The hayfever season has arrived – do you have a mask?

I think you’ll find that the Japanese just make more of a fuss about it, while probably assuming that they’re the only people in the world who have to deal with pollen allergies.

For the next couple of months, people on trains will loudly snort, sniff, cough, splutter and sneeze over everyone and generally behave like dying swans (but without the dignity…)

I suffer from asthma and hay-fever yet I’m still startled every year by the fuss that’s made here in Japan.

Expect more emergency patients dying though lack of attention while clinics and hospitals are clogged with people who should instead be simply buying allergy remedies from their local pharmacies.

It does seem more common than I remember it being in the States. It is also a different kind of pollen: cedar. When the trees really start letting loose I have seen everything covered in a fine, yellow powder. And that is in areas fairly far away from the trees themselves – the pollen really travels. While I saw an occasional pollen bloom in the States that would leave visible pollen on things really close to the source, I never saw anything like what happens here. If you are close enough to the mountains the trees are on (and you don’t have to be all that close, you can literally see clouds of pollen rolling down the sides of the mountains like some weird yellow fog.

Fortunately, while I get hayfever from ragweed, I don’t get it from cedar. Yet. The pollen sticks to the back of my throat and inside of my nose, but I don’t get an allergic reaction. Knock on wood, because you can become allergic to something if you are exposed to so much of it that your immune system goes nuts the next time you are exposed. And not just people – I’ve seen monkeys, deer, dogs and cats get hayfever here in Japan. It really can get brutal – and I just sail through drawing envious glances.

*cough* can’t breathe, need oxygen

Spot on…..If that badly misguided project had not occurred, Japanese people would have a more balanced set of immune challenges through life and, much less of the serious (man-made) allergy issue we see now.

Cedar allergy, courtesy of the government bureaucrats. Maybe one more reason to vote against LDP?