OBACHAN'S SCRIBBLES

I’m not sure what this should be called… even in Japanese. I often call it “heat rash” but maybe technically it is not. “It” means the skin problem I have every summer from working at the hot and humid Izakaya kitchen. The place is air-conditioned… or more precisely, there is a duct coming into the kitchen which brings a little bit cool air in. One privileged person who can stand right underneath the duct can enjoy the subtle coolness. That’s it. The rest of the kitchen is … well, you don’t want to know.

Anyway, after sweating a lot there, I always find my skin really roughened around my neck, in the cheeks and forehead. Just looking at my skin, I can’t see anything abnormal … it is not red and not blister-like at all. But if I feel my skin, it is awfully rough where it sweats a lot. I thought this could be called “sweat rash,” but I’m not sure because it doesn’t show “the eruption of small red papules” as mentioned on some online medical dictionary sites. Every year this happens, and it subsides if I don’t work there for a couple of days and cures completely when the weather becomes cooler. So I’m not too worried, but I sure don’t like touching the roughened parts of my skin when I wash my face.