Job Discussion Forums

[sethness]

Apsara, Gordon is correct that J people are less likely than foreigners to let you know that your odor offends.

However, I'd like to add an additonal observation: It's well known that Asians, Japanese in particular, tend to have fish-based diets, while Westerners tend to have red-meat-based diets. An unexpected result of this is body odor-- Japanese tend to have less than Westerners. Westerners simply don't notice, because they've been raised with it and no longer notice it at levels that are normal based on their personal experience.

You may therefore expect that a Japanese (fish-eating or vegetarian) person will notice a body-odor-related funk in a Westerner's/red-meat-eater's room before the average Westerner will.

Another practical problem that this produces, is that the average Westerner has trouble finding adequately strong deodorants and deodorant soaps in Japan. The Japanese "8x4" brand deodorant is often recommended by foreigners, but I think it's only minimally adequate-- most Westerners are better off simply asking someone "back home" to send us what we need, and brands we trust.

[fluffyhamster]

Sethness, have you ever been in a classroom full of Japanese high school students right after their PE lesson? Some of the girls especially were 'beefy', and I don't mean they had chunky legs.

[Perpetual Traveller]

And then there's the classes where you can definitely smell the fish the little old ladies all ate for breakfast, lunch and dinner! As someone who doesn't eat fish I really notice it.

I see someone else has beat me to commenting about the problem of mildew in winter. I was very careful to air out my many bedding layers in summer but was doing it less frequently as winter arrived. Unfortunately my apartment did used to get a lot of condensation and sure enough, the bottom layer, which just sits straight on the wood of my bed platform had to be thrown away.

PT