*to Hanlon's razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.
Κυνόσαργες

Tuesday 8 May 2012

The Jungle





You need all of this stuff to get through the summer in Japan.  I won't make those of you who've suffered a summer here read why, but for the 'noobs' you'd better read all of the links in this sentence.  You notice that odd smell when you arrive in a humid E. Asian country?  It's the jungle: too many things microscopic and larger living, breeding and dying, all at the same time.  My Toronto nose can only accept the smell of a few things doing that at any one time: not every microorganism the WHO tracks.

Yeah, Japanese live close to nature, because they haven't improved on their housing since they borrowed tatami from the Chinese Tang Dynasty.  If you have a choice of apartments, take the one without tatami, get a bed and sleep off the floor.  That's how you keep your mattress from mildew and ticks, not by hanging it outside in the smog. My fucking native-wife!  She opens all the windows to let in 'fresh air' in Tokyo.  That would be the same 'fresh air' that makes this concrete city look so:

A better idea is to figure out the dehumidifying function on your air-conditioner.  That might even help you have dry clothes in rainy-season, instead of hanging them for the month in vain hope.

6 comments:

  1. I cannot believe you passed up the opportunity to link to this - http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=JP&v=o1tj2zJ2Wvg

    It's just hanging there, begging to be hit right out of the park.

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  2. Oh good Christ they are an abomination. I never understood their popularity. First time I heard them I thought they were an anachronism. There's been louder, harder, better, earlier.

    I was thinking more like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Jungle

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  3. I open the windows to air the place out.

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  4. A few years ago here in Tokyo I got a bacterial infection in a scratch and the humidity made it so bad my eye swelled shut and the skin ripped around the scratch because it was pulled so tight due to the swelling. The skin doctor said it wasn't unusual...

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  5. Only place I have had an eye infection? Japan.
    Only place I have had a rash from jogging (yes, there)? Japan.
    Only place I have got athlete's foot? Japan.

    The Japanese are not humans the way they glow with health in the humidity; they are amphibians.

    Could be worse. An acquaintance went to the hospital for an operation for a foot injury. He left with a case of 'the clap' from a friendly nurse, and death threats from her Iranian boyfriend.

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  6. Are roaches that big of a problem in Japan? Where I live I don't have a concept of humidity or pests. I think if I visit Japan it needs to be NOT during 'hot as balls' time of year.

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