In my experience If there is one thing the Japanese and the British have in common (as well an "island mentality") it is a love of talking about the weather. The summer of 2011 in this country can best be described as "wretched". It has been quite a change from the weather I experienced in Saudi arabia. There,temperatures (in Jeddah) averaged about 37/8 degrees Celsius,with humidity. And some days it was a lot hotter than that. As I always like to say it's the country I've lived in where I didn't have to watch the weather forecast!