Sho mo nai!

Kinniku-tsu

Recently I have been sleeping a lot. And that's because recently I have been really headachy. I rarely get headaches, and when I do it's usually from a diet or sleep anomaly. So I've been trying to get some extra sleep to make it go away.

My shoulders and neck have been really sore lately too. I have to suspect that's the cause of the headaches. What could lead to this tension? Well, Awa Odori could have been a factor. Or perhaps I have been spending too much time at my desk working on my computer blogging. It makes me miss one of the aspects of life back home: massages. My family, or maybe just my dad, is obsessed with massages. There are often massages exchanged or just given when watching late night talk shows, there are massage devices around to be used when nobody else is handy, and we even have a family masseuse that everyone goes to from time to time.

But here in Japan I haven't the slightest clue who to ask for a random massage. Despite the fact that I think I could give a really good massage in exchange. Maybe it's not so shocking though. This is a country where acceptable touch standards are way different. Handshakes are a novelty, not an everyday thing. Though it's supposed to be changing, most couples still show little to no affection in public. On the flipside, junior high kids seem way less reserved or limited in the kinds of physical contact they do. Elementary kids will gladly shove their two index fingers up your but if you so much as turn your back on them. The standards for acceptable touch are different from back home. So in that respect I can hardly expect to be exchanging massages with my Japanese friends, and I have to wonder if my fellow expats aren't conforming to these cultural rules.

Though it's not like I was exchanging massages with hundreds of people back home either. Though I happily would have.

Touch is strange in that way. Some people are naturally bent towards touching the people they talk to and in general being very physical. But for probably the bulk of Candadians, touch is more intimate than other communication. It's not as though we are a hug or kiss salutation culture, now is it?
Maybe I should just move to France.

Does anyone want to swap massages?

posted by Fletcher @ 4:41 p.m.