I nearly bust a gut reading this article from Tokyo Classified magazine. You may have had to visit or live in Japan in the summer to really get it but I still think you'll find it interesting.
I know exactly how that person feels. It's like, "you mean people actually live in a place this hot??? You've got to be kidding!!!" I'm surprised I don't see more people collapsing from the heat (by the way I did see that this week) I used to ask my friend Natsuko how she was able not to sweat ...... until I saw her sweat The truth is that most everybody else is sweating too. At least they are this summer. Although it could be that this summer is hotter and more humid than the last I think really it's about being in Japan longer and so now I notice.
I don't know if it's hotter in Japan that most other places in the world (hotter as in FEELS hotter because of the humidity, mode of transportation, etc..) but this is the place that's famous for fans. You know the kind that you hold in your hand and fold out. Other than sushi, probably one of the most basic images of Japan for Americans is the Japanese fan. Everybody in Japan is carrying either a fan like you've all seen or an uchiwa, a fan that doesn't fold. Think of a popcicle except flatten the popcicle part into a circle like the size of the plate.
On top of which, almost every store has a section of *sweat towels*. Too small to be a wash cloth. Everybody carries one of those too. I've been collecting them because at least once a week I seem to forget mine even though I'm sweating just by the time I lock my front door. So I, on the way to school I notice I'm missing my towel and I need to get one before I start dripping on stuff.
Me in particular, I have to always wear two shirts even though it's 96 degrees. Either a t-shirt with an undershirt or some kind of button down like an aloha shirt and a t-shirt. Why two? Because the inner one will be dripping wet with in minutes. Not just in my armpits but EVERYWHERE. So, the inner shirt is to collect the sweat and the outer shirt is to hide how embarrasing my inner shirt is.
Although I've noticed lots of sweating Japanese waving their fans and wiping the sweat off their faces, necks, heads etc... I still see a few exhibiting CLSS. People that look like there's not a drop of sweat on them and wearing clothes that, if they sweat like me, they would become indecesent.
As another example of how hot it is, they just started selling BODY ANTI-PERSPIRENT. I haven't tried one but they are like hand-wipes, wet towels that have some kind of power or anti-perspirent chemicals for you to rub on your arms etc. Sounds a little scary.