Another daily life quirk
Guess what’s inside the paper bag….
It’s just a pack of sanitary pads…
It’s one of those things I get but don’t really get at the end of the day. I wonder why there is a shyness or necessity to cover up sanitary pads. I mean half of the population needs this stuff once a month for at least a few days and we shouldn’t be ashamed of what is part of our genetic makeup.
But, sanitary pads and tampons are the only products that are slipped into a paper bag with its own plastic one outside. Wouldn’t people know what’s inside anyway? I say, do without the bloody paper bag.
I know it’s probably deemed as one of those highly private things that are embarrassing to leave out in the open.
One other close example would be the music or flushing noise that is installed in most toilets here which covers up audible bowel functions. I think belching and farting are pretty verboten when you have company in most cultures. But is the toilet a public place? In Japan, it is.
It makes me giggle inwardly when I return to Singapore’s “noisy” loos where women don’t care what goes on in the aural background.
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August 19th, 2008 at 10:36 am
True leh…some maybe 25 years ago, my empress mum would sent me riding on my bike to the provision shop for a packet of you know what and the lao ban would carefully wrap it in newspaper leh…I couldn’t help but wonder why waste the newspaper, should sell to garanguni mah, tot they got buy??
August 19th, 2008 at 10:40 am
Oh yeah, you got go book shop and buy books or not? They also got brown paper book cover, because apparently Japanese consider their choice of books as private. And apparently, they won’t show you their book cases. So I thought maybe you would see people reading covered books on train or bus..hehe
August 19th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
LOL - I didn’t know they used to wrap sanitary pads in newspaper!!
On the book point, yes it’s very common to shield your choice of book with a cover in Japan. You will see it everywhere! I used to wonder if they had very saucy titles but I realised it’s for any book they are reading.
I personally don’t do it because I don’t have a problem with other people knowing what I am reading on the train.
August 20th, 2008 at 9:26 pm
how interesting…the book thing…the pad thing is just weird but….just go with the flow lah..maybe one day it might change…