Sprinkle Water To Reduce City Heat
by greenz.jp, Tokyo, Japan on 08.19.08
When it gets really hot in Tokyo, the locals like to sprinkle water on the street in front of the house or shop. It's an old tradition that has become popular again here, called uchimizu. In the heat, water on the streets evaporates naturally and during this process, a small amount of energy (0.58kcal/1g water) is absorbed from the surrounding air. When many people perform uchimizu the difference can be quite noticeable. Rainwater is generally used, not drinking water, and the city of Nagoya lists the following beneficial effects of uchimizu:
1) Eases the urban heat-island effect
2) Reduces dust etc.
3) Raises public awareness of water and the environment
4) Increases neighborhood interaction
On August 2, the Kanda Shrine hosted an event where the water was properly blessed by the shinto priest - he also blessed a bicycle for good measure.
Participants included famous maids, dressed up as manga characters, from different coffee shops in Tokyo's Akihabara district, known for its electronic shops.
The girls have started their own environmental campaign called Licolita to combat global warming and support different "eco actions" around town.
Photos from the Uchimizukko website
Written (without using airconditioning today) by Martin Frid at greenz.jp
Design with Waste from Print Industry, by Onceneto in Chile
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famous maids?
Seems like a waste of water to me, why not plant more trees and have less paved area instead?
Nicely done, some may laugh at it, but is way better than saying "The weather is cyclical" and driving in gas guzzling cars.
@ liz
The Akihabara district is also famous for manga & anime. The women in the costumes are workers at some of the anime & manga themed restaurants and coffee shops.
The characters they imitate can be either exact representations of anime & manga characters or just based on a collection of traits from anime & manga female characters.
for more information Cosplay restaurants
My grandmother said that in the Deep South before air conditioning they used to sprinkle water on the sheets before going to bed and that if you have a fan it helps even more. Out in the dry west they mist the air in outdoor restaurants. Evaporative cooling is very useful.
The Andalusian Arabs used water a lot as a way of cooling town dwellers in the hot summer, with small watercourses and fountains letting water splash and evaporate into the air to give a cooling effect. I remember how they revived this at Expo '92 in Seville to moderate the Andalusian summer heat, to great effect.
What the Japanese are doing is a very popular traditional method of keeping cool in many parts of Asia. As a young boy in South India more than forty years ago, I remember many methods used to keep homes cool in the searing summer heat. Water would be sprinkled on the floor and rattan mats spread over it for people to lie down on in the afternoons, filled into wide trays and left under a fan in rooms to evaporate and cool the room (this was when airconditioning was not widely available) or there would be mats made of different herbs that would give off a fragrant smell when wet which were hung in the windows like curtains are in the West. These mats would be kept wet with water aprinkled onto them several times a day and the hot winds that blew onto them would be cooled by the moisture before they entered homes, the sweet smell from the different herbs was always a bonus.
Airconditioning has spelled the death of all of these methods in India and made the country a frighteningly polluted place these days, but the old knowledge exists in case someone wants to use it again. If you ask me, it is fitting that the Japanese, one of the world's most technologically advanced societies, are going ahead using these methods and showing people how much more pleasant it is to live simple and uncomplicated lives.