The Sekirei Beer Terrace (Photo: Meiji Kinenkan)

(Writer: Jim Hawkins)
As anyone with a few months in the middle of the year in Japan will be aware, and as those visiting for the short term this Summer will have already noticed, July is not quite the same as April or May. August will of course largely follow on the heels of July temperature wise, and the humidity may actually get worse. Indeed, the hottest day ever recorded in Japan sizzled away in mid-August, 2007 when Kumagaya in Saitama Prefecture registered 40.9 degrees. Unofficially that figure reads 42.7 degrees – a measurement taken in Adachi-ku, Tokyo in July, 2004.

Japan in July therefore makes Spring seems like a distant memory with its cool breezes, cherry blossoms and sweat-free days. Fortunately, even when the mercury edges over 30, and pushes on up towards 35 and even 40, there is one aspect of life in Japan that remains a summer constant besides the heat and general mugginess – beer gardens!

Around in one form or another for as long as beer has been produced in the archipelago, the beer garden phenomena really took off in the post war years just as the population were working their way back into wealth and prosperity.