Mr. Sun

Yet another interesting quirk I have discovered about Japan is the populace's fear of the sun. As far as I can tell it applies only to the women, but when I say fear I mean like acute hatred and phobia of the sun and the tanning that it implies. Women walk around everywhere with sun parasols or umbrellas and many of them wear pants, long sleeved shirts and white gloves to make sure they are covered up. Age also doesn't seem to be a factor in this fear of tanning as you see both teenage girls and ojiisan or grandmothers using the umbrellas and other such sun fighting devices. When I asked my Japanese girlfriend and other friends why they are so against tanning they acted like I was crazy to even ask. Like they were honestly kind of shocked that someone would want to get tan in the first place. Lucky for me God didn't decide to grace me with the skin to tan anyway, so I'll blend right in. Thanks for that God, thanks a lot.