Oh, gross

I was washing my hands (for the 40th time of that particular day) in a Tokyo public lavatory. Behind me a toilet flushed and I saw the blur of a man rushing past me out - skipping the hand washing part - back into the world. It must be the Japanese sense of shame; that it's more shameful to be caught taking a shit than being seen not to wash your hands after the aforementioned movement.

I've talked on this blog before about fecal matter, how it gets everywhere because people don't wash their hands, then they touch door knobs, metro handrails, they shake other people's hands. Then people scratch their eyes, rub their noses, and bite their nails. That's how you get viruses - I know it's happened to me. But now, it's a little worse, with the swine flu among us. Even worse as the Japanese do not seem to have strict social rules on coughing and sneezing - they basically do it publicly, they do not cover their noses, and they don't seem to care where their germs go. I personally find it revolting, and it is one of the very least pleasant of Japanese social mores. I see it in children and I see it in adults, of all classes - it simply is not taught in homes and in schools, and that, to me, is vile.