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If you suffer from hayfever here you know we’ve had a pretty rough ride over the last couple of weeks, with pollen levels being pretty high every day. This coupled with the toxic sand blowing across Asia has left many struggling to breathe easy.

Fun fact: many people think that so many Japanese people wear masks because of the flu. But actually the majority are wearing masks to try and cut down on breathing in pollen.

If you are wondering why so many suffer from pollen it’s attributed to the reforestation of Japan post-WII, but unfortunately the trees planted were about the worst choice they could have made. One of the favourite scenes to show on the news are the pollen clouds coming off of them.

There is a NPO here called Eco Future Fund [Japanese only] who are gradually working on cutting down and replanting the areas with different trees. (You may have already seen mediatinker’s English video presentation of this.)

When you can’t take any medication, every trip outside could lead to several hours of hell. I’ve even been wearing a mask to try and reduce my intake - but it still gets all over the clothes and eyes. There have been a few days in which I’ve been left miserable - streaming eyes and nose, even a slight fever. Goodness knows what the Blob was thinking as his world continued to shake violently.....

So I was taken aback to get this gloating postcard from Zoukun claiming that he never sneezes! How cheeky!

But beware Zoukun! Elephants do sneeze! And that seems to be a strategy in keeping them away from crops in Africa - turns out that elephants hate chilli.