ハンカチ

handkerchiefs.

Those long forgotten pieces of cloth used in delicate and rather fancy situations like tea time on that old estate out on the moors of England. Or maybe not quite that. But never the less, not an article forgotten by Japan.
Yes, Japan too used handkerchiefs. They are rather fond of them actually. But this is not just past, but also present. I think that most people might have a handkerchief for every day of the week or more. They have of course been using it for less dainty activities, such as dabbing or straight up wiping the sweat off their faces in the summer time. It is of course used by damsels in distress. It is a common concept in their dramas for a guy to spare a girl in need a handkerchief. Then of course she must wash it and give it back, giving her a chance to see him again and he just happens to be her crush and then complications and then omg love. But that is all of them right?
Almost never are these little beasts, the handkerchiefs  ever used for their suspected purpose of blowing noses. I cannot tell you why, only that it is considered gross and kind of rude. But the rude part probably stems from the fact that it is just rude to blow your nose in public and you are just expected to suffer the sniffles until you can politely excuse yourself to the toilet or some other private room where upon you can blow your nose. Perhaps blowing your nose into a handkerchief is seen as disgusting not only because you are blowing your nose in public, but also that handkerchief is perceived as being used for other purposes; therefore the thought of your wiping your snot all over your sweaty body is just nasty.
However the most common and annoying usage for these little buggers is so that everywhere has an excuse to skimp on hand towels to dry your hands and not have hand dryers in bathrooms. This is just way too common a theme for all over Japan. I mean I never remember to bring mine! And before you say 'Oh keep it in your purse/ pocket', that logic will work for malls and stations and such, but at my work not so much. Also pocket? come on I am a girl, if you can fit a hand towel or pretty much anything bigger than a tube of chapstick in your pocket you might be looked at a little weird, also an honorable mention for skirts and dresses which have none. But back to purses, it would be weird to carry my purse all around work and into the the restroom, or if I just carried it into the restroom probably every teacher would assume I had a scenario like last week.... Besides, then it would mean I would have to remember my purse as well and let's face it, I have a hard enough time remembering the little piece of cloth. Keep in mind that I have been calling them little pieces of cloth, but they really can't be compared to the handkerchiefs of days passed. These are more like little towels in the size and shape of handkerchiefs, but can clearly absorb quite a bit more water and have that same, but to a much smaller caliber, towel like material on one or both sides and will often feature some kind of print on the side opposite the towel, those occasionally both, sometimes they are embroidered or patterned. Japan has really just taken this idea and ran in every direction with it.
The idea is pretty great, until you kind of soak it and are carrying around what is effectively a damp tissue the rest of the day. Can you imagine carrying an oversized wet tissue in your bag? And then you casually just reach into it to grab your phone and your fingers just happen to brush it. And you have that momentary pause. That mind cringe. Who knows what bacteria could be growing in this bountiful environment. A nice moist, dark space, in the bottom of your bag where all kinds of things go. And not just that, but that very cloth comes in frequent contact with your hands! And your hands, they shake other people, they touch all kinds of things, they are the most common contributor to what later develops as a cold or the flu. But relief! You find your phone. But your relief is short lived. Is it just you, or does your phone case seem slightly damp. You don't really want to put it up to your ear now when you answer it. It is just like delivering those little happiness-devouring bacteria right to the source. Well you get the idea. I am no germ-o-phobe (mysophobic), and I honestly think that the handkerchiefs are a pretty good idea in these kinds of situations (the bathroom ones, not the bacteria fedex), but I also think that in this day and age, and the fact that the majority of the world does not use handkerchiefs for this express purpose, that Japan could benefit in investing in some more hand drying mechanisms. Also that the rest of the world should carry a little towel/handkerchief just in case they ever find their-selves in this kind of situation.

Japan Fashion: Accessories

In the winter most of us are prone to wearing hats, gloves, scarves and accessories to keep us warm. Sure most Japanese people will wear scarves, almost men more so than women. But to see then wearing hats is another thing entirely. Especially in winter. Men will wear hats typically, but I feel like it is definitely not as many that would wear them in the states. The beanies, toboggans, berets are all amiss over here. Women in particular are very against wearing hats. It comes and goes with the fashion of popstars, but the recent consensus is that wearing hats, especially winter hats ( in other words NOT sun hats) makes girls faces look large.
Weird right? I don't think I have ever been concerned about my face shape in America. But I suppose it is a bit like saying 'Does this dress make my butt look big?' only instead it is 'Does this hat make my face look fat?' An excessively large number of Japanese women are concerned over the width of her face, and it is often one of the first things they will notice about a new person. I remarked upon how I thought a woman across the street was very comely and the Japanese woman next to me said her face was too big. I am sure I made something similar to one of these faces (o.O). It is super weird to hear Japanese people say anything is fat seeing as they are all so skinny and practically under the degree to which their body mass indexes are recorded for average. It is also weird for my students to tell me I have a small face. Personally, every time I hear that I am thinking about the shrunken heads from the Night Bus of Harry Potter, and get a bit concerned.
But I digress. The point is due to the attention that hats will draw to ones head, many Japanese women will avoid wearing them. Additionally hats will push their hair and any volumizing elements that wear added to it, down flat, mussing their carefully maintained hair styles, and lets be honest, to carry around all those cosmetics just to have a wear head with a hat is just a pain!
But what they might wear is a scarf. Especially if it does not mess up their locks. It is outfit accentuating and very fashionable. Summer scarves likewise seem to be a good accessory for most women. A light breezy one, or even the stewardess ones that tie around the neck. As for the hipster scarf, I swear Japanese people must have mastered the look before it reach America, with the ease that they wear them. And it is just unearthly how perfect their scarf placement looks at all time. As far as I go with scarves it looks like It found fabric and rolled in it and they assume it as a pitiable attempt at clothing oneself.
Gloves are fashionable for winter and for the gothic lolita sort, and primarily consist of a thin material, often a knit or a wool and the primary function is fashionability and not so much warmth. Mens gloves have a greater degree of variance and will be thin or think in mostly darker colors.
Also in winter, I would swear up and down that those face masks are popular, because I see no other point in donning one of those ridiculous and irritating things on. Well I suppose there is no point if you are a mouth coverer whenever you cough, but like I mentioned earlier, it seems that is against most Japanese peoples policies. Though it is really not just a winter fashion. People wear it for pollen too. It just gets to its peak of fashion popularity in the winter.

Jewelry, ah jewelry. What most people automatically jump to whenever accessories are mentioned. Jewelry here is certainly worn. And I would ever fractionally hesitate to say that it is worn more here than in America. The largest difference is rings. Japanese girls and boys do not really wear rings. If you wear them people automatically seem to think that your significant other gave it to you. No matter how it looks or on what finger you are wearing it. It seems to me that they really don't know too much about the significance of rings like Korean do; who will get couple rings to all of their long term fancies and pretend they have lasting significance as promises of marriage to one another. Japanese people do wear wedding rings, but it is more of a recent fashion and I would certainly wonder as to the percentage of married people that choose wear them. It seems to be a younger thing to do for sure. Additionally, they don't really wear them like the married couples of America. I saw a family on the train this morning where the mother was not wearing her ring and it didn't look like she had in a while and the father was definitely wearing his. But she didn't look like the type to be promiscuous or anything for those who were about to suggest...(too homely). So it seems to me that rings, even wedding rings, are an accessory that are seldom worn and not worn with the regularity and meaning that I grew up with.
Necklaces and bracelets are of course worn in plenty. And the shinier the better, or so it seems. Those hipster things with feathers or made of cloth, are not too popular in this part of the world ( though I was told that feathers were in several years back). For men, necklaces are again not too uncommon, but are much more simple. There is a significant abundance of bracelets that seem to adorn the womens (and sometimes a simple thing for interested men) arms here, but a noticeable lack of watches. Even in the men, I find that watches are noticeably less. Though not as significantly absent as with the women.
Belts are worn, but nothing too noticeably different there save for that my students seem to prefer a punkish looking belts and the girls will often get some pretty often shiny or sparkly affair. Not that they need belts. They use them to hike up their skirts.

But the major Japanese accessory, is a pocket towel. Or a handkerchief. Men will often carry them about in their back pockets, and women their purses. These guys serve for multiple purposes. Such as wiping your face from sweat on a hot summers day. I see many a man doing this all the time. I think ladies must go to the bathroom and dab at their sweatiness so as not to rub their make up all around. In the winter, when you have a cold and are in complete absence of tissues, is serves as a super secret nose wipe. Now please note, it is not really polite to do this, but I have seen them do it and know they do it. The thing is, blowing your nose is disgusting to them. They would rather see you sniveling throughout an entire day than clearing your air passages in public. It is considered gross not only to blow your nose, but also to blow it into your handkerchief, but significantly better than wiping your nose, say, on your sleeve for instance. But sometimes, things get a little desperate. So the trick is to do it unseen. Going to the bathroom (which will not always have toilet paper. Especially in public ones) or any separate, vacant room, and hiding from view in one way or another is perfectly acceptable solution to this kind of situation. And lastly, and probably most important, they use them as hand wipes. Not to wipe your dirty icky hands on. More so to use after you have washed your hands afresh and need to rid yourself of the water rivulets running down them. You got it. There is no paper towels or hand dryers in a very large amount of the bathrooms in Japan. In this manner, they can save, money on electricity, trees, and maintenance as well. And, especially at the present, Japan is all about saving some electricity.