Going Green in Japan – Tip #3: Turn off the a/c

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The summer months in Japan are hot. And sticky. And quite uncomfortable. Especially if you come from the UK, where our current July weather is a miserable, grey 15 degrees Celsius.

Fortunately almost all hotels and ryokan have air conditioning units in the guest rooms. But please resist the temptation to leave the a/c on while you are out for the day. Yes, it’s nice walking back into a cool, refrigerator room after a long day sightseeing. But a/c is so bad for the environment and expensive for the hotel owner……….. and it really doesn’t take long for your room to cool down anyway.

An a/c unit

Oh and turn off the hotel room lights will you’re out, too please. Arigato!

After the crisis of March 11th, the Japanese are all doing their bit to save energy. The government is currently running a ‘Super Cool Biz’ campaign where the usually suited and booted Salary-men are encouraged to wear short sleeve shirts and shorts to keep cool in the hot summer months.  By wearing their super cool attire, they will save energy by not using the Air-con. The least that we can do when travelling in Japan, is turn the air-con off when we leave the room.

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