Citrus Superstitions

The Japanese are a generally clean lot. Granted, there are the abominations that sneeze all over you in the train or pick their noses and eat the goods, but what with the fanatical onsen, sento and o-furo culture, it's hard to go a day without feeling like your skin has been rubbed raw by the infernal soap and boiling water fairy.

Every year on the Winter Solstice (December 22nd this year) our co-conspirators like to bathe with yuzu to ward off ill health for the coming year. "What the hot diggety dags is a yuzu???" cry the masses. A Yuzu is an indigenous Japanese citrus fruit. I'm convinced its just a lemon just as a mikan is simply a mandarin (don't try arguing with a Japanese person that the mikan is not native to Japan) but who the hell am I to argue about the benefits of a recuperative yuzu bath?

The question is - To Cut or Not To Cut the Yuzu. Opinion is divided. Some say you should cut it into pieces to permeate the bath water with divine citrus aromas, others look beseechingly to the heavens and be-cry "No! Never cut the yuzu! To cut the yuzu is to unleash the deadly yuzu juice! Your skin will break out into the great rash."

Not one to risk the Great Rash, I will be plopping the uncut yuzu into the bath on Monday and doing my bit to sustain the great citrus fruit industry of this country...