I’m approaching my last week in Japan.  It has certainly been an interesting trip so far and I plan to make the most of this last week.  Seeing as I won’t be here much longer, I would like to share with you a couple Japanese culture ‘quarks’ on cleanliness that I noticed and some I seemed to have picked up.

Most of you probably know about the Japanese tradition of taking off ones shoes before going inside.  But you probably don’t know the ins and outs of this tradition or the reason why it is so important.  In a traditional house, each person takes their shoes off when they step inside the door and then puts on slippers to use around the house.  When going to a back patio or backyard, it is common to have another pair of shoes there to slip on for outdoor use.  When taking shoes off it is best to step directly out of one pair of shoes and into another without touching your feet again onto any outside ground.  The reason is because this creates a clear separation between being inside and outside.  You leave the outside ‘out there’ and do not bring it back into the house.  It is almost a cleanliness type thing. 

The Japanese are very big on cleanliness.  One of the more obvious signs of this cleanliness in the Japanese culture is the abundance of hand sanitizer and places to clean hands. When walking into some restaurants, dorm centers, convenience stores, hotels, etc. there are large squirt bottles of hand sanitizer out for people to use.  Each time we return to our dorm center, we use the hand sanitizer at the gate.   At my host family’s house, there were even two sinks in the kitchen.  One was for doing dishes and cleaning food and the other was for washing hands.  Every time we came into the house after a day out we immediately washed our hands.  In train stations, there are sometime random sinks out to wash your hands.  When we went to a museum, there was an ice cream stand and near it was a four faucet sink so everybody could wash their hands before eating.  Maybe if you have been to a Japanese restaurant before, you are familiar with the little towel that is handed to each person before the meal.  Before every meal, even in restaurants, small, hot, damp towels are given to each person to wipe their hands.  Even during airline meals, these towels are provided.  The towels should be folded and returned when you are done using them.

Constant hand cleansing is not the only sign of Japanese cleanliness, but also the abundant use of masks.  It is very common to see people wearing face masks here to prevent the spread of sickness.  Originally, I thought these people were a little germ phobic, but then I realized that it was usually the sick people who were wearing the masks – a considerate thing to do.  Now, when there is someone who is coughing, almost all of the students studying abroad here get a little annoyed if that person is not wearing a mask.  It will be odd to come back to America where it is not common place to wear a mask if a person is sick!

 That’s all for now – hope you learned something new!

Location: Sangubashi, Japan