RANT 'N' RAVE
Unclean Jeans
There are plenty of reasons to criticize
Japanese youth these days: disappearing manners, lack of life goals, increasing tobacco
intake, bad music… But there’s one I want to add to the list-dirty jeans. File
this one with sunglasses at night and scarf/mufflers indoors.
There is an unfortunate trend for teenage and college boys to wear pants - jeans in
particular - for what seems to be 35 days straight without washing. You see them lounging
on the train, legs spread apart, or squatting (very comfortably) in the corner. The jeans
are fashionably faded at the thighs, which is fair enough, but the disturbing thing is
that there is a thin crust of dirt on them. What are supposed to be dark blue jeans are in
fact stool-brown (not the one you sit on).
I often wonder how this happens. Perhaps there is an un-advertised competition for the
dirtiest jeans in Tokyo, the winner getting (I would imagine) a new pair. Of course,
wearing such dirty jeans presupposes that you have none other to wear. And if you imagine
their daily activities, not washing is a severe health hazard. Imagine the day of a
21-year-old… Wake up. Smoke. Eat cup noodles. Wipe hands on jeans. Go to pachinko and
sit outside on the sidewalk waiting for the doors to open. Get on train. Sit on floor.
Drink beer. Sit on floor. Vomit. Sleep on floor. You get the picture.
Even worse, there is an unfortunate sub-trend of wearing these pants FAR too long. What
inevitably happens (after 35 days) is that the bottom hem begins to fray and eventually
tear. Then the torn pieces slide under the shoes when walking. Then there is more dirt
build-up. It’s all a vicious circle. I understand this is an attempt to look rough
and under-privileged, but at times you’d almost swear they’re homeless. Yet, if
you too have seen those laundry lines outside the blue tents in Ueno Park, I would say the
homeless here have cleaner jeans.
Many thanks to Eric Luong for this Rant.
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