My name is Andrew, and I have dandruff.

Watching my dandruff float gently down the stream.

I’ve had it for about a month now, and for the life of me I just can’t get rid of it. I’ve been using this Japanese dandruff shampoo, but it just seems to be causing more dandruff if anything. This also reminded me of another medicine-in-Japan story. For some reason they stopped selling Listerine at the supermarket (Ito Yokado) I used to shop at in my early days in Akita. My Japanese was very, very, very poor (now it’s just very poor), and the only legible thing I could make out was on this one bottle of Japanese mouthwash, “Sensitive”. I thought, “Hey, I’ve got sensitive teeth, that’s right up my alley!” Low and behold, even after the first use, my teeth became soooo sensitive that the only thing I could drink was warm whiskey.

In the past I had read that many foreigners in Japan have difficulty with Japanese deodorant, claiming that it isn’t effective. Luckily, I don’t have that particular problem, but when you add all these things together it seems that the medicine over here isn’t really up to gaijin standards. If it is a genetic trait, then perhaps the more dominant one resides in non-Asians. It reminds me of that old Secret anti-perspirant ad, “Strong enough for a man, but made for a woman.” Perhaps the hierarchy of humans goes something like this:

• Men
• Women
• Asians

The same goes for over-the-counter cold & flu remedies. I’ve tried all sorts of crap over here, but I’ll take Nyquil/Dayquil in a heartbeat over the thousands of medications I find at the local drugstores.

Expect a phone call soon Mom, I’m gonna need a care package!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYc64BDCWhg

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