The Jungle

You need all of this stuff to get through the summer in Japan.  I won't make those of you who've suffered a summer here read why, but for the 'noobs' you'd better read all of the links in this sentence.  You notice that odd smell when you arrive in a humid E. Asian country?  It's the jungle: too many things microscopic and larger living, breeding and dying, all at the same time.  My Toronto nose can only accept the smell of a few things doing that at any one time: not every microorganism the WHO tracks.

Yeah, Japanese live close to nature, because they haven't improved on their housing since they borrowed tatami from the Chinese Tang Dynasty.  If you have a choice of apartments, take the one without tatami, get a bed and sleep off the floor.  That's how you keep your mattress from mildew and ticks, not by hanging it outside in the smog. My fucking native-wife!  She opens all the windows to let in 'fresh air' in Tokyo.  That would be the same 'fresh air' that makes this concrete city look so:

A better idea is to figure out the dehumidifying function on your air-conditioner.  That might even help you have dry clothes in rainy-season, instead of hanging them for the month in vain hope.