Now that I have my old home videos converted to DVD, here is another shot of our hitch hike trip in the summer of 2003.
The Kyushu summers are scorchers, and after a couple years getting terrible sunburns I had begun to develop a healthy respect for the sun. Hence the sun hat, and neck towel. (The neck towel was a bit of a fashion tip we learned from watching the farmers in Kyushu. They almost all have a towel around their neck which helps block sunburn, but is also useful for wiping away sweat.
The hat brim rubbing against my sweaty forehead all day used to give me a huge rash of bloody acne in the summer time, so I added a bandana around my head to try and ease that somewhat.
And the sunglasses. Interesting enough hardly anyone in Japan wears sunglasses. Or if they do wear them, it’s almost always as a fashion statement and not as eye protection.
During the middle of a summer day in Kyushu I physically can not go outside without sunglasses. I feel blinded by the sun, and I’m squinting, and covering my eyes, and just can’t function at all. Japanese people don’t seem to mind it a bit. I've had several conversations with Japanese people about this, and they usually claim that Asian eyes are stronger than Western eyes. There may be some truth in that, although I've noticed Asian Americans wear sunglasses, so I wonder if acclimatization has anything to do with it.
Anyway, Greg always wanted me to take off my sunglasses because he thought in Japan sunglasses had a gangster image, and it would make people reluctant to pick us up. We went back and forth on this, but looking at the video, I don’t think I could possibly have looked like less of a tough guy in that outfit.
We played Greg’s favorite game: predict how long the next car ride would be. Up until now I had always picked the longer time, he had gone with the shorter time. Now we reversed our predictions. I went with the shorter time, and he still won. I had the worst luck ever in that game.
The Kyushu summers are scorchers, and after a couple years getting terrible sunburns I had begun to develop a healthy respect for the sun. Hence the sun hat, and neck towel. (The neck towel was a bit of a fashion tip we learned from watching the farmers in Kyushu. They almost all have a towel around their neck which helps block sunburn, but is also useful for wiping away sweat.
The hat brim rubbing against my sweaty forehead all day used to give me a huge rash of bloody acne in the summer time, so I added a bandana around my head to try and ease that somewhat.
And the sunglasses. Interesting enough hardly anyone in Japan wears sunglasses. Or if they do wear them, it’s almost always as a fashion statement and not as eye protection.
During the middle of a summer day in Kyushu I physically can not go outside without sunglasses. I feel blinded by the sun, and I’m squinting, and covering my eyes, and just can’t function at all. Japanese people don’t seem to mind it a bit. I've had several conversations with Japanese people about this, and they usually claim that Asian eyes are stronger than Western eyes. There may be some truth in that, although I've noticed Asian Americans wear sunglasses, so I wonder if acclimatization has anything to do with it.
Anyway, Greg always wanted me to take off my sunglasses because he thought in Japan sunglasses had a gangster image, and it would make people reluctant to pick us up. We went back and forth on this, but looking at the video, I don’t think I could possibly have looked like less of a tough guy in that outfit.
We played Greg’s favorite game: predict how long the next car ride would be. Up until now I had always picked the longer time, he had gone with the shorter time. Now we reversed our predictions. I went with the shorter time, and he still won. I had the worst luck ever in that game.
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