The Old School Otaku Lounge

This weekend, we are staying in the cool, sunny mountains of Nagano Prefecture where my in-laws live. Yesterday we noticed a thin misted layer of sand on our cars. Every spring, yellow dust from the Gobi Desert in Mongolia blows over Japan and other parts of Asia. You can read about this phenomenon on this Wikipedia article. Kyushu and western Japan (such as from Hiroshima to the Kansai area) gets it far worse. I remember the haze hanging over Himeji when I lived there years ago, and hearing about how the yellow dust will stain clothing that's been left outside to dry. When I was told it was dust from China, my reaction was, "You're kidding, right?"

Having grown up in Phoenix, AZ, I am no stranger to dust storms and such. It's just incredible how far the dust will travel all the way from Mongolia. Then again, The Gobi Desert is a pretty huge desert.