Quote:
Originally Posted by kindlekitten
so does that mean that westerners are no longer so stinky to the Japanese?
|
It was the meat that did that in past years more than the dairy. And garlic. Oh, and the bathing. When the Japanese take a bath they remove the top 11 layers of skin! The first time I went to an Onsen I was amazed to see people scouring themselves with washcloths so abrasive I'd use them to remove rust from a 57 Chevy! They scrub viciously for five minutes, rinse off, then do it all over again another three or four times before getting into the hot springs. Some of the Onsens had signs on them forbidding entry to foreigners because they said the foreigners didn't wash thoroughly enough and got the hot spring water dirty!
The water in public baths (found in every neighborhood) and Onsens is so clean you can almost drink it. MUCH cleaner than any public pool I've ever been in anywhere else in the world.
When I first moved to Asia 20+ years ago, there was virtually no garlic used in Japan's cuisine. These days garlic has become common. About 10 years ago there was even a fad of garlic restaurants, where every dish was prepared with handfuls of the stuff. I loved it, but the craze died off. More and more beef and pork has been added to the Japanese diet too, so now we all get to smell like a Big Mac!
Stitchawl