Gaijin smell and a wacky cure

True Story

 

Huh. I would have thought you would have removed your bacteria from home upon your first shower in Japan.

I thought the "Westerner smell" was more of a diet thing, since we consume a lot of dairy while most Japanese don't. I don't eat a lot of dairy, but when I do (reference to "The Most Interesting Man in the World" meme not intended) I notice my sweat smells like sour milk.

 

LOL, those are some extreme measures, very fun story

 

LOL, thats an awesome story.

When I was a kid I was often babysitted at an Asian family house. I do not remember where they were originally from but I remember that I thought they smelled... different. But I have good memories of the place. They were super nice and had a 286 with an adlib card and I was ultra impressed by the thing.

 

To tell the truth I have quite a few western friends that fucking stink in summer. I'm a westerner and a bit of a fat bastard now, but I don't stink unless you actually get up close and take a wiff from my arm pits in summer. So why do these other guys smell so much? They're not even fat. I put it down to a bad diet and lazy washing. Saying that, I eat a lot of meat but then again I also get a propper shower every night so........

 

I'm surprised (unless I've read the OP wrong which is entirely possible), we're confused as to why westerners 'stink' while visiting/living in Japan?

The microbiologist mentioned probably knows his shit and has treated the condition successfully. Doesn't look to me like he's answered the question 'why' at all, just scientifically approached the problem and found one possible mask.

The obvious answer is that westerners eat a shit load more dairy products (milk, cheese, eggs ect) than Japanese (oriental) folks do, this changes how your body deals with certain substances causing a signature smell with people from a certain region. I had a mate who's family moved over from Japan a generation ago and to me they 'stank' of an nondescript fish smell since the main diet in that region consisted of sea food - it really was over powering to me! And they'd been over here for a good few years.

I imagine the same 'stale' dairy smell would apply to a westerner moving over there for quite some time until their bodies adapt to the local diet.

 

This is very interesting and something that I have weirdly thought quite a bit about ever since reading the book "Shibumi". It would be very great if your friend could do some controlled experiments with this.

 

A lot of the Korean people who live near us absolutely stink of a cabbage/fishy smell. When they get on the bus you know about it. I suppose we must smell to them too lol.

 

I've also noticed there's a certain smell that Indian people have and it smells like curry. I'm not sure if Indian people really do eat curry all the time (I know I would if I were Indian, I LOVE curry!) but that would explain it if they do.

Did you friend calculate smell due to diet into his experiment, ASSEMbler?

 

Yes, Indian people do eat an awful lot of curry. So do Nepalese and a few other Asian nationalities.

 

Perhaps they prefer the ripe smell of salaryman scalp. For those of us that tower over Japanese, it's a pleasant bonus to riding the train.

 

Punjabi Palace, sth Brisbane.

 

SCIENCE!

 

I too had this expericen.

though it stemed from the fact that my laundry machine was broken so that some of the water used by it stayed inside it instead of getting flushed away.

so my clothings would stay damp inside the laundry machine and have a bit of a fermented, sewage-like smell.


My japanese wife must be the right person for me, since I started dating her during that time.


at the beginning she was afraid that appearantly foreigners had a body-oder like fermented sewage......until we both figured out it's the laundry machine.

 

Hahaha, I have friend working in Japan right now who is struggling with this issue. I better tell him

 

When I was in Japan I didn't seem to experience this problem. Obviously given that I always tend to go over in July-August, I probably sweat more than on average, but this was easily countered by showering regularly and buying deodorant (which is another thing a lot of westerners seem to have trouble doing in Japan).

And at the risk of sounding incredibly racist, the 25 bus from Ilford to Oxford Circus in London nearly always reeked of chapati flour, especially when it used to be a "free" bus.

 

some people have stronger body odor than others.... unbelievable to think anyone who would move to japan would go so long without buying deodorant!! even out west people won't tell you when you smell bad but you will