Whenever people ask us when the best time of year to come to Japan is we always tell them anytime
but the summer. It is a raging inferno here,
but we understand that some of you only have your vacations during in the summertime.
And so this is a time of year that you will be coming to Japan. May God have mercy on your soul.
All right, all right, so I know it sounds like it's really bad and I admit it is very hot,
but luckily Japan has a lot of things they do to make the summertime bearable.
So today we're at Tokyo Midtown and we're gonna give you some hot tips about how to stay cool in Japan.
You like that? Very clever intro. - Jury's still out on that.
I didn't fully agree - Was it the big corny? Ahh - It was pretty
Theres a little poll right there with the corny. Yes or no?
Let's get on with the rest of this list.
-Get them quick and cool and with it. Trust in me. I have two different earrings
All right, hot tip, cool tip Simon tried to do that but he was incapable of doing it gonna try it
Hot tip, cool tip.
-Hot tip, cool tip.
See? It's no good hots tip, cool tip from Martina is to come check out these kind of free
Festivals that pop up all over the city in the summer time. So we're a Tokyo Midtown right now,
and what's neat is it's surrounded by like skyscrapers,
there's major hotel chains here,
but suddenly out of nowhere comes this area with grass and flowers, and it's a really nice relief from the summer heat.
So these festivals that you see here happen pretty much only in the summer time;
you won't see them other parts of the year and you'll see them all over the city as well.
You'll see them even in schools, by subway
stations, and even in some temples and they offer you lots of cool things to eat and drink to cool you down,
lots of shade that you could hide under. Think of this as like a Japanese siesta.
-Ah, yes
That's how I describe it because you shouldn't be walking around doing stuff in the high noon afternoon.
-Not at all.
Let's go do some cool things, hip, and cool, and with it.
I feel like a kid doing this. When's the last time I was in a chair and my feet didn't touch the ground?
So we're here in Ashimizu.
It's basically this little tiny
pop-up river that they've made where you can sit out on- what would you call this?- like a dock almost like a floating bench and
to us, it's wonderful and adorable, but to Japanese people, this is kind of representative of what you might do in the summertime.
I know a lot of you when you're planning your vacations in Japan-
we've seen some of your itineraries- and you pack them insanely from morning to night. That works a lot of time throughout the year,
but in summertime, you have to schedule time to give yourself a break or else you'll just die in the heat
-You'll explode
It's crazy hot. Take some time to find some shade and enjoy something like this.
Hop tip, cool tip. You might see a lot of people walking around with these little tiny handkerchiefs. It looks kind of
old-fashioned when you first get here because you're like who uses the handkerchief anymore, but they are little tiny hand towels.
You can buy them at any convenience store in the summertime
If you're fancy, you can start getting like really cute ones like this one is so cute and I got it
-We got that at the Ghibli Museum.
Yeah
and I remember coming here like a little while ago to Japan before we live here and seeing these tiny towels for sale at like
any pop-up place will have it- like the Kirby version and the Sailor Moon version- and I never knew what they were for, and then I
found out it's for dabbing your face because you're gonna need it.
I also think that as soon as you buy one of these, you acknowledge that you're an adult a young version of me would absolutely
refuse have a handkerchief with him, but now the times have changed. I'm an older man.
So a couple steps away from the liver-
A couple steps away from the river you have the Roku Gin Lounge, which as soon as you walk in to give you fans which is
number one, one of my favorite product placements for special times make it, ah.
I'm sure you guys have already seen the businessman video that we did.
- You must have seen that one
What a terrible day at work today.
-It's kind of funny though that
they gave us these fans because it really is a big part of Japanese culture and we first came here
it was kind of like do people really use fans because you see it used in animes and mangas and you're like
maybe it's just like a special thing that they're doing. I remember when we were in Canada
Yeah, and like you use a fan like this girl is weird for using a fan
I was using a fan and I had a sun parasol in University, and everyone thought I was weird, and I was like
I don't want to get cancer, so...
-Here in Japan though, the fans aren't just common; they're mandatory.
The real con of having a manual fan is actually that you just get really tired,
and sometimes you get even sweatier from using it.
Ow, my hands.
-It's not my hands;
it's my pits because you're like pumping away and you're like, oh my god, this is so good,
and the next thing you know, you're like super soaked in sweat. So instead I'd like to use an electric fan.
This is a real fan of mine
It's adorable and I love it and you just push the button and then it creates an automatic breeze.
You can see Martina's is a bear fan. It makes a heat more
Bearable.
You're definitely the big corny in this relationship.
Martinez fan is a bit too big I'd say so they have these little compact fans
You can see right there, and I'm not sure if we can hear my audio anymore, but this thing really works
Yeah, these are really intense. -The reason why you want to use an electric fan is number one
It keeps you from sweating and number two when you get on a really stuffy train and everyone is trying to get on the last
Train from Shibuya and you're matched up against people and everyone is just pouring sweat. -Fanning isn't an option. You need an electric fan
Trust me, your vacation will be a lot better
If you have a little electric fan with you. Hot tip about subways
You will notice on the site of some of them that they'll say air conditioning: mild.
Only a few of those carts have them they are the absolutely the worst
Why would anybody want to be on them? -Also those signs are written in Kanji.
The sign is written in dark blue and the other one is written in baby blue
The baby blue is the no go away. Stay away. No, thank you. No. Thank you
Kakigori, Kakigori
K-A-K-I-G-O-R-I
Simon messed up!
Kakigori, Kakigori
K-A-K-I-G-O-R-I
Kaki-Kakigori
Ah! I messed it up!
Kakigori, Kaki-Kaigori.
K-A-K-I-G-O-R-I
Nailed it.
We have to whisper more because people started looking. -What are we talking about, again? -We're talking about kakigori.
This is only available in the summertime.
If you come here to Japan and you suffer the heat without suffering this why
even bother coming? This is the most important part of your trip right here.
It's so cold, and so great.
There is something really special about being extremely overheated, and then having really really really cold ice
It's super refreshing. If you were to have this, let's say in like December
No. It wouldn't feel the same feeling same at all.
It kind of has that like summer festival vibe to me where you want to be like just sweaty and eating something refreshing.
You know?
There is back when we lived in Korea the idea of Xuan Hutta in which if you're very hot,
then you're supposed to eat some hot soup, and that will make your body cool down. I could say that is 100%
false. I've tried it many times. It never works. But eating is some nice kakigori. That's what will cool you down.
Now, I am gonna say there's some high-class kakigori because
she layered it. -She layered it. -I watched her layer it. So the one that I have right now is Japanese lime,
lemon is the way that you want to think of it.
It's kind of like it's tiny and circular and you think it's the line but it has much more of a sour kind of yuzu
punch to it, but not sour like a lemon. So it's really really refreshing. Yours, I bet, is creamy.
I have the strawberry Ichigo milk. It's just called the Ichigo melt like a teenage girl. Yes. I've got the girly one
You know
Why? Because it's summertime and I need to find some semblance of youth so I can make it through this
unbearable date and I love it. I mean, it's delicious. -I'm gonna trade mine with yours. -You're gonna call me teenage girl
I'm gonna trade nothing with you.
Well, I just want to let you know what this tastes like so you might feel excited about it
It tastes like freshly squeezed lemonade like in the summertime when you have real limey lemonade. Are you ready for this? -Hold on
All right, Wow, you wait just so much more than me yet. I think you were talking the whole time
Oh, yeah, this is a really fluffy one
Oh, yeah when it comes to kakigori
There's this very fine balance in what you're trying to eat this fast enough
so it doesn't melt but you also try to eat this slow enough so you don't die of brain freeze and there's this like
really dangerous tightrope that you're walking on. I almost- one more spoon and I would have died.
I'm back for more. -I would have died but I balanced it out. -Oh my god. -Right? You see how refreshing it is?
Wow, yours is better than mine. -Mine's a very adult kakigori. -This is adult go back. I want to be a teenage girl again.
Remember above all,
kakigori. -And you have to sing the song that we sang. Which for those of you the play categories. They should know that song
Categories, cat-categories
C-A-T-E-G-O-R-I-E-S. Prime numbers. -Oh my god. What's a prime number?
It can only be divided by itself and one. No other number in between that. -Like seven?
Seven is a good one. Okay, seven. -Three
Seventeen. -Eleven. -Who's confirming all this by the way? -I am cuz I'm a math genius.
Twenty-three. -Thirty-one
um
Thirty-seven. -Right? Forty-one. -Forty-three. -Thirty-nine. -Thirty-nine can be divided by three. -Yes it can.
I beat the smart kid. I beat the smart kid.
So the Sun is finally set and you've spent the whole day gathering and collecting sweat on all the different parts of your body and
Culturing all these lovely bacterias and smells on you. What are you gonna do? Japan has just the right answer for you.
Oh, yeah a perfect transition
These are body sheets. Now at first glance when you go into like any convenience store
you're gonna see all these sheets that are out front and it kind of looks like are these like baby wipes or like what are
these for? They're actually deodorant sheets
Yes, and also cooling sheets.
So some of them have like a menthol in it and you take them and you wipe it down on your skin and it makes you
feel, apparently, -3 degrees colder. -I'm not sure how they measure that but these actually work
I was very skeptical of them, but they're really cooling sheets.
It's almost like if you ever have like those Listerine mint strips in your mouth, and you feel cool.
That's like a mint strip on your body. -This was a little bit different. It's actually a powdered deodorant sheet.
It has kind of like almost like a talcum powder finish.
So if you're like rubbing it on your skin, once it dries, it feels like there's less moisture there.
So there's a whole lot of neat things that you can play around with in Japan to help you stay cool.
These are a big deal here go to the convenience store picks them up. Your summers will be so much better. -Oh, yeah
So that's it for our hot tips on how to stay cool in Japan video. -That title actually is growing on me.
I thought it was kind of lame at first, but you know what? I like it now. -It makes sense is all I'm saying.
I hope you found these tips very useful. You will need to find ways to beat the heat here in Japan,
and this list is a good starting point.
If you have any other tips, we'd love to hear them because we hate the summer here. Okay?
I love this summer. Look at my cute summer dress. I have my watermelon earing on -You look great girl.
Pineapple earring on. -That's very nice. -And this area that we're in right now with Tokyo Midtown;
this is kind of like a sculpture artsy zone. -Yeah. -And it has all these different exhibitions that happen here
like there's usually like mist coming out. -Oh, shit here we go!
See, Martina was magical. I say there's mist coming up.
Make sure you come by and enjoy a summer festival.
The Tokyo Midtown festival is gonna be on until around the end or mid of August
So yeah, I'm not sure if you can even see us anymore
And that's a bye. Goodbye, everyone.
Now for those of you that are already living in Japan or if you're getting an airbnb in Japan we have
another tip for your apartment/house that didn't really fit in this video
so click on this bonus video here, or if you want to see some extra clips from the shoot including a little bit of laughter
make sure you clip on these bloopers you clip on them. You click it. Click the bloopers dah.