My Office is Polar

[羽之助]

The air conditioning is set to walk-in freezer temperature. I had a bottle of Nacchan in the fridge in the other room, but I seriously think it only properly chilled after I brought it in to my desk.

The cold was making me sleepy, so I packed up my stuff to move to the room across the hall ... and was greeted by Sahara-like conditions. Windows locked shut, no fan, nice and stuffy. Oh, the building also used to be a school so I guess it was nice and comfortable for the students.

Could be worse. I got a call from a teacher at one of the schools in town (just because it's summer vacation doesn't mean anyone actually gets off work or school), and she doesn't have any air conditioning at all - even a small electric fan. School rules, y'know.

[OaklandZoo]

where I work is a basement floor so from 12:30 to 10pm I don't see any sunlight, and obviously the A/C is set at a lower temperature than the recommended Cool Biz standard, it's pretty cold. Stock room is a whole different story, though.

[羽之助]

I hope they have enough drains in the floor to catch all your dripping sweat.

[Urban~Ninja]

Where i work (Pizza hut call center) its like freezing cold 24/7, they dont even try to make the temp nice. Also its very depressing, you walk into the room and you feel very sad/depressed and when you leave you feel swell.

[OaklandZoo]

I bring an extra shirt for when I work back there, it's that bad. so sometimes, although you aren't supposed to, I sneak into the freezer where they keep the frozen foods and cool myself for like 10 seconds (the freezer is set at -30C).

[erbiumfiber]

I was interviewed by Asahi television (on camera, don't know if they used the interview because of my lousy Japanese). The question was whether elementary schools in Suginami-ku (Tokyo) should be air-conditioned. I said they NEEDED air-conditioning. Apparently elementary schools in the next ku over are air-conditioned. I think all the schools need air conditioning. He asked if the schools were air-conditioned when I was a child and I explained that I grew up in NY (Long Island) where it's cooler than Tokyo and the summer vacations were longer (no school in July as in Japan). I said that in Washington, DC (the area I lived prior to Tokyo) it was just as hot and the schools there were air-conditioned.

I thought of all you poor JETs, teaching in 40 degree classrooms...(mostly the Kyoto area folks).

[Pezonna]

I heard from a friend that the classrooms at Nagoya Gakuin aren't heated in winter so you either wear a billion layers to class :boggled: or die...:(
wtf? how do the students take notes?

[TLab3000]

The question was whether elementary schools in Suginami-ku (Tokyo) should be air-conditioned. I said they NEEDED air-conditioning.

Why do they need air-conditioning?
Are the pupils gonna vaporize? Will the teachers die of heatstrokes? Will the pupils not be able to concentrate and therefore they won't learn enough and get bad results? Were the pupils, say 50 or 70 years ago, not so good learners because back then A/Cs weren't availabe?
Or is it mere convenience?

Emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases compared to 1990:
Japan +7.6% (2002)
USA +13% (2003)

Don't get me wrong, no offense meant, but A/Cs are major enviroment fuck-ups and you need some damn good reasons to use them.
If you can do without A/C, then sweat, baby, sweat...

[erbiumfiber]

Official website of Freiburg, Germany: Average temperature: 10.8 C.

Yeah, guess I wouldn't see the need for airconditioning either if I lived in Freiburg.

[OaklandZoo]

and living in a city that cold, you probably "fuck up" the environment more for using heaters. you know they are worse than cooling, or so I've heard.

[Bagpuss]

Emissions of carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases compared to 1990:
Japan +7.6% (2002)
USA +13% (2003)

I could probably live in Japan without central heating or a/c if the houses weren't built of plastic and paper. There is no insulation what so ever.

[羽之助]

I heard from a friend that the classrooms at Nagoya Gakuin aren't heated in winter so you either wear a billion layers to class :boggled: or die...:(
wtf? how do the students take notes?

I don't remember it being that cold. Sure, I had a sweater on, but I think it snowed like once the year I was there.

And if you ask someone in charge of a school why they don't have air conditioners or at the very least FANS, or why girls must wear short skirts in winter, or why you must wear thick woolen clothing in summer when attending a club practice, the answer is likely to be "Rules" or "Discipline".

[4letterwords]

I could probably live in Japan without central heating or a/c if the houses weren't built of plastic and paper. There is no insulation what so ever.

I dunno why I thought of this or even why Im telling you but when you said they were made of paper I thought of living in a giant paper crane... and how awesome that would be.

Aha.

[TLab3000]

Official website of Freiburg, Germany: Average temperature: 10.8 C.

Yeah, guess I wouldn't see the need for airconditioning either if I lived in Freiburg.

It's the worst week of a lousy summer, and you checked on the coldest day in the middle of the night.
I did the same, some weeks ago. Some Japanese girls were complaining how terribly hot it is, here, but they said that it's certainly even worse in Japan. Looked up the temperature in Tokyo: a mere 19°C at about 1pm, and I prolly felt the way you felt when checking the temperature in Freiburg.

However, two weeks ago, the temperature dropped from 41° (yes 41°C, Freiburg is subtropical, with palms and all) to 20°* and it hasn't gotten much better since then, tho we had more than 30° once or twice last week.

40° is not unusual in summer, here, and the exchange students from Reno, Nevada, at my old school always complained how hot it is here compared to back home, prolly because of the humidity.
It prolly still feels hotter in most of Japan, but 40°, that's something even we who are used to cold winters with a lot of snow** can handle without A/C. You're even used to to such temperatures.

*That was very impressive, btw. 41°C to 20°C in 30 mins, due to a huge thunderstorm. You should have seen that, very cool.

** Not really all that true. Cold winters in the north, here in the Freiburg, we don't often have much snow, apart from in the mountains and last winter, which has set some records (poor Bavarians, it's been in the news all the time). Lowest temperature in remember: -18°C in 1997/1998. Usually there's a minimum of -5°C at night and even in winter we often have 10°C when the sun is shining, so it's actually not that cold, here, unless you compare it to Nevada or prolly Tokyo or Kyoto.

[TLab3000]

and living in a city that cold, you probably "fuck up" the environment more for using heaters. you know they are worse than cooling, or so I've heard.

Well, it's not really that cold (read above).
The trouble with A/Cs is that they emit greenhouse gases and need a lot of energy.
Heaters aren't that bad, tho it depends on what kind of heater you have (electic ones are lousy, oil isn't that good, either) and your house's insulation. I use the heater when it get's below -10°C outside... but then, my house is well insulated and my neighbors up- and downstairs use the heater a lot ;)
Oh, and your right, in a way. A/Cs are a rather efficient way to heat a place, even compared to many kinds of heaters.

However, if it gets cold, I wear more clothes. I still think that's far better than turning on the heater.

Actually, I hate heaters more than A/Cs, sometimes. If you go to the citiy centre for shopping in winter, you'll need to wear a lot of clothes. Then you enter a store where it's like 21°C and you'll start sweating in your clothes. By the time you're done buying whatever you came for, you're wet because of the sweat. Then you step outside and there's a cold wind hitting you... lovely :(

[mikem]

I don't give a damn about the earth. Don't you dare fuck with my A/C. I could care less how primitive savages lived 10 years ago.

Anyone using the internet is throwing stones in a glass house complaining about envrionmental shit.

[Crowley]

Bollocks. The environmental impact of my PC is miniscule compared to your planet-raping air con.

[mikem]

Bollocks. The environmental impact of my PC is miniscule compared to your planet-raping air con.

Just for grins I'm going to clarify ... The internet is nothing but a bunch of computers, replaced at lightning speed, cooled by massive air conditioners. Just the cycle of building, replacing, and disposing of all that crap is a huge drain.

Oh, and did I mention the huge air conditioners cooling it all 24/7?

[Crowley]

Oh alright then. But still - if every person using the internet had air con, their combined air con would dwarf the relatively few larger aircon units cooling the servers providing their internet.

Are we really arguing about this? This is silly. Fetchez le vache.

[mikem]

No. We aren't even arguing. We're just bored.

[羽之助]

Beam me abored!

[Crowley]

Well. I'm arguing. And you smell of wee. Nur nur ne nur nur.

[羽之助]

Well. I'm arguing. And you smell of wee. Nur nur ne nur nur.

I do?

http://mundodisco.dreamers.com/portadas/30ddpeq.jpg

OH GOD GET THEM OFF ME