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It`s incredible how quickly the temperature in Japan has gone from cold to sweltering.

Last week was Golden Week. The week before that I needed to wear a jacket during the day and layers of clothing to sustain a comfortable body temperature indoors at night.

Now, just two weeks later, I require nothing more than shorts and T-shirt even in the house - a far cry from the six layers needed in the winter.

Japanese people are proud that they have four seasons but I would contest that they have but two. Swelteringly hot and freezing cold.

Or if I were being less pedantic, a long period of intense humidity and heat followed by a short spell of pleasantly mild weather lasting at the most a month (and more accurately two weeks) preceding a long spell of intense cold weather.

This cold winter not helped in the slightest by a national mindset of confronting the cold rather than retreating from it as most Westerners/sane people are inclined to do with central heating.

I`m from an atypical climate myself. We have two seasons – a rainy season lasting from October to the middle of May followed by a short period of heat occasionally broken up with large patches of rain.

The French have a joke about the English:

-How do you know when it`s summer in England?
-The rain gets warmer.

Of course I`ll take swelteringly hot over freezing cold anyday.