This is me! In a surgical face mask. No, I’m not being weird (as per usual), I’m demonstrating that this is a normal thing in Japan! Well, supposedly, you should wear one when you are sick so you don’t spread your germs. So I tried it for the first time yesterday, to see if it works. All that happens is that your mouth gets sweaty and gross. DO NOT RECOMMEND. Like this is one Japan custom I’m just not going to follow.
There are a lot of different tips to follow if you get a cold in Japan! There’s the whole face mask thing. It’s so odd for people from America to come here and see everyone wearing masks, right? And like most of these people are not even sick, they just think that if they wear a mask they won’t catch swine flu. I have news for you guys, I just don’t think it works that way. Perhaps perhaps (I’m willing to give Japan this one), wearing the mask when you are sick will prevent you from getting your breath on too much, but it just creates this warm, humid environment right by your mouth, which is kinda perfect for breeding viruses. But swine flu is such a big deal here right now; I’m pretty sure Japan has bought far more than their fair share of vaccines, meaning that some poor child in Nigeria will probably get 新型インフルエンザ while Taro only get a runny nose.
Although one thing I’ll admit is that wearing the mask sure buys you a whole lot of sympathy. “AMANDA. ARE YOU SICK. OH GOD.” “Amanda, you better not work too hard today!” “Amanda, will you be alright?” My favorite was when I replied, “I just have a cold,” and T-san replied loudly, “あっ風邪なんだ！！(Oh, it’s a COLD! [as in, i was wondering before, but i didn’t ask but finally you said it to someone else])” PS, there was exactly that much extra meaning hidden in that one simple sentence, guys. This is the kind of hidden meaning you have to look out for, in Japanese! Anyway, I got to spend the day not doing much but staring blearily at my computer and getting kind regards.
I-kacho is actually out for a week with the flu right now, so I think that’s why everyone is super worried. Also, I was with a bunch of people this weekend who have all got the flu right now. So like, ack! I’m pretty sure I’d feel a lot worse if I had the flu though. Maybe I caught this chest cold bug and it prevented me from getting the swine flu! Do viruses work that way? I dunno, but I’m going to think so! I gotta tread carefully though, because everyone expects us gaijin to get everyone else sick, so I really don’t want to prove them right.*
*next week everyone in my office will be out because of the flu
Obviously I can’t get chicken soup here (or, I can make it, but who wants to make food when you are sick!), so I usually eat udon noodles when I am sick. I hate udon noodles, I hate udon soup, and I hate hate hate aburage (a slice of deep fried tofu usually put in udon noodle soup), but I can’t stomach anything else when I’m sick. Udon is just the blandest, doughiest noodle. I despise it! I just don’t think it’s a great idea to eat ramen or rice or even that much meat. I ate lunch with Go-san and Boss Takahashi (who is not my boss), and as he walked us back we took a short cut along the river. “This little road is nice to walk by, right?” he said, giving us two young women a meaningful look. “But it’s best for a lover’s stroll.” He always has these little bits of wisdom that I have to take with a grain of salt.
“In America, what’s the custom when you get sick? Do you take a bath, or do you not take a bath?” I-san said later that night at a dinner party we were all at.
“Uh, we take a shower.”
Gasp! “Wow, that seems like it would make you sicker? We’re not supposed to even use the bath when we are sick.”
“Oops! I already used it, like twice.”
“Well then you’d better eat a ton of this spicy food and sweat those toxins out!” My dear readers, is that supposed to work? I don’t know either, but I felt a lot better after eating Nepalese curry and nan! It was actually a goodbye party for one of the South American second-generation Japanese working at the office who’s going back to Paraguay next week. It’s so weird talking to someone who looks and talks like a Japanese, but acts like … all relaxed! There’s no other way to describe it except to say that I’ve known him for a while and always just thought he was a weird Japanese person.
“Did you know,” K-san said, “that you could bake bread in a rice cooker?”
“What?!?” the gaijin people said.
“You can pretty much bake anything, in a rice cooker.”
“I made pancakes in there,” T-san said smugly.
“But,” I furrowed my brow, “wouldn’t it just be easier to use a frying pan?”
“Seriously?” I-san chipped in.
“They’re fluffier in there!” T-san said. “Besides, it’s cool that you can even do it.” Well, he’s right. With the wearing masks, and even eating gross udon, In Japan, you do things just because it’s cool you can do them that way in the first place!