Yellow Dust

Last night it rained really really hard.  Shinsuke and I both woke up because it was so loud.  But this morning it was bright and blue with just a few wispy clouds in the sky.

But - when we went outside everything was covered with what looked like dried mud.  When I saw the car, I thought someone had thrown a bucket of mud over it and left it to dry.  It was so dirty.  Shinsuke told me that it was just 'yellow dust' from China.  I, of course, had no idea what yellow dust was, so I asked Shinsuke.  He told me that in China there is so much pollution and deforestation that the sand is swept up and sticks to the pollution and the wind carries it to Japan, where it comes down with the rain. 

I've lived in Japan for four years and I have never seen this yellow dust before.  But, maybe I'm just not very observant because I guess that it comes every year.  Anyway, here is an article from the Japan times about Yellow Dust.

And two pictures of our car after the rain.

Here's the side shot.

And this is just the window.

Gross, yeah?

Until next time...