Monday, August 22, 2005

Room, Sweet Room

If I were to give this past weekend a title, perhaps I would choose "Rude Awakening."
You see, summer--especially August--in Tokyo is hotter than you-know-what. The temperature wouldn't necessarily tip you off; most days, it's mid-80s or low-90s (to speak in Fahrenheit; for those who speak Celcius, what I mean is low to mid 30s). But the humidity! Ack! It's disgusting! Nevertheless, lately I've been telling myself that Summer in Tokyo Isn't So Bad, and I'm Stronger Than I Thought 'Cause I Can Take This Heat.
There's the back story, and here's what happened: on Saturday night, there was a Dream Church function out in HK right next to Aogu's parents' place. So we cleverly planned to attend the function and then spend the night at their place, thus putting ourselves where we needed to be Sunday morning without all the train time.
Around 10, Koji was beside himself with exhaustion, so we checked out of the party and made our way to the parents'. With one thing and another, we finally made it to bed around 11. Aogu was still watching TV but Koji and I shut ourselves into the room with a fan. Then we started to heat up.
We simmered for awhile, until Koji finally went to sleep around midnight. I think I was almost somewhere near slumber at that point, but then Aogu came in and I had to start the process over. I couldn't decide if it was better to have the fan blowing on my head (and thus blasting my hair into my face, who knows what planet I was on when I left the safety of my home with nary a band to restrain my locks?!) or on my ankles. But I tried both positions, just in case.
So I was still wide awake at 3 a.m. when things came to a full boil. That's when Koji realized exactly how bleeping HOT it was in the oven we had created for ourselves and woke up screaming for milk. By the time we were able to process his "request," everyone in the place was awake. Matters were slightly improved by the opening of a couple of doors and the addition of one extra fan. But not much. I was honestly as sweaty--or more--than I would be after working out.
Friends, this is when I had to face the music. I am most certainly NOT "Stronger Than I Thought 'Cause I Can Take This Heat". No. Rather, I have become pleasantly used to living in this room where frigid air gushes out of the vent overhead at our whim, and we aren't charged extra no matter how much we rachet down the temp. We've got our own separate biosphere going here in the room, except it's much more artificial.
The conclusion of the epiphany was this: must get back to The Room ASAP! That's how 6 a.m. found Koji (who never did go back to sleep after imbibing his fill at the 3 a.m. Fountain of Moo Juice) and me: en route to HERE, riding our way back with all the speed of an early morning stops-at-every-station train.
It's good to be back. Maybe I won't leave again until mid-September? Let me know when the sauna's turned off, you know where to find me!

3 comments:

Jane said...

Wow, I can remember now just how the humidity can catch one unaware or mentally unprepared or something. Glad you made it back to the room. AC for which you aren't charged "extra" is a BLESSING! What a story. :-) Not fun to live, but fun to tell.

Stephanie Fosnight Regester said...

It's been really bad here. Really really bad, though today it's freakishly cool. And the grass is finally greening again after we've had some rain. Finally. If you didn't here, IL experienced the worst drought on record this summer. It was MISERABLE. And somehow, even with the drought and brown grass and dying trees and quiet birds, there was still unbearable humidity most days.

Stephanie Fosnight Regester said...

(hear, not here)