Days 10 through 13: More sweating
It is hot. And bright. But mainly hot. And very humid. When I was warned by the good Itsuo that it is extremely hot and humid in summer, I brushed it off, thinking it would be somewhat like back home, which isn't half bad. But this, this humidity, is ridiculous. Perspiration beads on my chest, collects on my nose, rolls down my back, and I've only been outside all of 15 minutes, just strolling. The enlightened locals have towels wrapped around their necks.
This doesn't occur only in Shikoku, of course, but across Japan, in summer. Except Hokkaido, I reckon, which is only hitting the mid-20s when other bits of the country hit the mid-30s. (Why, oh why, didn't I go to Hokkaido?) But after more than a week of enduring, it's perfectly reasonable to rant a little, right?
The heat and light are perfectly endurable - it really isn't too bad when one's been inhaling desert sand just the week before. Besides, it's not hard to find some respite, in the shade of a tree, a set of traffic lights or an umbrella. A sun umbrella, not one of their uibiquitous transparent rain ones. This begs the question: Just what is wrong with making umbrellas that function in both weather conditions, then? A sun umbrella, by the way, appears to be made of cloth, and if you fancy yours with ruffles with polka dots and frills and feathers, may you receive a good whack over the head by a particularly hideous specimen. Two whacks if you plead 'Lolita'.
But the humidity? Short of spending half your time half-naked in the sea/pool and the other half in an air-conditioned room, all one can really do is to wear clothes that (sweat)stain well or a good undershirt. And don't forget that towel to go around the neck (the trendy ones don a light cotton scarf but whether it also serves the purpose of a towel is anyone's guess). It's hard to even say if anti-perspirants work. Highly doubtful.
So I sweat my way through Tokushima, through the hills to the seaside, to the Naruto whirlpools, to Awaikeda where I spend an afternoon with a dog named after Jackie Chan, and to Oboke, where there are marvelous gorges and waterfalls and swallows' nests, but still no where I could describe as 'the wilderness'.
Somewhere along the way, I came across a book that suggested that there was not a place in this country that is unpopulated. Granted, Shikoku is more lightly populated than Kansai, but still it made me sad. Thankfully, there are places here you can not get to on a bus; a hostel in a temple on a hill, where the stars shine the best they can in a night sky that is grey instead of black. Maybe all is not lost.
