Member-only story
Japanese Dispatch
While the Koji Worked
Making Amazake Through the Hottest Hours of Summer
ONCE THE HUMID RAINY SEASON CAME TO AN END, the temperature began to rise day by day. The sun, appearing again after a long absence, bore down mercilessly from early morning, as though trying to make up for lost time.
The air was still somewhat cool when I woke up, but by the time I finished breakfast, a thin layer of sweat had already appeared on my skin. I kept typing as I felt the air around me slowly growing warmer. The hot air pouring from my computer’s fan only pushed the room temperature higher.
The same warning played over and over on the radio: “Be careful of heatstroke. Drink water regularly.”
Trying not to rely entirely on cold drinks, I took a sip of tea that had long since turned lukewarm. It was already past noon, yet I had no appetite at all.
When I was a child, I played outside from early morning without worrying about sunburn. At lunchtime, I ate the cold noodles my mother had prepared, then ran straight back outdoors. I knew I needed to eat something or I would become exhausted from the summer heat. Even so, I couldn’t think of a single thing I wanted.
