Sprinkling Water for the Heat

Tokyo today, humid and uncomfortable as it can be. When it’s hot but dry, it’s usually pretty cool in the shades no matter how hot it is in the sun, but on a humid day like today shades never really make any difference. The best place to escape is probably the office where it’s chilly as winter :P

A/C is a great invention. It makes summer so pleasant. Water has this character of taking heat when evaporating (heat of vaporization) and as far as I know (not to mention this is made extremely rough) A/C are made with this principle to cool. Isn’t this the same as feeling cool when you wet your finger with water and stick it out in the wind? It’s super simple when you think of it that way, but A/C continues doing this for hours and generated enough heat of vaporization for the entire room or even hall. Wow, isn’t that something.

In Japan, as a means of cooling that doesn’t use A/C we have a custom of sprinkling water on the roads and grounds calles Uchimizu. It’s really simple, you just sprinkle water around the roads and gardens around your house (mainly in front of the entrance). For its eco-friendliness, the prefectural government of Tokyo started this campaign called “Tokyo Uchimizu Project” encouraging thousands of Tokyo residents to do Uchimizu at once to cool down the outside temperature. The national government also promotes Uchimizu as part of the global warming prevention policies, and many towns, villages and NGOs across the country are reviewing the significance of Uchimizu.

http://www.uchimizu.jp/

This Uchimizu Official Site holds high the slogan of “Let’s do Uchimizu and bring down the temperature two degrees!” If Japan alone can bring down two degrees (celcius), how cool can the earth be if more countries participated in the project?

Originally, Uchimizu was practiced with the principle meaning of purification and Uchimizu for the main entrance of the house was nothing more than care for visitors. It was common cultural practice until when, I don’t know, but anyway the custom is slowly dying away if not completely dead. It’s sad cuz it makes me feel like the heart and spirit of such Japanese values are being washed away.

Some of you may be experiencing hotter summer than here, some others cold cold winter, but when the hot time comes try sprinkling a bit of water outside your door front. And oh, it’s better you do it in the morning when it’s cooler cuz if you do it during the day when the ground is hot, the water evaporates faster and makes the air even more humid.