Ever wondered why there are so many female Japanese tourists in Hawaii at this time of year? Never mind the statistics and official answer to that, I'll give it to you straight in one short word: utsu (鬱, depression). The joshi (女子, women) of this country get seriously depressed in the summer and as a remedy, a trip to Hawaii is at the top of the list. Second on the list, maybe fura (フラ, hula). Or more likely, yoga. All three mean much the same thing, really: relaxation, preferably under palm trees. It's what we're all dreaming about.

And who can blame us? Japanese summers have never really been nice to the joshi populace of this country. It was okay during the Edo Period (1603-1868), when everyone wore the same, strange hair wound up in chunks and arranged around their heads, but that was the century before last, and joshi have evolved. We wear our hair every which way now and in all sorts colors, but unfortunately, summertime refuses to take that into account. The intense jimejime (じめじめ, humidity), combined with the merciless hītoairando genshō (ヒートアイランド現象, heat island phenomenon) and the fact that a freak taifū (台風, typhoon) could hit, like, later this afternoon, all cause the hair to uneru (うねる, get wavy), haneru (はねる, jump around) or betatsuku (べたつく, get sticky). And as any girl over the age of 10 will tell you, no one feels like facing the world with bad hair. Major cause of utsu right there.

Then there is the deep, dark knowledge that if she's not careful, a Japanese woman will put on an extra three years to her age come September. Onna wa natsuni fukeru (女は夏に老ける, a woman grows old in the summer) has become jōshiki (常識, common knowledge), and joshi would rather forego this season altogether if we could. We're told that the chief culprits of torikaeshino tsukanai (取り返しのつかない, irrevocable) damage consist of shigaisen (紫外線, ultraviolet rays), reibou ni yoru kansō (冷房による乾燥 dehydration from air-conditioning) and the general tsukare (疲れ, fatigue) that come with having to slog through public transportation system in heels, panty hose and tight suits. Iyadanaaa! (いやだなああ! Give me a break!)