As Promised, Fresh We Go

So, yesterday I wrote something really muggy and humid and also said I’d go fresh today.

The rain yesterday afternoon wasn’t something that stayed for long. By the time I was finished with this blog it had almost stopped raining. But because of the rain it was really really hot and humid last evening, it was even hard to breathe outside.

The heat hasn’t quite died today: it’s been baking hot today whereas yesterday was more like steaming. The air today wraps and bakes you making you feel like you’re thrown into an oven.
I was like, man, how am I supposed to feel fresh in an environment like this. But then, I found something interesting in a nearby convenience store. This is the thing:






I’m not quite sure how gum is sold in other parts of the world, but this is a typical looking tablet type chewing gum sold anywhere in Tokyo... Except that, as some of you who read Japanese can tell, this one says “otoko-kaoru” which literally means, “men-scented”, and a picture of a rose on the left.

That’s right, this is a magic chewing gum that makes you smell like roses! Wow, what a perfect topic for a nice fresh blog!! ;-)

This is how it works:

This rose-scent-element called geraniol is included in the chewing gum, and when you chew – your body absorbs the scent (geraniol) from your mouth and intestines, and – then the geraniol comes out from your sweat gland along with sweat, enabling you to smell like rose.
Well, dunno how true it is, but it does make me feel like after 2-3 hours of chewing the gum I smell kind of sweet.

People around me tell me that maybe I really do smell kind of sweet.

As probably some of you can guess, this kind of chewing gum originally came out as scented gum for women, but it turned out that men wanted these more than women did so the makers decided to make some specially for men.

Kind of reminds me of some scenes from soap opera where young girls go “Yew dad, you smell bad” and I sometimes hear about similar stories, so if this gum helps the situation in any way, perhaps the daddies might be interested... hmm. Becoming kind of unfresh now :P

So, if anyone’s coming to Japan this summer, it may be interesting to get one as a silly souvenir :P
(and I don’t even know if it’s originally Japanese... or if you guys have similar stuff in your places.)