How do you say "sprinkling water to cool the street" in Japanese?

Name: It Is 36 Degrees and She Just Threw a Bucket of Water at the Pavement. She Is Not Cleaning.
Uploaded: 2026-07-28T06:05:00Z
Duration: 62 s
Description: Learn to say 打ち水 (uchimizu) — sprinkling water to cool the street. A 30-second Japanese lesson for travelers from Kōfuku.

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It Is 36 Degrees and She Just Threw a Bucket of Water at the Pavement. She Is Not Cleaning.

To say sprinkling water to cool the street in Japanese, say 打ち水 (uchimizu).

A shopkeeper walks out into the worst heat of the year and empties a bucket onto the concrete. Nothing was dirty.

打ち水 uchimizu sprinkling water to cool the street

Survival Cultural Shock #learnjapanese #japantravel #japanesesummer #japaneseculture #japantips

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In this video

打ち水です。 uchimizu desu. It's uchimizu.
涼しくなりますね。 suzushiku narimasu ne. It gets cooler, doesn't it.

Kanji in this phrase

打ち水: うちみず
涼: すず

Why this phrase

In late July you will see shop owners and neighbours ladling water onto the pavement outside their doors, morning and dusk. It is an Edo period cooling trick that survives as manners, because the few degrees it buys go to whoever walks past next, not to the person holding the bucket.