What we learned from the Japanese about wearing masks
“Look at those Asians with their ridiculous masks. You’d think we’re all dirty”.
It’ s the reaction of a lot of Westerners when seeing Asians wearing masks in their country. Somehow it just seems a bit insulting to think that people need to be protected from us.
Back in 2016 we spent 7 weeks in Japan and learned a different perspective that totally changed the way we thought about masks.
We met “Nick” on our 2nd day in Tokyo. He was a volunteer at Tokyo Free Guides, a non-profit organization that helps first-timers get their feet on the ground in Japan (see my post on getting a Free Volunteer Guide in Tokyo).
During our day with him we noticed he would wear a mask in enclosed spaces and when taking public transit. Outside he would take the mask off and since most of our time with him was outdoors we didn’t really think twice about his mask wearing. It was after our day with him, when having a coffee, that he explained.
“I’m sorry about wearing a mask. I am just getting over a cold so am being careful not to spread my germs”.
Wow. It’s not what we expected.
I found this post “Why Japanese wear masks” and it corroborates what Nick said: the Japanese will often wear face masks not for themselves but to “prevent one’s own germs or sickness from spreading in public places”. It explains that the Japanese are taught from an early age about hygiene and that keeping others from getting sick is about all about respect.
It is a philosophy that really impressed us and that we’ve never forgotten.
Today, in the midst of the Covid pandemic, I’m reminded of the Japanese.
Nobody likes to wear a mask. Nobody. I especially hate it: I have a hard time breathing, my glasses fog up, I sweat under the mask. I suffered from asthma in my late teens/early 20’s (it was brought on by a cat I had) and I sometimes feel like I’m going to have a panic attack when I wear a mask for a long period of time.
I hate wearing a mask.
Having said that, I wear a mask because it is the #1 proven way to stay healthy during the pandemic. And when I say stay healthy, I mean for myself as well as for Lissette. If I lived in a household with other family members (especially elderly) I would be even more vigilant. Because if I get sick, I’ll spread it to others and get them sick as well. Wearing a mask is the right thing to do, no matter how much it sucks.
So, I’m just amazed by the fucking idiots who just don’t get it. The fucking idiots who talk about their “rights”, “liberty”, and their “constitutional privilege” to not have to wear masks.
They’re not just the “Trumpers”. They’re everywhere. Even in Germany, one of the most progressive places around, you had mask-less protesters denouncing Covid restrictions as an imposition to their “peace” and “freedom”.
If all those people had their own little island, then I and most people would care less what they do. If all the conspiracy-believing, non-mask wearers wanted to just carry on doing what they want that would be fine. But the problem is that those people don’t have their own private island and that they’re the ones spreading the disease to people who do take the virus seriously.
Those people are being selfish, putting their perceived rights above the greater good. They don’t care about getting other people sick.
That’s when I think back to Japan and the word “Respect”. Because if you respect others, you’ll wear a mask. It might not change your thinking: you might still not be 100% sold on the virus, you might not believe that masks are as effective as scientists tell you they are, and it might not be what your political idols tell you what to do. But it’s the proper, selfless thing to do. And really, how hard is it? Is wearing a mask that much of a sacrifice if it means that in 6 months everyone can go back to living normally? It’s not like it’s World War II and they’re sending your kids out to the countryside because the cities are being bombed every night…
So don’t be an idiot. Just wear a mask
Related: Are we all just photo-clicking monkeys?
Related: Going Hello Kitty Crazy at the Keio Plaza Hotel (Tokyo)
Related: Our Top Highlights in Kyoto
Nice piece Frank. Ive been wearing masks daily for months now and im still not used to them. But it makes sense and i think people should consider them after this is all over in certain settings. Because it is about others. In Japan people are taught to think of others. Not so much in the west.
Thanks Andy. We’re very much in agreement.
Hey Frank. I just finished catching up on some of your posts, including this your latest. I have been in a fog for the past couple of weeks, glued to the election news. The stress of it, at best, was mental fatigue like I’m not sure I’ve ever experienced before. But, with that being said, I am somewhat back among the living. One of my favorite aspects of your writing is that you don’t sugar coat anything. And, really, how can one sugar coat a pandemic and the simple act of wearing a mask?
As you know we’ve been home in the Divided States for the year of 2020. We live in this circus of chaos every. single. day. and since we’re just a hop, skip and a jump away from Washington, DC, our local news is a reflection of the national news. Let me state emphatically… Covid-19 is out of control in the US. We have a lame duck president who doesn’t give a rat’s ass about the pandemic, his only concern is golfing and spewing baseless election fraud claims. His so-called pandemic task force just released a statement, for the first time in 4 months. Four months! And, because the lame duck won’t allow the administration to sign off on the presidential transition, President-elect Biden cannot move forward to put his pandemic team to work. So, we’re looking at another 2 months before we get any kind of federal support.
The politicalization of wearing masks follows right along red and blue party lines. The lame duck has spent the past year spewing a false narrative about the virus and his followers hang on every word. It’s incredibly narcissistic. I am appalled by reports of people losing their minds because they can’t enter a business without a mask, claiming it’s against their civil rights. Well, no, it’s not.
Here is a link to a recent story in which a nurse shared that even as patients are facing death due to Covid, they refuse to believe it is Covid. Who ever said ignorance is bliss?!
https://www.businessinsider.com/a-south-dakota-nurse-says-covid-19-patients-often-carry-a-belief-its-not-real-until-their-final-moments-2020-11
What I find heartbreaking is that not only is the divided states divided between red and blue, this pandemic, in line with an incompetent administration, has created a rift that I believe will never heal. And, as I sit here writing this, we are listening to the news reports of 170,000 new cases every single day and 1,200 people each day are dying from Covid. Hospitals are at capacity to the point where a hospital in Reno, Nevada has converted a parking garage to a hospital ward. Health officials are encouraging (practically begging) people “not” to travel for Thanksgiving.
But sure, don’t wear a mask, think only of yourself until such time as you’re lying in a hospital bed telling the nurses and doctors that you can’t possibly be dying of Covid.
Wear the damn mask.
p.s. We had our teeth cleaned last week, after 1 1/2 years.
Thanks for this Patti. Earlier in the year, European news would have all these videos showing fights over masks (and toilet paper) in American grocery stores. People here just can’t understand the American attitude when it comes to this pandemic. It’s just so different to the average European attitude where the majority of people, although not happy, still support governments and scientists in the fight against the virus. Even now, after 7 months (and there’s definite Covid fatigue) I think I saw that 75% of Germans will still support another full lockdown if the government deems it necessary. In the US just getting someone to wear a mask is a fight and “real” lockdown never ever really happened in much of the US.
Totally agree with all your analysis. Trump will bring everyone down with him because he doesn’t care and I’m still thinking it could get really ugly getting him out of the White House. Hospitals at capacity Patti?? Really?? Because some people will still tell you that it’s all fake…
Good for you on the dental cleaning! Have to find ourselves a dentist…
Hi Frank,
Read the article you linked about Japanese wearing masks. Wearing them to protect others or oneself as well as against pollen/pollutants makes a lot of sense.
However in a society where saving face is so important, the mask is also a way of hiding from society. Not sure the US is ready for that aspect of it. Not sure it should be …they are both very different cultures with their own strengths and weaknesses and external situations (pandemic etc) showcase the strengths and weaknesses of different systems.
We were walking the Camino in Spain when the pandemic hit and we chose to come back to the US where we had a car and freedom of movement instead of riding it out in Spain (initial impulse). In retrospect very glad we did as we have been able to travel all over the Southwest with minimal interaction with people and crowds while taking advantage of low hotel rates and uncrowded popular spots (for ex Grand Canyon South Rim with completely empty parking lots !).
As a full time traveling couple with an average age of 55…my own $0.02 is that Europe is great in peace time…but when shit hits the ceiling..the US provides more options than Europe where authorities seemingly apply one yardstick to the whole country. I like having options and taking responsibility for my own decisions.
I have enjoyed reading your blog for many months now as you write with an original voice…I think I had commented earlier somewhere about hopefully also hearing your wife’s perspective on your travels (we are a full time, retired, nomadic couple so hearing from both would be doubly interesting)…hint, hint 😁.
Best wishes for your new adventures in Spain, we are yet to see the northern and southern parts of the country… hopefully will once things open up again.
Michael
Hi Michael,
Pleasure to read your very thoughtful post. “Having options and taking responsibility for my own decisions” could be the best attitude of all, considering the confusion and general lack of fundamental truth of how illness, toxins, viruses, bad things actually operate. Mea culpa, I’m no genius. Just trying to ride out the storm like everyone else, stay sane and healthy.
I’m glad Frank wrote up this article, too, and framed it the way he did. For a lot of folks, it does sum up their basic take: go along with the discomfort so we can all get along, get back on track, sit back and chill, return to whatever we were doing.
I’m peeking through the curtains on the other side of the universe here, seeing other possibilities. This is a travel blog, appropriately, and I admit I wouldn’t be able to liberate my perceptions if I were surrounded by my first culture – coincidentally mostly Montreal, downtown and West Island. 🙂 As you’ve done, compare options between cultures. With restrictions, can’t exit Asia, so have to take control somehow. Wife has gone bananas with wiping and spraying, the masks are loaded at the front door, all due to some ret*rded m*therbleeper on YouTube – a cleancut doctor, no less – who said, “I wipe everything ten times in our hi-tech laboratory, so you should do the same every time you go to the grocer”. I hate it, I hate it, and I want to dump this dude in his Dumpster. But he’s not crazy. I played along. Shut my mouth, forced myself to comply, walk the walk, wear the gloves, spray, wipe. Lo and behold, stuff everywhere is filthy. Son of a gun. The soot. the dust, the diesel exhaust. Most of all, regular people are touching all kinds of stuff, wiping noses, fiddling with body fluid, fingering rear ends with poke-thru tissue. It hit me hard: nothing is clean, a civilized city is basically a toilet. But it’s not germs, viruses or contagion necessarily. Who’s to say it isn’t toxins, poisons, arsenicals, mercurials, heavy metals, petroleum distillates? Nobody’s going to tell me, no free gifts, so like you, my option is to research for myself. That’s what I’m doing. Work at a pharmacists’ college, and most faculty are toxicologists, so had that hint. I’m helped by my late father, arthritis 30 years, brought on by fluoride gas poisoning downwind of an aluminum smelter (extract the metal from bauxite ore with fluorine). Took me 54 years to find that answer. Came when I had mercury removed from my head. The feeling of detoxing? “Better than cocaine” I recall, endlessly smiling. Euphoria at full throttle, riding a rocket to the stars. There is nothing better, ‘cept maybe seeing the face of God.
Where was I? Ah, this Corona, this COVID, this woo-woo amorphous cloud of gremlin dust that is permeating every crack in the cosmos. What scriptwriter scribbled this scenario is beyond me. I mean, fiction is fun, but what was he smoking?
People believe it. No, that’s not fair. People swallow it without thinking twice. They live lives in their first culture half-awake, plugged into the TV, radio, newspaper front page, colleagues’ brains on the softball pitch. They don’t believe it, they don’t even think about it. They swallow it. Canadians right there. Stay a hockey-stick away from me, buddy, or I’ll cross-check you into the boards. Molson, please. And dontya have any Labatt’s 50?
I wear the mask, a thin one. No, not Darth Vader, just a simple tissue the same as everyone else. No reason. And I welcome this new normal. I like it. It’s quiet. It’s utterly false, but it’s peaceful. Now that common sense has been crushed, the next pillar of society to disintegrate is going to be money. The economy is dwindling, streets are near empty, there will be nothing soon. I embrace that, too. Was downsizing anyway. Essentials only. Prepare earthquake packs. This is no different than an earthquake, tsunami, flood. Tokyo 1945. Berlin too. Sarajevo. Kosovo. Baghdad. Going to talk to gentle folks in those spots. They may know a thing or two.
So, Duncan – still snorting that Coke?
Nobody knows all the answers but my thinking is if everyone has their own little conspiracy theory we’re not getting ahead as a human race. It sucks for all of us. But look forward to a year from now and we will hopefully be as back to normal as normal can be. I’d rather think that way than go in the other direction where I’m digging a secret bomb shelter in my rented apartment and planning which of my neighbors to eat when the time comes…
It’s funny how Canadians and (many) Americans think very differently Michael. You’re writing about your personal freedoms about travelling the US during the pandemic. Canada (and most of the world including Europe) did have a co-ordinated nationwide response to Covid which meant our movements were restricted. There was a reason for that. It’s why American infections/deaths are the highest in the world and why Canada continues to keep the border with the US closed.
Sorry, Lissette won’t be writing anytime soon. Too busy watching reruns of RuPaul’s Drag Race on Netflix. So I’m afraid you’re stuck with me if you so choose 🙂
Hi Michael (ie. Michael #2 🙂 )
Maybe there’s a misunderstanding somewhere. As a resident of Spain you DO have to file taxes in Spain (as well as the US). There’s a tax treaty between the two countries but you might have to pay extra taxes depending on what you’ve paid on your US taxes.
There is also a wealth tax but with different credits it usually means that it kicks in at 700,000 Euros per person.
I’m Canadian, Lissette is American. Thanks to her citizenship she will now have to file in 3 countries: Canada, the US, and Spain.
Hey Frank,
I am sending you an email, with an 18 page explanation of this.
It is from someone way smarter than me, and possibly you also?
If this resonates at all, I don’t mind it you share it with the Michael
who wrote this post. You’re welcome 😉
As you know, Frank, I live in Sweden. Here it has always been the custom to take off one’s shoes and leave them the door on the shoe rack. There are no roaches or other critters in Swedish homes. Generally, very clean.
Regarding masks, I lived in South Korea once upon a time and I remember people wearing masks when they were ill. It’s a good idea. Masks supposedly prevent an ill person from spreading a disease. Whether they keep a person from getting ill is another matter. In Sweden no one wears masks. The chief epidemiologist says washing your hands, not touching your face, and staying an arms length or more from another person is key. Unfortunately, these last months people have not been careful to social distance and the pandemic is here with a vengeance. Now we have stricter measures but still no mask requirements.
We’re doing no worse or no better than any other country except maybe those that shut their borders ages ago.
However, I do have a supply of masks ready to use, if necessary.
I remember Sweden being talked about a lot in the 1st wave because of it’s relaxed attitude to masks – and then because of it’s high infection rate which was one of the highest in Europe. And then suddenly nobody talked about Sweden anymore. Maybe, because like most places in Europe, cases came down?
As far as this 2nd wave it just seems to be uniformly bad everywhere and I think that it’s because people became careless or just got fed up. We saw it in early June here in Spain and knew it was just a matter of time. Bars were packed, masks were off, and everyone was celebrating like WWII had just ended.
Masks work and it’s proven to be the number #1 deterrent to passing on a virus. But there have been so many holes in the rules (masks when walking around outdoors but no masks when sitting having a beer with friends?) that undermined the official “rules”. And then you, as a person that follows the rules, just question “why bother, when everyone else undermines the rules?”. Or “why bother, when you see people not following rules but don’t see anyone enforcing those rules?”.
It’s disheartening. But as a society, you’re only as strong as your weakest link. Which brings me to the Asian mentality about masks. I’d be curious about your experience/thoughts on S. Korea Edith.
I have to admit Lissette taught me that. For all the reasons Michael states. Once you start thinking of it it’s all pretty disgusting…
Just socks for me. And I guess I’m a rebel because I just wear the same ones around the whole house 🙂
You know Duncan, the only good that has come out of this is that I’ve been allowed to let some aspects of personal hygiene go. Unsightly nose hairs? who cares. Haven’t shaven for a while? Can’t see half your face anyway. Bad breath? I can now glory in my bad breath and I don’t have to worry about yours. Yellowing teeth? Well, thanks to Covid I haven’t had a cleaning in 2 years (kind of let the 1st year go but I was definitely due this year). But who cares now. And if I’ve got snot coming out my nose that’s ok too as long as I’m wearing the mask the right way.
Silver linings…
Oo. You’re on a good day. There are silver linings. I’ve gone the other way, paid more attention to details. Clipped the nose hairs, trimmed the whiskers, dyed my balding head. Colour co-ordinated vest and tie, too. I am ready for showtime, and must broadcast my face across the ‘net. I look good, others look like fools, I get paid, they get canned. And the wife was in showbiz, so I can’t escape scrutiny from the moment I wake up. I envy you, but the whole experience has made me up my game. Sometimes it feels like being in a talent agency boot camp, inspections non-stop, cameras everywhere. And humbly, I used to be exactly what you’ve described, a slob. I wasn’t trained. Still have a ways to go.
Well, that’s a whole other post but totally agree. People look at us like we’re crazy leaving shoes at the door.
Or how about people who get home and dump their dirty suitcase on the bed?
Anyway, not talking about bad hygiene but something that should be the most obvious in a pandemic (ie. wearing a face mask)
If it’s any comfort, we are fanatical about not wearing shoes in the house. We have special slippers, just like the Japanese for inside the house. We have ceramic tile floors which are really hard and tough for your feet. I used to go barefoot, but I developed plantar fasciitis, real bad. So I wear something cushy like Crocs, just for in the house.
I also wipe off our suitcases, before bringing them in the house. I even use disinfectant wipes on them while traveling. Long before Covid!
I think our OCD issues have saved us from Covid.
Lissette would love you John! I used to be a lot more relaxed but when we met she would tell me: ” you might have walked in dog shit and you’re tracking that in the house”. It made perfect sense. And the wiping off of suitcases – we do that as well 🙂 Having travelled a lot and also come in contact with bedbugs and cockroaches was another reason on top of everything else. So we’re totally on the same page.
Plantar fasciitis – you learn something new every day. Never heard of it before.