How hot is it this summer?

The average temperature for August was more than 2 degrees C above average.

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20100831a6.html

No sign of cooling. Oddly, though, the air has been unusually clear, with Jupiter's four largest moons easily spotted with my binoculars every night for the past week. (Partly because the only rain has been during the day.)

The newspapers have been giving more space to the summer heat lately. My wife tells me she heard that air conditioner sales are double what they were last year (which had a cooler than usual summer). Here's the latest on hospital visits:

http://www.japantoday.com/category/national/view/nearly-47000-hospitalized-due-to-heatstroke-since-late-may

How many centurnarians are there in Japan?

It turns out there may be far fewer than most people think. A case came to light a few weeks ago of a centurnarian who was cashing pension checks who wasn't actually technically speaking alive. This prompted local governments to check, since the way residence certificates are maintained in Japan, it's possible for a person to die without their official city of residence being notified, if they have moved, perhaps into a retirement home or convalescent hospital in a different city, without anyone notifying the first city.

The city of Osaka has just finished an audit and found, " residence registries have been retained for 5,125 people who would be 120 years or older if they were alive, including a man who was born in 1857," according to this article in the Japan Times.

Update September 9: 230,000 centenarians may be already deceased, according to this article.

How can you eat a cookie with a fork?

The first Tokushima Starbucks opened a few months ago at Tokushima Station. I finally went today. I had cold cocoa and a largish Chocolate Chunk Cookie. They served the cookie with a fork.

Why?

How hot is it this year?

So hot, there's now a -5 degrees Celcius Ice Bar Tokyo.

How hot is it this year?

The newspapers are reporting that over 30,000 people have been taken to hospitals this summer for heatstroke. Of course, that's certainly not true. But I guess over 30,000 people have been taken to hospitals for heat exhaustion or worse (There are half a dozen different kinds of heat illness -- heat stroke is the most serious).

When I came to live in Japan, there was still a belief that it was bad to drink liquids during exercise in hot weather. In particular, student athletes were warned of the dangers of drinking during hot weather exercise. That belief has faded. But there's still a strong prejudice against being comfortable, especially if that involves the use of electricity. Not only air conditioning -- I've had several people tell me they think it's dangerous to sleep with a fan on your body. For me, this summer, the choice is to sleep with the air conditioner on or not sleep at all.

Awa Odori 2010 -- In Kamojima

Other towns in Tokushima stage Awa Odori dances. This one is in Kamojima, my wife's home town. The dancing is confined to the main street leading south from the train station.

Awa Odori -- festive food

Awa Odori is one of the biggest summer festivals in Japan and, according to Alex Kerr, the most traditional of the big ones. As long as you stay away from the sajiki, the grandstand areas where dance teams perform under bright lights, you can still feel the majic that Wenceslas deMoraes described when he was (I think) the only foreigner living in Tokushima a century ago. The food is pretty traditional, too, if you ignore the cotton candy, candied apples, crepes, hot dogs, and Zima.

Raw ham

Something with cheese in the background.
Do you get the feeling this place (Sushiro) is big on non-traditional sushi?

Hotate mayo sushi

Scallops and cheese. Ugh!

Cold lunch

Room temperature takikomi gohan (rice cooked with bits of vegetables and chicken) and cold udon with fresh cherry tomatoes and grilled eggplant. Yum!

Soba appetizer

My daughter and I went to an udon and soba restaurant for lunch one day and got served this little basket of fried, salted soba (buckwheat) noodles as an appetizer. Pretty good, though it cried out for beer.

Salmon sushi with melted cheese on top

Cake sushi?

Just one of the dessert selections.

Corn sushi (gunkan style, with mayo)

Another cold lunch

Yamamomo

ヤマモモ aka 山桃 which means mountain peach, though the usual
English name is Japanese bayberry (Myrica rubra). In season in July.

Pop-Tarts Sushi

From the Christian Science Monitor