my back - photos to follow) and a distinct lack of air conditioning.

So we sweat, molder, drink gallons of mint juleps and consider chopping down all the fir trees and growing cotton instead.