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  • 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.