Eyepatch like a Pirate

I have a secret theory that people with eye patches are really just concealing their hidden powers. That is what Japan has taught me.

But no really, watch anime, read manga, see x-men/ the avengers. People with eye patches are pretty much bad asses. Also pirates. For whatever reason, you will almost always know that anyone wearing an eye patch has some super not so secret power they are about to unleash.
Moving on, this affects today's' culture in that it is completely acceptable to wear eye patches around Japan. I think it is all the imagery in their entertainment that has influenced it so, or possibly they just know something we don't about the awesomeness of eye patches, or they have super human powers. You can pick which one you want to believe, but when they unleash an ungodly amount of power when you become the super evil villain, I promise to tell you I told you so. But really, when I was a kid, I only really ever saw anyone wearing an eye patch a handful of times. And one of them was because this one girl had a 'lazy eye', also her eye patch was kinda lame.

Here I could not really tell you for what reasons they wear them. Sure some are purely for vanity and are decorated with rhinestones and lace, but others are your plain gauzy-white, breathable band-aid looking kind, that are more likely related to eye injuries. Regarding those eye injuries, I have exactly no clue what injuries would permit addressing oneself as a pirate, but it does make me wonder if they are either really serious injuries, or if we, in western culture, have been doing medicine wrong for years (or if it is useless and they serve no purpose). I have probably seen more than ten times the amount of eye patches living in Asia, than I have ever seen living in America. So yes the stereotype that they wear them is true, Japanese and Korean people for that matter seem to really like dressing up their faces between these eye patches and face masks. But I don't want you going around thinking everyone in Japan and Korea wears an eye patch and is secretly a Somalian pirate. They are not so common as that. I don't even think I could give you an accurate ratio, but I would certainly say it was less than one in a hundred, probably even one in a thousand. I just happen to live in a large city and see an incredible amount of people in my everyday life. After all, I never did live in New York or L.A....there could be more pirate-people there?

Stay Fashion Chic in the Winter

It's that season. Cover that cough and make sure to have the ever popular winter accessory at the ready!

In fact one of my entire classes was closed for a week because too many students caught the flu in it, so they were banned from coming to school. I am sure they didn't mind. One of the things that we are always told to do after teaching, before eating, upon coming home, is to wash our hands, but perhaps the more essential thing is to wear a face mask. I find this is especially essential in Japanese culture. I have noticed that when they cough they do not tend to cover their faces or redirect the spray of bacteria to another direction. I have actually seen on the subway that a woman with two little girls, first share the same water bottle even after she had been coughing ( oh and she was not wearing a face mask), and second cough directly onto the head of her daughter who was perched upon her lap.
So you see my concern. I did not notice this behavior as much in Korea, though the face masks were ever popular there as well. Face masks are often a sort of paper - the type that you find hospital gowns made of - and will have two straps; either they will both encircle the head or they will wrap either ear. If you are looking for a more long lasting facial mask, then cloth ones are available, but for whatever reason are less popular in Japan (in Korea my elementary kids loved them).

I get the feeling that these masks are seen as an unattractive feature. This is not a personal opinion but rather a witnessed event. Where upon leaving school or entering a social situation, even in the corridors, my students will more often than not remove their mask and place it back on when class is in session. I think that it might be a psychological effort to persuade the teacher not to call upon that student. Additionally, you never see a made up doll ( a young Japanese woman under the influence of make up) wearing any such mask. Either they have super natural abilities to avoid any such sickness, or they too feel like it is not quite the charm point that the manufacturers might want you to think.