Whoops.

Not a good thing to have missed a month.

Again, I am slipping and starting to fall into negligence. I am not proud to admit that I have been very lazy recently and I’m blaming it on the summer heat. I just feel so uninspired and unmotivated when I am hot and cranky.

Still, that’s not good because we were actually prepared for this season. Back in June, everyone was saying this was going to be a hot summer based on the winter season we’ve had this past year. Don’t ask me how this works out, but there’s this thing here in Hokkaido—I’m not sure if this also happens in the rest of Japan—that if you get a lot of snow in the winter, then the following summer season will be very hot. I’m not sure if that’s scientifically true, but I’m basing my prediction on my experience last year.

Last year, my husband spent a lot of time at home because his job required him to work from home. I was kind of the same, but I still had to go to school to teach. The main reason why I stayed homebound most of the time was because I didn’t want to be out in public and get sick with the virus. Being in our apartment in the middle of the heatwave was unbearable, and when we decided to go look for some kind of air conditioning unit we could use to help us get through the summer, we were told that everything was sold out. We had no choice but to just suffer through the rest of the summer with just a fan.

However, there was a lesson to be learned: I decided then that for the next year, we were going to be ready and buy things ahead of time.

That’s the long-winded way of coming to the point of this blog, but we’ve got air conditioning this summer. Hooray!

Since we live in an apartment and the owner is very strict on damage to the property, we’re not allowed to buy one of those standard ones you get and then attach to the wall. I found a portable cooling unit that acts like air conditioner but requires no drilling of holes or any type of difficult set up. We bought in early June. Preparation really is the key to everything. I’m so glad we bought it ahead of time and were ready to take on the summer season.

It’s working like a charm. I am sitting here in my comfy chair writing about this while I am cool and safe from the sweltering humid heat of the outside.

But the problem now is that I can no longer make excuses. Since I have this cooling device, I can’t say that I’m unmotivated and can’t work under these hot conditions. Now, I actually have to go do things that I have been postponing for a long time.

Ugh.