Warning: gross description of bodily fluids
I’m just wondering. I always hear people snorting up their snot so loudly instead of blowing their nose. I don’t understand, how on earth is that considered more polite than just, blowing your nose? Getting it out of your system is better than constantly subjecting everyone else to hearing the snot be inhaled back up your nasal passages over and over again… It sounds gross.
I’m also asking because I often feel sniffly, I sneeze and am congested. Allergies or what I never know why but anyway, a good amount of time I am like this at work, it can’t be helped. I see people suggest “people usually go to the bathroom and blow their nose” this isn’t realistic, if I did this I’d be in there at least 40% of my work day if not more. So instead I do just blow my nose at my desk, I think this is reasonable. No one has ever said anything to me but sometimes I wonder what they think even though tbh their thoughts on this don’t matter. Anyway rant over. Back to the question:
Why is snorting your snot considered good manners and blowing your nose bad manners? It absolutely baffles me.
46 comments
Just blow your nose 🙂
It’s pretty arbitrary – it’s simply what was ingrained in the culture at some point. You could equally ask:
Why is blowing your nose and possibly sending aerosolized pathogens into the air considered more polite than just sniffing? Keeping the virus or bacteria to yourself is better than subjecting everyone else to your illness… it’s selfish and gross.
But anyways, **if you’re sick, stay home**.
Just blow your nose and who cares about what others think 🤷😂.
I don’t know. Culture I guess.
I suppose it’s part of the charm of living overseas, but it is gross.
There are bad mannered people everyone in Japan, just as there are in every other country. Blowing your nose in the presence of others is considered bad manners. I haven’t noticed an epidemic of snorting around here, so that’s not something I see very often. It’s a safe bet that isn’t considered good manners, though.
I blow my nose (I always have dry/wet tissues with me wherever I go) all the time anywhere and couldn’t care less of what people think. Join the Blowers Club now.
Thing is, if you blow your nose, turn you’re one and done.
It’s like the old joke:
Q. What’s green and goes backwards at 200 mph?”
A. “SNOOOORRRRRKKKKK!”
Both are considered bad manners if any, you mean why blowing up considered worse in Japan?
I think it just look kind of unavoidable to snot in a train/class room etc but blowing up in a crowded place make you look ignoring other people by act of scattering body fluid.
That said, if you have to snot continuously several times like you said, it is better just blowing up.
I absolutely hate the sound of snorting, but all things considered if you are blowing your nose there’s a higher chance that small droplets of mucus spray all around.
If I’m in a crowded closed space I avoid it but on the street I just blow my nose.
I agree, but I’ve learned to just shove the tissue into my nostrils to “soak up” the snot temporarily if I’m in an area in close proximity to others, then blow it properly when I’m “free”
Because having a particular impression of your immediate surrounding doesn’t make it a national level norm. Tissue papers are handed out for free or could be bought for cheap in drug stores for a reason.
Because blowing your nose in public is bad manners. Go to a bathroom and do it.
Totally agree
This is complete conjecture on my part, but perhaps enough people found the sound of nose-blowing more gross and decided that it’s unacceptable in this culture. It was confusing for me as well; as a kid I was told to blow my nose and never sniff it in because my body needs to get rid of it.
Anyway, I suppose it’s kind of like how people are really offended by burping and others are only mildly irked. I guess at some point more people were more offended by nose-blowing.
40% of your work day blowing your nose… What? Need to see a doctor?
Agreed. It’s so fucking gross to be around someone like that. Ewww…. Just blow your fucking nose bro…
Unfortunately it’s customary here. Because I’d rather swallow my pain than inconveniencing the world with my bodily function.
Because blowing your nose involves liquid coming out.
It’s kinda like if holding in a puke were noisy. It’d still be preferable to throwing up in a bucket or something
Old Japanese boys club. Top down. Do as they do and encourage it to not stand out ironically.
Hahahah, apparently nobody told my co-workers that blowing their nose is bad manners. Mofos are blowing their noses left and right all day long.
How did you even come to the conclusion that it is considered bad manners? Since everybody around me does it, I thought it is considered normal in Japan.
It is bad manners where I come from, so it irks me every time somebody does that.
> but snorting up your snot is okay?
It’s not lol
Omg yes I never understood this about some of my Japanese coworkers. One of them is constantly sick and doesn’t cover his mouth when coughing (often directly into peoples workspaces or faces) and refused to blow his nose until I spoke up about it.
He’s since started wearing masks and blowing his nose but damn is he salty now…
We literally have a new complaint thread for the week posted a few hours ago idk why this needed a seperate post lol
Tbh I had no idea it was considered bad manners until I read about it on Reddit lol
kind of like squeezing your sphincter versus laying a turd.
Why? *Culture*
There is no particular rhyme or reason for it.
I blew my nose one time in class teaching a family, and the father gave me the most revolted look.
But my wife and her entire extended family and many other of my students blow their noses rather than hoovering it up.
My nose gets stuffed anytime I eat food that’s hot(temperature) makes my nose super stuffy, even just. Which is nearly ALL food. So I have to blow my nose pretty much every time I eat. I’ve asked many doctors about it and none has ever been concerned about it, they say it’s just sensitivity issues, nothing to do about it. In a way it can be gross to people to blow my nose while eating, I totally get it, but hey we’re all animals are we not. It’s part of being alive, biology is gross. I feel the same way about B.O. Of course, higene is important but being sweaty and stinky on a hot humid Tokyo summer is just what existing in Japan is. Sadly we can’t just transfer that asian clean sweat gene that makes them sweat perfume.
According to some japanese YTbers blowing your nose is not prohibited ar proof of bad manners as long as you make an effort to “hide” it.
Why would you discard perfectly nutritious protein?
It’s a cultural thing.
But more important: It’s healthier to sniff and to spit the mucus out. By blowing your nose, especially if you tend to close one nostril while blowing the other, you push mucus and bacteria into your sinuses. Sniffing on the other hand creates a vacuum that does the opposite, it removes such stuff from the sinuses.
Yes!! This double standard has infuriated me since I came here 16 years ago and I still don’t understand why sniffing and snorting is socially acceptable. It disgusts me so much.
Another thing, why is spitting more accepted than nose-blowing? People here hock and spit all the time and it makes me want to throw up
I have bad rhinitis so I have too much snot my whole life, I don’t understand why people need to make such a loud noise to get it back into their nose? When I do it, it barely makes a sound. And I tend to not blow but rather put my tissue in my nose a bit to remove snot, otherwise it will drip everywhere lol. I find that better than the loud sniffing.
‘culture’ thats how you know its culture. It makes fucking no sense unless you’re apart of it.
If it’s during October you’re allergic to ブタクサ, if whole year round – dust.
Ya didn’t grow up with a grandparent that just had a fucking gross hanky rag in their pocket. Ya never worked a fast food job where people blow their nose and leave it on the table for someone else to pick up
I’m guessing that’s why
I blow my nose all the time, and it’s one of those rare things where I don’t give a fuck if Japanese people think it’s rude. I’m not keeping all that snot in my nose.
I dunno, I sniff up sometimes even when I don’t really have to blow, or know that blowing would produce nothing anyway, if that makes sense. Sometimes it’s a sinus calming action. Everyone’s different
Snorting your snot is not polite or good manners in Japan.
Might be due to how people see handkerchiefs and how they were traditionally used here. Generally, it is a small towel to be used to dry your hands after washing them. So, the concept of using a handkerchief to blow your nose, fill with nose goblins, then FOLD IT UP and put it BACK IN YOUR POCKET is possible the root of the issue.
TBH it IS pretty gross when you think about it. Plus washing the hankie afterwards…. eeew
Of course these days with the advent of disposable tissue and the like, very few men actually carry a handkerchief for this purpose. But the concept is still ingrained….
I assert dominance by making eye contact with a stranger when I blow my nose
You could start taking enough allergy medicine.
I take it daily and I overlap different brands when it’s high season. Sometimes I worry about my liver but it’s amazing. Highly recommend.
Wrong blowing your nose in a tissue is good manners. Without a tissue both are disgusting and disrespectful of others’ health.
Theory: holding it shows that you are able to compromise on your pleasure of blowing it off your nose, which is “disgusting”, while snorting feels like “I am holding it for me for the sake of society”’s ish Japanese mentality.
Just a theory.
Slurping up your noodles with your pie hole isn’t rude or gross. Applies to the other two holes on your face too I guess. 🤷♀️
I strongly preach neti pots / bottles for congestion.
It really works for the nose and maxillary Sinuses. Unsure that it actually gets up into the forehead very much.
I can’t remember the last time I had a runny rose.
I stopped getting sick after I drastically changed my diet a couple of years ago and started eating a crap ton of nutrient-dense animal products (eggs, meat, butter, etc.), and fewer carbs.
Feels good to be healthy and to not have to worry about whether I need to expel or inhale some annoying runny snot.