Can you feel the temperature rising? Dreading the inevitable sweat you’ll break when you run to catch your train? Are you ready to survive the intense rays of the Country of the Sun? If you’re worried, look no further I’ve got tips for you on how to handle your sweat in Japan.
I don’t know about you, but I do know that Japanese heat is a whole new breed of its own. I am from the south area of the United States, Georgia, but the heat feels completely different here as I walk around much more and am outside a lot for work as I travel around the Kansai area. That being said, I’ve got to find all sorts of ways to survive every summer.
I think one thing that’s important for staying cool and sweat-free is understanding what exactly sweat is and how it works.
I’m not a science teacher, but here is a super quick summary of what’s going on with your body when you sweat.
Sweat is basically your body’s attempt at cooling itself down when it gets hot.
Sweat is made out of mostly water, but it does have a bit of salt and a few other chemicals in it. It comes out of the pores on our skin and is pretty quick to evaporate.
Sweat actually doesn’t smell….. but I’ll get more into that later.
One of the most important things to think about when you sweat is not WHY you sweat, but rather why your sweat smells so stinky sometimes. Again, we will get into that later. BUT this is to say that what you eat can affect how smelly you get….Ever heard of MEAT SWEATS?!
As the weather gets warmer, make sure to drink the right amount of water for your body size. You LITERALLY need to drink your weight in water using this formula (your weight x .5= amount of water you need a day). For me, that’s about 1.8 mL a day or 2L if I can. Drinking water will positively impact your health as the weather warms up; it will also increase how often you go to the bathroom.
Naturally, you’re going to want to eat healthier as your body loses electrolytes and different things that your body needs that come out when you sweat.
You’re in luck though because Japan has some great things for you to ingest to prevent heat stroke and to keep your body in a very 元気 shape.
Here are three different things you should keep stacked in your kitchen as the weather heats up.
2) Pocari Sweat
3)Umeboshi (the high sodium fights heatstroke)
If you are worried about the clothing you can get in Japan, fret not. There are many different clothing items that are available for you to keep the sun from burning your skin. (Speaking of, make sure to wear sunscreen). Also, make sure to wear lighter and loose clothing. Here are three great clothing items that you can wear in order to protect your skin.
<Remember, these items can be found at different stores outside of the links I’m attaching, you’ve just got to search for them~>
I personally don’t wear sleeves during summer, but as you might’ve noticed, Japanese people like to really protect their skin so you’ll find many women walking around with these sleeves to protect their arms from tanning/the sun.
3)Hat (that protects against UV rays)
Are you worried about feeling like you’re in a sauna? I don’t know about other countries, but I do know that the antiperspirants here work differently on American skin. For me, they just didn’t hold up compared to American deodorants. I went through a series where I tried all kinds of deodorants/antiperspirants I could get from online shops like iherb.com as well as different Japanese antiperspirants that I thought would work for me as someone who somehow sweats a lot (when nervous) but doesn’t sweat a lot at the same time (like when I exercise). <I can’t explain it, it’s just how my body works> Anyways, I will link down some well-known antiperspirants/deodorants that you might want to try.
1)Arm & Hammer Deodorant (Western Style Deodorant)
2)Deonature Soft Stone W Armpit Antiperspirant Stick
3) 8×4 Roll On
SUPER TIP***
Here is my trusty secret for not smelling at all when I sweat in Japan. I don’t use deodorant or antiperspirants at all anymore and don’t have any smelly days no matter how much sweat pours off of me. Referring back to what I mentioned before, sweat actually doesn’t smell. It’s the bacteria that comes to eat up the sweat that causes you to get stinky. So what I started doing was using hand sanitizer as deodorant. You can check the research behind that if you’re worried about putting hand sanitizer on your skin…aside from the skin on your hands. I’ve been doing this for about a year and a half and my armpits are loving every second of it. Even through the most intense workouts, I don’t smell at all.
I 10 out of 10 recommend using hand sanitizer as deodorant as I haven’t looked back since I started doing this. You’ll have to check which hand sanitizer works best for you and your skin because some didn’t do the trick for me. But this is the one that I’ve been sticking with and that has worked the best for me to have no smelly days ever since I started using it~
Also comes in handy if you carry hand sanitizer everywhere you go like me~
Trinkets and Treasures
I just wanted to give a few extra trinkets and tips that you might want to try searching for in the Aeon or even at a Daiso near you. These will help to keep you cool as the weather keeps up.
1) UV Umbrella
2)Cute fan (easily found at Daiso)
Beating the Heat
I really hope that these tips will help you to enjoy your spring and summer so that you can have a funky fresh time rather than a funky time as a whole haha. If there’s any take away to have from this it’s that you should eat healthy, wear lighter clothes and dress for the weather, and use hand sanitizer on your pits.
Good luck in the smoldering heat once the temperature gets to soaring heights.
