Sticky Fingers -- Booger Snacks Revisited

It’s hard to update a blog that has sat neglected for the better part of the year. There’s so much to tell that it’s even harder to know where to begin. I guess anecdotally will suffice, especially since such an approach is in keeping with most entries hitherto…In this way, I’ll also be able to studiously avoid delving into the “black-out” periods that essentially define 2007 to date vis a vis my personal life. A plus for those who know some of the details (and lo! “thou shalt be spared the boredom of reiteration!”) And for those that don’t, perhaps an opportunity to spend nanosecond or two wondering what terrors and joys you’ve clearly missed.

Luckily, there’s still plenty of terror and joy left fit to print.

Having lived in Japan for nearly 3 years now, it seems fitting to revisit the booger snacks phenomenon on which I had commented long, long ago. In a nutshell, booger sushi remains as popular a subway/commuter train snack as ever, though I am forced to admit that the eye and ear ambrosia imbibing folk represent a truly tiny minority of strap hangers who indulge in bodily gustatory delights.

I worked up the courage to mention the blatant, unabashed nose picking problematic to a couple of my more laid back students (craftily sneaking in my remarks in the context of a difficult ESL article focusing on manners and customs), and discovered that while I may yet be just another crazy gaijin, there is definitely a statistically significant amount of sticky-fingered adult action taking place on the trains.

Just recently, a good friend of mine mentioned to me that she’d read an article (albeit of questionable authority…probably some online drivel…perhaps even on a blog), which stated that eating boogers does indeed have nutritional benefits…She also speculated that perhaps, boogers taste different depending on one’s relative state of health and that those “in the nose” were just performing daily/weekly/occasional check ups…

Never the skeptic (but ever the liar!), I encouraged her to go further down the rabbit hole in search of lucid explanations for what appears to be a widespread phenomena. She added little else to account for it, though did teach me the word for boogers in Japanese which translates fittingly enough as “nose shit” (hana kuso). As a footnote, it seems that there are an inordinate number of oyaji gagu (the kind of jokes favoured by avuncular old men) involving hana kuso. Hmmmm….