Why do the Japanese always peel their fruit before eating?
When I first arrived to teach in Japan, I knew I would be in for an adventure.
Allow me to explain 1 of my adventures in Japan.
Like toilet slippers, peeling fruit is a holdover from a time when maintaining basic sanitation was more difficult than it is today. Until the 20th century, the biggest source of fertilizer in Japan was "night soil", a
euphemishm for human excrement.
Eating the skin of a fruit was therefore about as good for your health as snacking on a hot, steaming turd.
Although human waste is no longer used as a fertilizer, people are still reluctant to eat fruit that hasn't been peeled. With all the fertilizers and pesticides in use today, it's probably not such a bad idea.
Cardin M.
(English Teacher - Tokyo, Japan)