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Is it me or have the last couple summers been much worse than usual?
https://www.wun… It feels like it has legitimately been ten degrees warmer than usual, even the lows have been in the 80s. It's worse than Central Florida where I'm originally from the past few years.
https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/jp/tokyo/RJTT/date/2020-7
https://www.wunderground.com/history/monthly/jp/tokyo/RJTT/date/2019-7
This is more in line with what I remember summers being usually an average day more like high 80s with lows in the 70s, with occasional heat waves.
What gives? Is El Nino somehow still in effect? Global warming? Bah. Used to be outside all day but man it's been ass lately
Been here 12 years and the shift I notice most is when the heat starts, not just how hot it gets. Back in like 2015 you could count on June being genuinely mild, low 70s most days, rainy season doing its thing. Now mid June already feels like August and the koushinetsu high parks itself over Kanto way earlier. My electric bill went from maybe 8k yen in summer to 15k+ running the AC at night just to sleep.
Also nobody talks about how the cicadas start screaming earlier too, which sounds dumb but it's a real marker. Used to be mid July, now they're going full volume by late June.
If you want a cheap escape that isnt Karuizawa prices, look at the Seibu line up to Chichibu or even Nagatoro. About 100 min from Ikebukuro, runs 4 or 5 degrees cooler, and you can actually sit outside past 10am.
The overnight lows are the part that gets people. Tokyo's minimums in July and August now often sit around 26 or 27 C, and when the concrete never drops below 25 the body gets no recovery window, which is why it feels worse than Florida even when the daytime highs look similar. Florida at least gets that afternoon thunderstorm to knock things down; Tokyo's rainy season wraps up in mid July and then you're just marinating. If you want a practical escape, the Chichibu and Okutama valleys run a few degrees cooler and are about 90 minutes out on the Chuo or Seibu lines, and places like Karuizawa at 1000m are genuinely pleasant in August.
Humidity is the missing variable in those wunderground tables. The daytime highs look similar to Florida on paper, but Tokyo's wet-bulb temps in July and August climb past 27 or 28 C, and that's the number your body actually feels. Florida gets a seabreeze and afternoon convection, Tokyo gets a Pacific high parked overhead with nothing to break it up.
For what it's worth, the 2020 summer you linked was relatively mild because the rainy season ran long into late July. 2022 and 2023 were the genuinely bad ones, and 2024 was no picnic either. If you're picking a window to be outside, early morning before 8am around Yoyogi or the Imperial Palace loop is the only stretch that's tolerable in August, and even then you're soaked by the end.
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Where can I find crispy, pan-fried bacon similar to a certain international style?
if u have a costco membership the kirkland thick cut is the move, 4 packs of 500g for around 2500 yen and it crisps up proper in a cold pan. for smaller runs, precce in azabudai hills & the basement at isetan shinjuku both carry imported US & danish brands in the chilled case, just read the label for "thick cut" or "smoked" and not "loin". also worth knowing japanese bacon is often wet-cured so pat it dry before frying or it steams instead of crisping
kaldi coffee farm is hit or miss but their smoked bacon from denmark shows up pretty regular, the 200g pack runs about 600 yen. what actually works better for me is asking the butcher counter at peacock or life to slice the block bacon thick, like 5mm, they do it for free and it crisps way better than the pre-packed stuff. also fwiw cheap bacon crisps faster, the fatty supermarket kind at 300 yen a pack works fine if u cook it from cold in a dry pan and pour off the fat as it renders.
tbh the gyomu super store brand bacon is surprisingly decent for crisping up, its not thick cut but if you cook it low and slow it gets pretty crunchy. the key is the dry cure vs wet cure thing, wet cure steams. also check hanamasa if you have one nearby, they sell big packs of american style bacon thats actually smoked and firm.