It came at last.

Puffy, watery eyes. Three consecutive sneezes. Running nose. Completely blocked nostril(right one). Hay fever exploded this morning.
It came out of the blue 10 years ago and has been a harbinger of spring since then. As everyone in Japan knows, this is an allergic reaction to air-borne pollen typically from cedar-trees. This is not just unique to Japan. When I went to US last year, my friend living in Austin US, suffers a severe hay fever. In his case, when the wind is blowing from north his symptoms get worse. It is becasue of the location of Austin, Texas, he told me. When the north wind blows over the Rocky Mountains, it collects a lot of pollen from cider trees on its way to be taken in from his nostrils. Ceder pollen allergy is not particular in Japan.
He and I are less unfortunate ones. A Japanese friend of mine suffers from cedar pollen in early spring, Japanese cypress(ヒノキ) in late spring, ragweed（ブタクサ）in early fall with rice plants filling in between. In short he sneezes around all the year around. Recently, he began to take drug but it worked only on good days he said. Better than nothing, he said with a wry smile, he had to take this drug till the end of his life.
There are tens of theories, from air pollution to shortage of parasites in our body, about why pollen began to play such a havoc with people today. The relationship with our industrial development is being suspected. I agree. Obviously a smaller number of people developed the syndrome when there were far more cedar trees in Japan. We pretend to know everything but actually we know nothing especially if it takes long-term perspective.