Fifteen yard penalty for illegal face mask. I like football, which is relatively unrelated to what I am talking about. In Japan, people wear face masks...all the time. Of the 15 people currently in the same room as me, 7 are wearing face masks. You get used to it after a while, but it really confused Brad when he came. Last week I was teaching the 5th graders and EVERY kid was wearing one. The teacher was too.
Though it looks like ground zero for a zombie infection movie, I am told that it is less sinister. The Japanese (and many Asian cultures I am told) wear face masks to avoid getting sick, or getting other people sick. If you have a cough, you wear a mask. If someone else has a cough, you wear a mask. If it is Tuesday...yep, you wear a mask. I like the idea behind it of helping people not get sick and not becoming sick yourself, but I will never do it. Why you ask?
Because of my super strong Gaijin immunities, I have not been really sick at all since coming to Japan. I see about 500 kids every week and they all want to touch me, yet I remain unaffected. Boom! They should use me for tests or something to create super soldiers.
Though it looks like ground zero for a zombie infection movie, I am told that it is less sinister. The Japanese (and many Asian cultures I am told) wear face masks to avoid getting sick, or getting other people sick. If you have a cough, you wear a mask. If someone else has a cough, you wear a mask. If it is Tuesday...yep, you wear a mask. I like the idea behind it of helping people not get sick and not becoming sick yourself, but I will never do it. Why you ask?
Because of my super strong Gaijin immunities, I have not been really sick at all since coming to Japan. I see about 500 kids every week and they all want to touch me, yet I remain unaffected. Boom! They should use me for tests or something to create super soldiers.
I had an interesting experience in class earlier. Being immune to disease and sickness does not make me immune to blemishes of the face (some would say that the whole face area is a blemish, but that is mean). I had a blemish which I cut while shaving. No biggie right? There was a nice red mark on my face though where the cut had been. My Japanese co-teacher found the best time to point that out in the class we were teaching (28 13-year-olds). The dialogue is as follows:
Furiya Sensei: Mr. Jeff, you have something on your face here.
Me: Oh...I cut myself shaving.
Furiya Sensei: (gesturing to class and speaking loudly) He cut himself shaving! Ok!
Me: Uh...thanks.
Glad I could help in the teaching of these kids right? It was weird.
Last point, the Quadra-kill. School lunch was pretty mellow today, some chicken, potatoes, spaghetti (not real spaghetti) and bread. I got thinking as I often do over lunch and I counted 4 animals that had to die for my school lunch. Take that PETA! There was pick, chicken, shrimp, and octopus. I am learning that the Japanese motto for food is: "If it moves, kill it and eat it." How else do you explain the Japanese being the ones to figure out how to eat Fugu? How many people had to die to get that one right?
2 comments:
I would be all for kids that are sick to slap on a mask. Last week was gross! (and I contributed with a cough)
Does the mask thing relate back to the SARS epidemic? Or did it exist before that? I always thought asians wearing masks was a consequence of the paranoia that created.
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