YUCK!

I keep talking about how hot and humid it is in Japan and I'm always happy to see that Julie in Tokyo backs me up. I don't want to just be complaining!

During the summer my family in Southern California will occasionally say,

"Oh, isn't it humid today."

and I'll say,

"You don't know what humid is! Southern California is the desert! Humid is when you go for a walk and can't breathe. Humid is when bread gets moldy in a day. Humid is when the walls turn green!"

Every summer I come back to Japanese humidity and start wiping things down. The walls, the cupboards, ALL the dishes, any shoes in the shoe cupboard, belts, light switches. I'm claiming that the humidity has caused our rice cooker and my digital dictionary to short out. (I don't know if that's really true but they sat here unused for the month and wouldn't work when I got back.)

Mold must grow anywhere but it is most obvious on any wooden or leather surface. And I guess it grows wherever someone has touched something. I tossed a whole closet full of stuff in the garbage last weekend, including nylon sports bags because the handles and pockets were fuzzy! I also grossed out when I was looking through my sewing drawers and found bamboo knitting needles in the same furry state! Those all went in the garbage too!

Yesterday my children's English class had some coloring to do in the workbooks. I brought out the colored pencils.

"Sensei! What is that all over the pencils? I'm not touching those!"

Mold!!! Yuck!!! I got out the alcohol wipes, gave each pencil a scrub, and they were usable again...

Humidity makes mold grow in the darnedest places! YUCK!!!