I was faced with a storm when I went to a barbershop the other day. It might have been too early, but it must have been a storm which ushers in spring. The storm was so strong that I was on the brink of being blown away by the wind and sometimes had to stop in the street and hang on the sticks in my hands. As soon as I managed to reach the shop, I talked about the storm with the barber. He agreed that it was the harbinger of the spring. But he told me that he had already been aware of the coming much earlier. He knew it from a sensor in his body, his nose. That is to say, he has been suffering from hay fever. So as soon as the pollen is in the air, it awakes up his nose and tells him the coming of spring. The fever is more serious for him than the spring storms and is the biggest problem. Spring storms do not last so long, but the fever tends to last and cause him to suffer much longer than the storms.
Looking back, I wonder when spring hay fever has become an epidemic. When I was young, I had never heard of the disease and had rarely seen those who suffered from it. It is a typical disease of our time, a pollution, which was caused by the government. In other words, the government had planted so many cedar trees in the mountains for a long time that the trees have come to spread too much pollen in the spring, causing many people to get cedar fever. Now, Japanese cedar has become infamous for the fever and an enemy of people in Japan. It is a great pity since the tree has been highly appreciated as a material for houses and furniture in Japan.
For now, I am lucky not to get the fever. I tend to get it for a week in April, but it is not as serious as others. Instead, I always have to fight off drowsiness. I tend to be so sleepy all day long that I have no motivation to do anything.

　先日、散髪に行ったとき、嵐に見舞われました。すこし早すぎかもしれませんが、春を告げる嵐だったに違いありません。あまりの強風に吹き飛ばされそうになり、路上に立ち止まって手に持った杖にしがみつくこともありました。なんとか店にたどり着くと、散髪屋の人と嵐の話を始めました。彼も、春の前触れに違いないといっていました。でも、彼はもっと早くから春の訪れを感じていたそうです。体のセンサー、すなわち鼻でそれに気付いたそうです。彼は、花粉症にかかっていたのです。花粉が空気中に舞うと、鼻がすぐに感じ取り、春の訪れを感じるそうです。彼には、花粉症は春の嵐よりも深刻で、最大の問題です。春の嵐はそれほど長く続きませんが、花粉症は嵐よりも長く続き、悩まされるそうです。
　思えば、花粉症はいつから広がったのでしょうか？ ボクが若い頃、この病気を聞いたこともなかったし、苦しんでいる人を見たこともほとんどありませんでした。 これは、典型的な現代病で、国による公害です。国が長い間にわたり、スギの木を山に植えすぎたために、春になると大量のスギ花粉が飛散するようになり、多くの人が花粉症にかかるようになったのです。いまやスギは花粉症で悪名をとどろかせて、日本人の敵になってしまいました。日本では住宅や家具の材料として高く評価されてきただけに、非常に残念です。
　今のところ、ボクは幸いにも花粉症にはかかっていません。4月に1週間ほどかかることはありますが、他の人ほど深刻ではありません。その代わり、春は、いつも眠気との戦いです。一日中眠くて、何もやる気が起きないのです。