Last night I was watching TV and stumbled across (well, sat there passively as it flickered on the screen) a rather amusing advertisement for plaque-control toothpaste. Apparently in your mouth, plaque is just a bunch of tiny dudes dressed up in puffy-looking costumes, all hanging out and having a party.
But lo! All is not well in plaque-land. Suddenly, an earthquake rumbles through and everyone panics. The plaque-people all run to the nearest gap between teeth and seatbelt themselves in to ride out the coming storm. What is it? What will happen to these slightly-cute-slightly-scary creatures?
Zoom out to the very cute woman who's about to use the special toothpaste. With the utmost in dramatic skill, she squirts the paste onto her toothbrush and begins her task.
Zoom back inside her mouth. Catastrophe! Mayhem! Morbidity! Puffy plaque-people go flying, their (apparently not UL-approved) seatbelts dissolved like nothing. Hot damn, this toothpaste really works!
Zoom back out to cute lady, grinning cutely despite the genocide she has just enacted.
Naturally I laughed, particularly tickled by the plaque people and their reaction to the coming destruction. I sat there for a moment, warmed by a geniunely entertaining commercial. It's these (far more entertaining than the usual offal that they call programming) that find me turning on the TV on occasion.
But then I realized. Inside the cute Japanese girl's mouth, the plaque-people were all gaijin.
What the hell?
So either gaijin are a tenacious and unsightly growth on the otherwise pristine surface of Japanese society ... or they just make better panic-in-the-face-of-destruction faces. You decide.
UPDATE: I just found the commercial online, you can view it at the LION website. Or just click on this link.
I know this may not be something you want to read, but I have to speak up. It's an oft-mentioned but rarely* blogged topic: Japanese Pubic Hair.
In Japan, grooming of pubic hair doesn't seem to be a top priority. In fact, it's not a priority at all, since nobody seems to do it. If you're stuck back in the west without access to a public bath for evidence, just go out and download some amply-available Japanese porn and see for yourself. The porn reflects the reality, I can tell you that. If you're here in Japan, I'm sure you know exactly what I'm talking about.
It's as if out-of-control bush carries with it some sort of unspoken bragging rights. I go to the gym almost every day during the week, which involves public bathing. Not like I'm actively checking out other men's equipment, but it's kind of obvious when there's friggin pubic bonsai** springing out at you. I apologize; bonsai are finely-trimmed, carefully-controlled things of beauty. The bush of pube, so to speak, is obviously not. Apparently people are more concerned about pruning said miniature trees. And why not? Not like anyone (including wives and girlfriends) is actually going to look...
The end result is that everywhere you go you'll find pubes. This is especially true in public toilets and baths. I can't vouch for women but I imagine it's not any different. Go to a urinal, and most of them are probably festooned with pubage. The floor of the gym's bathroom, though cleaned hourly, is frightening for its array of pubic hairs. I remember going to an onsen last year with a friend's visiting boyfriend in tow, and we had to apologize to him and explain that usually we don't have to refer to the baths as "pube pools." To this day, the place is known in our circle as "that place with all the pubes."
I wonder how such a fastidious nation could have developed such a disregard for that particular area?
Footnotes:
*I completely made this up. I have no idea if anyone has blogged about this.
**blatantly stolen from the most excellent film, Harold and Kumar go to Whitecastle.
This past weekend, my school had its biggest-yet 文化祭 (bunkasai: culture festival). The students spent months preparing some very elaborate scenes as bases for their shops/gamerooms/etc. The results were quite impressive, something pictures can't really express. But I'm gonna show you pictures anyway.
Note: The people pictured in the thumbnail are not in costume. They dress like that normally for "fun." You know the drill. Click the thumbnail for the full gallery.
I found out today that Saturday is apparently some as-yet-unheard-of holiday called "Sweetness Day" or something similarly idiotic. Apparently it's the day in which you "give sweets to your sweetie."
WTF? Isn't that what that other Hallmark-Holiday, Valentine's Day, is for?
Jesus, the things people buy into.
In Japan, many "deli-style" places that sell food have a little section in front with samples for you to try. Japanese people haven't the slightest qualm about munching down on one or two samples and moving on to the next booth without a thought. Apparently, people on vacation have been known to actually fill themselves this way in lieu of meals (*cough* you know who you are).
Maybe this is a personal thing, but I can't take and eat a sample without feeling at least some semblance of guilt for not taking interest in the store in question. Perhaps it's a waste of my time and energy, but I feel some sort of obligation to show an interest in the store's wares. I see all the time people walk to a booth/store, take the sample, and walk straight away without a backward glance.
Is this just me, or am I carrying with me some sort of cultural guilt?