THE JAPAN TIMES

Beat the heat
Six summer sizzlers
Summer heat getting you down? Don't sweat it. Whether the weather is friend or foe, there are plenty of ways to add some variety to the coming months.

For culture vultures
Mount Fuji tea ceremony: It's high time for tea time at the summit of Mount Fuji where you can witness a traditional Urasenke-style tea ceremony with Sosei Sei (a practitioner of sado, the art of tea ceremony).

On July 15 trek up the Shizuoka side of the mountain to the final stop of the Fujinomiya climbing road where you'll find Fuji-san's Sengen Taisha Okumiya Shrine.

There, the ceremony runs from 12:00-2:30 p.m. and has instruction in English and French. Tired climbers can unwind with free matcha (powdered green tea) and Japanese confectionaries.

With altitude causing a lower boiling point (87 C at 3,776 meters), you won't experience a cooler natural high this summer.