Did you know that there is a rainy season in Japan? Well, don't get too excited to talk about it, the National Meterological Association officially declared the rainy season over last week. There was a notice in the newspaper and everything. Leaving aside the concept of officially sanctioning a change in seasons (which seems really bizarre to me), there is the matter of it now being summer. Competely and totally. Now that there isn't a barrier of dismal, gray cloud cover and misty, foul-smelling rain shielding the island, Japan is at the mercy of the sun. Which, being the Aztec god of war, has no mercy.

In the desert, if you sweat you'll feel better. Your body gets too hot, releases water on its surface, the water evaporates and takes some of the heat with it as it re-enters the air around you. But here there's usually something like 98% humidity. So when your body gets too hot it releases that water-stuff on the surface again, and it can't be re-absorbed by the atmosphere or your skin. So it goes the next best place: into the cloth of your shirts. Especially around the pits and collar. Then it goes into your suit. That'd be the black suit your company requires you to wear every day of the week.

Summer bites.