Winter In A Can
Used to be that Japanese people kept cool in the summer by hanging little bells that rang in the barest breeze, gazing at goldfish in clear globes, and listening to ghost stories that sent shivers up their spines, but now technology has had its evil way with tradition. Behold…Ice Wear!
It’s only one of many cooling sprays, most rated with how many degrees of chilliness they deliver. Ice Wear claims that if you spray it on your skin, you’ll feel like it’s 9° cooler, and in fact (I’m testing it right now!) my left arm IS much cooler than the rest of me. I sprayed it on half an hour ago, and surprisingly enough, it’s still working.
There’s another school of thought that says if you chill your neck, it’ll cool your whole body. Wetting the Miracool, a 4″ X 24″ strip of rather repulsive, rubbery, clammy towel-ish material, turns it shockingly cold, even if the only water have is unrefreshingly warm. Unfortunately, draping a Miraclecool around your neck is about as appealing as wreathing yourself in a dead eel, and twice as fashionable.
If you’d like to visit a Loft store the next time you’re in Tokyo, maps are on my website, The Tokyo Guide I Wish I’d Had.
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Jonelle Patrick is the author of four novels set in Tokyo…
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Jonelle Patrick View All
Writing mystery books set in Tokyo is mostly what I do, but I also blog about the odd stuff I see every day in Japan. I'm a graduate of Stanford University and the Sendagaya Japanese Institute in Tokyo, and a member of the International Thriller Writers, the Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters In Crime. When I'm not in Tokyo, I live in San Francisco. I also host a travel site called The Tokyo Guide I Wish I'd Had, so if you're headed to Japan and want to check out the places I take my friends when they're in town, take a look!
Jonelle Patrick's Only In Japan 
Is it just me or is the prospect of what this stuff is doing to you skin to make it 9 degrees cooler mildly terrifying… Still, I think I’d go for it in a Tokyo August.