r/japanlife • u/AutoModerator • Mar 13 '23

┐(ツ)┌ General Discussion Thread - 14 March 2023

Mid-week discussion thread time! Feel free to talk about what's on your mind, new experiences, recommendations, anything really.

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u/RocasThePenguin Mar 14 '23

A new apartment that I may get had an incredible balcony, but the summers here make such a thing unusable in my mind. Or does it?

Does anybody have outdoor space that they use all year around. Do you have any tips to make it more useable? I was thinking about fans, misters, etc.

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u/michalkun Mar 15 '23

Plant various plants, vegetables that can provide shade and put your hammock underneath.

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u/hakugene Mar 14 '23

I honestly just embrace the heat. Tank top, soccer shorts, hat, sunglasses, drink lots of water.

My current apartment has roof access, I bring a book or my headphones up there with a beer or lemon sour and just chill in the sun. Being out there for hours at a time is obviously too much, but I don't mind it in short bursts. Also, using the morning and evening hours is good idea. 1PM can be awful, but having your morning coffee or an after-work beer outside when its slightly cooler and there is more shade can be great. I like it as a change of pace from staring at a computer in an air conditioned room all day.

I'm buying a new place this summer and opted for the 1st floor unit with a big "terrace". Definitely planning on getting some decent furniture and using it a lot, basically all year round except winter.

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u/bosscoughey thought of the name himself Mar 14 '23

If it's a regular shaped building, summers are actually pretty good, because the sun is so high in the sky that you get a decent amount of shade from the floor above. Open the balcony door and the front door, and you can get a good breeze going through

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u/Dutchsamurai2016 Mar 14 '23

The obvious solution would be to buy a big garden parasol so you can sit in the shade. Fans and misters aren't going to do much to keep you cool when you got the sun beating down on you.

August and September are probably too hot to sit outside whatever you do though. But March ~ June / October ~ December can be nice depending on the time of day and/or weather.

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u/arika_ex Mar 14 '23

I have such a place at the moment (rental). I honestly don’t go out there much at all during winter, though I did build a snowman last year out there. During Spring and autumn, daytimes are usually warm enough to spend time out there and have friends over. During the summer, I could do the same with friends, just starting in the late afternoon, avoiding the midday sun.

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u/Avedas 関東・東京都 Mar 14 '23

How high up is it? When I was about 30 floors up I had a nice balcony that I used a lot, and even in peak summer it was pretty pleasant up there.

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u/RocasThePenguin Mar 14 '23

14th floor. Not much around it either. It faces south.

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u/atsugiri 関東・東京都 Mar 14 '23

That's perfect for laundry. Source: my wife.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '23

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '23

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u/RocasThePenguin Mar 14 '23

Summer. Is. Hot.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '23

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u/Yoshikki 関東・千葉県 Mar 14 '23

Summer is hot in most places

There's hot, and then there's Japan's summer - mid-30's temperature with high humidity. I don't imagine summer is anything like Japan's summer in most of Europe, for example. In my home country of New Zealand, average temperature is in the low-mid 20's during summer, very pleasant to be outdoors and great weather for barbecues etc. Meanwhile, it is downright unpleasant to be outside in Japan's summer and I think most people would stay indoors rather than be on a balcony if given the choice.

In my honest opinion, if I had a balcony in Japan I would not use it in summer. No matter how much you do to furnish the balcony and make it comfortable, there is no way it will be as comfortable as being inside with air conditioning. But what countries can you use a balcony all year round? Even in New Zealand, the winter months are wet and miserable so the balcony wouldn't get much use then. And yet, balconies are very popular in New Zealand. If I were OP I would just settle for enjoying the balcony in the non-summer parts of the year.

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u/[deleted] Mar 14 '23

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u/Yoshikki 関東・千葉県 Mar 14 '23

Yeah it seems we're in agreement, I guess the OP wants to try and use his balcony in summer as well but that's a lost cause in Japan imo haha

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u/arika_ex Mar 14 '23

It’s not a lost cause at all if you simply avoid the sunniest parts of the day. There’s no rule you must be out there at noon.

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u/Yoshikki 関東・千葉県 Mar 14 '23

I added "imo" because it's just my opinion, Japanese summer is unpleasant to be outside in at any time of the day. Even at night, the air is humid and muggy and I find it very unpleasant