Every summer in Japan I am shocked by the oppressive quality of the heat and humidity, but this July has been the worst I can remember in 20 some years. Record setting temperatures, thousands of people struck down by the heat, many deaths, and here we've only just finished classes for the spring semester, with examinations still to come!
I frequently imagine in this season that I'm soft vanilla ice cream dropped onto the broiling black asphalt at noon. I finished my classes last Friday, and begin invigilating exams this coming Saturday, and in the meantime have been trying to survive. If we had the American academic calendar, which has a long summer vacation starting from late May or June, it wouldn't be so bad, but here we go until August 2nd (the last day of exams). I feel sorry for the poor kids, who have umpteen examinations because they have so many more classes than American university students (at least twice as many). It must be so difficult to study and function generally now. The cicadas are drone-singing their whirring metallic sheen of sound into the hot air, and it really does feel like a new world in this summer season, and it will really make us appreciate fall and winter when they finally come, but it sure is difficult to do anything related to school work in these conditions. I should be starting my grading (for classes that don't have examinations like English Conversation), but I can't muster the energy and usually end up taking another nap in front of an electric fan. This too shall pass! At times like this, I wonder if I'll really make it to retire at age 70.
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Jefferson Peters (JP)
Can you find me in the picture above? Archives
December 2023
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