The "Kafun Sho" (hay fever) season is starting in Japan. Every year in about February, 
the millions of Cedar trees that have been planted all over Japan, start to produce huge amounts of polen. People all over the nation suffer and it goes on until the rainy season starts in June. I have had Hay Fever since I was a kid so am used to it but the amount of polen in the air really makes it unbearable. People all over Japan use masks like the one in this photo (the ad is a sticker on the window of a commuter train). It helps a bit but wearing one is a real inconvenience. The medication you can get for hay fever is really pretty strong and makes a lot of people very sleepy. I can't use it during the day time because it makes me nod off in the middle of meetings.
Japan did not used to have a huge problem with hay fever but because of massive government reforestization programs, Cedar trees were planted by the million. Cedar trees are like miniature pollen factories. I think things started to get really bad in the 80s. Many Japanese people with no history of hay fever get Kafun Sho out of the blue each year.
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