What are some of your favorite foods or drinks for coping with Japan's summer heat?

Beer!

冷やし中華 and an aversion of the mantra 熱いねー

If having soumen, I recommend hiyamugi, which is a thicker noodle with some texture to it. Among iced noodles, my favourite is Korean reimen, but beware the one sold in Costco because the noodles are too thin. In hot weather, spicy food is good, like curry. Hot countries eat spicy food for a reason.

Drinks? All of them. Don't worry about caffeine. It's a diuretic, but does not "dehydrate" you. Noone gets dehydrated from peeing too much, its drinking too little.

ice cold barley tea! I can drink liters and liters of it all day long and not get sick of it. Plus, it works well after eating oily food.

Homemade cucumber juice with mint and lemon.

Water on the rocks

Pina colada

Goya champuru

Cucumber sticks

Frozen strawberries

Blackberry granita

water. tons of it.

Barley tea.

Salty lychee drink.

Ice

Cold, out of the fridge H2O.

What Bertie said!

food wise.. somen reimen and frozen fruit

drinks : cold oolongcha, aquarius, pocari sweat, iced coffee or matcha latte from konbini, home made fruit smoothies, canned chu hai, umeshu, etc

foods: sushi, gari gari kun, watermelon, kakigori with lots of mixed fruits, etc

More beer!

Hot coffee or hot tea.

Champagne, ice cream, and watermelons. 2 liters of water.

Unagi!

Ice Cold Orion.

Ion Water.

Cristal.

Draft Peroni.

Any drinkable Sav Blanc from Kiwi Land

Draft Aspalls Cider

Hot Canned Green Tea

@wallace I like your style.

I lived in properly hot countries in the past,so spicy food,hot tea,nothing iced.

Bún chả and chrysanthemum tea. Golden kiwi. Watermelon. Good old-fashioned water and lots of it.

Ice-cold sparkling water with a touch of Campari.

Yes Pina Colada......

Classic Piña Colada......

https://www.acouplecooks.com/pina-colada/

Sangria please.

https://www.liquor.com/recipes/classic-sangria/

Let not forget the Sake spritz

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2022/09/18/food/cocktail-recipe-sake-spritz/

Try かき氷, shaved ice with varied favors.

Beer. Lots of it! Ice cold high quality stuff though. Keep the nodogoshi, etc away.

I'll be the one to say it because I'm still a child at heart, gari gari kun! :)

Mugicha! So refreshing.

kohakuebisuJuly 13  11:14 am JST

One cold thing in Japan has that your country may not is the "float", fizzy drinks with cheapo vanilla ice cream floating on top. Wonderful things happen when the fizzy soda, Coke, melon soda, whatever, mixes with the ice cream, taking the drink a level above ice cream floating on a still drink like ice coffee that won't froth up. Its classic thing to order in a old-school kissaten coffee shop.

True or not, this is the story and the drink is now available most anywhere you can get ice cream and soda.

"The ice cream float dates back to the late 19th century when Robert Green operated a soda shop in Philadelphia and used carbonated water, syrup and cream to make his tasty treats. Legend has it, Green ran out of cream one day and instead used ice cream. Soon thereafter, his daily earnings soared from $6 to $600!"

Something I discovered last night; dribble a bit of rum into the cucumber/lemon/mint juice and it turns into a very moreish cucumber mojito.

One cold thing in Japan has that your country may not is the "float", fizzy drinks with cheapo vanilla ice cream floating on top. Wonderful things happen when the fizzy soda, Coke, melon soda, whatever, mixes with the ice cream, taking the drink a level above ice cream floating on a still drink like ice coffee that won't froth up. Its classic thing to order in a old-school kissaten coffee shop.

For even more nostalgia points, one of Steely Dan's greatest songs, a chilled lounge groove called "Black Cow", is named after an ice cream soda.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4nv7Qicg2Og

Green tea + matcha and oat milk latte. Use a small amount of warm green tea. mix in matcha then add the mix to more cold green tea on ice and top with oat milk and mix

Water

If I could cope with Japanese summer heat Id go for any kind of juice with ice, lemonade, mohito(mint,lemon,limeand sprite), ice cream.

foods need to be warm as usual after youve cooled down under AC :)