Bad breath and deoderant...

So a common topic of conversation lately has been the Japanese people's really god-aweful bad breath! We've noticed that their ental hygiene probably hasnt changed a whole lot since the middle ages and assumed this was the reason they had such terrible teeth and bad breath. When I say terrible teeth, I literally mean stickingout every which way, gray gums, brown gunk in between their teeth, and sometimes gray and rotten teeth. Yellow and brown are very common colors. We also noticed that their toothpaste doesnt have any flouride in it for some unknown reason. This of course doesnt help matters much. This leaves us foreigners who are meticulous about their dental hygiene (ie. especially Aaron and me!!) painfully desperate for flouride toothpaste from home!! (hint hint!)

What we didnt know, however, and that I just found out yesterday, is that Japanese never brush their teeth in the morning!!! (pause to gag and catch my breath....) They believe that you only brush your teeth after youve eaten (Ive only seen some brush their teeth after lunch...). Im not saying you shouldnt brush your teeth after every time youve eaten. Thats the ideal thing to do. But do they NOT smell their breath in the morning??? Do they NOT see the brown gunk and feel the cavities and see their rotten teeth? Do they not know that when youre lying horizontal your stomache acid and bacteria from your dinner come up sometimes and are the reason for bad morning breath??? The time your mouth is the absolute nastiest is in the morning! EWWWWWWWWWW!!!! I have to say, after learning this, so many pieces of the puzzled snapped into place! THATS why my teachers breath smells like ass! Thats why my students have rotten teeth! I often thought that my teachers just had natto for breakfast every morning (natto is fermented soy beans that smell like dirty feet).

Anyway, I told Aaron and Adam about this and although they were quite disgusted, both said that it made a lot of sense...

Another thing weve been talking about is deoderant and body odor (I know..pleasant topics, huh?). The deoderant/anti-perspirant doesnt work on us here. Its so weak it might hide the smell for a couple hours but thats it! So were also very desperate for American/western anti-perspirant (hint hint again...). However, despite this problem of ours, it doesnt seem to be a problem for the Japanese. Ive not once noticed a Japanese person with bad body odor before. Even in the hight of summer when they HAD to be sweaty.....nothing! Honestly, I think Japanese just dont smell as much as foreigners do. We stink next to them! They also dont wear loads of smelly lotions or perfumes like we do (probably cuz they dont smell....). But, yeah, for some reason, their bodies either pass the toxins out in some other way (through their mouths perhaps...!). And no, its not because their diet is any better than ours. It might be slightly better, but they have PLENTY of processed foods and fast food restaurants for their bodies to have plenty of toxins in them. For example: they have hamburgers you can buy in the bread/snack/sandwich section of a convenience store. Not refrigerated. And you just stick it in the microwave and heat it up.. or not i guess. Now, for meat not to have to be refrigerated and still be "safe" to eat not only scared the crap out of me, but should scare the crap out of the people who eat it! Think of how processed that hamburger must be. I bet its worse than a twinkie!! You know that has to be really bad!

Anyway, those were my recent discoveries... I thought they were rather interesting. And those hints were serious by the way. We really do need toothpaste and deoderant!! Adams mom is coming next month though, so hopefully shell be bringing some supplies!