A survival guide to Japan’s ‘cruelly hot’ summer

TOKYO – The stifling heat is all that anyone in Japan seems to be talking about these days, a topic so ubiquitous that “Atsui desu ne” (“It’s hot, isn’t it?”) has effectively replaced hello and every other conversation filler in between.As the onset of natsu (summer) and its thick humidity blanket the archipelago, enduring the weather has become a shared national experience.