A comment that was posted a few days ago reminded me that I meant to post about tanning here, or the lack thereof. First off, I have yet to see any sunscreen with a lower SPF than 28, and most of it is SPF 50. There is no bronzer, no tanning lotions, no strip mall tanning beds. Instead you find lots of "whitening" lotions and creams to lighten your skin tone. Most younger girls are really pale, and female celebrities and models all have porcelain skin. I feel kinda tan here, for someone in my age range, and trust me, that is not usually the case. I think the culture here promotes whiter skin because it indicates that you are a higher class of worker i.e. not a farmer in the paddy fields. (I do not quite understand this, but I think I'm blinded by my long-standing dream of raising goats and growing squash like they do on those hippie green TLC shows.)
Anyway, as I shopped this summer, I noticed that the bikinis for sale here are a little bit (just a little bit) more modest than what you see in the US. And when we were vacationing with all the Japanese people in Guam there were a lot more women on the beach in the type of bodysuit that you surf in (they were not surfing). Of course there were plenty of bikinis too....I think the tendency to cover up more is half modesty, half skin protection.
And don't forget my parasol (eventually I'll get a photo of it on here)....as you can see in some of my photos, they are everywhere in Tokyo on a sunny day. Because you just can't have your face out in the sun, ladies.
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| sunscreen here also comes in really small expensive bottles |
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| bright face milk, perfect milk and mild care milk, SPF 28+ |
You'll notice in the photo above (click to enlarge any of these photos) something else that is different here. Along with creams, lotions, gels, etc. you see a lot of "milks". I assume this indicates that they are the consistency of milk. You may also be amazed that these are all in English....well....that is because those are the ones that I can easily read as I tote my camera around and get funny looks from the other shoppers. There are many, many more that are all in Japanese.
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| the variety of skin potions here is mind-boggling |
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you see many that say they have collagen in them,
whatever that means |
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| medicated finger whitening |
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| the ultimate: whitening milky lotion |
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