The Season of the Mask, Revigorated Blog Beginning Perhaps Post

When my parents came to Japan last February, what surprised them the most, leaving them in a continuous state of disbelief, more than anything other thing about this very different culture?

The face mask.

Yes, it is the season of influenza rates charted twice daily on the uninsulated walls of the teachers room, and the common cold as no mere possibility in the life of a school teacher. It is… the season of the mask. An average winter census in a public place will yield around a 1 in 3 probability of mask wearing.

My parents, as with I, had only experienced mask imagery in hospitals worn by doctors and nurses, areas of extreme pollution, or cities experiencing an outbreak of SARS. But in Japan, the reasons they are worn are many. But the foremost seems to be, no surprise, courtesy towards others. It’s like a personal quarantine. But also to provide a moist environment for the throat and nose and to prevent yourself from contracting respiratory diseases.

It probably does work to some degree, but I just cannot make myself wear one.

Strawberry Picking

Along with the season of the mask is the season of ….


strawberry picking.

What?

Yes, likely in order to use ample greenhouse space during an inconvenient growing time, strawberry season, along with all associated flavored products are winter’s domain. It all begins with red and white Christmas cakes in December, strawberry flavored, just like the great American Christmas tradition. This weekend I sampled the season firsthand across the Tone River. It doesn't come cheap at 1500 yen, normally 12$ but now over $16 due to the currency changes. This gets you a half hour of tabe (eating) ho-dai, unalterably linked with ho-down in my mind. I managed to count nearly 50 green strawberry stems.

Interesting Aside: Greenhouses usually used for melons are fitted with sulfur (a natural insecticide), a gas heater, and a hive of pollinating bees. Three minutes into a conversation with our strawberry purveyor, we (or really my girlfriend) were told that the previous year, with the prices of oil so high, two of his strawberry friends went deep into the red on their checkbooks and hung themselves in their greenhouses.