Shoe BUNKA saves Japan from SARS?

[Taro Toporific]

[ramchop]

Do the Japanese take off their street shoes before boarding a plane in Hong Kong?

[Taro Toporific]

Do the Japanese take off their street shoes before boarding a plane in Hong Kong?

YES!

Well, almost...
When Japan's first railway link between Tokyo's Shinbashi and Yokohama opened (1872), on the openning day people took their shoes off before entering the cars....and then the train took off. :P

Other great "taking off" examples are:
Japanese burglars always take their shoes off before breaking in
Japanese always take their shoes off before jumping off a building to commit suicide

[tidbits]

just like to point out: probably 99% of the Singaporean take off their shoes before entering their apartment.

[Taro Toporific]

just like to point out: probably 99% of the Singaporean take off their shoes before entering their apartment.

Yes, I was confused about that too! Come to think of it, in Taiwan I took my shoes off in the non-public parts of homes too. Hmmmm. Maybe there's "limits to medical expertise" of Dr Lee Chi Wei.

A test of limits to medical expertise National Business Review 22-Apr-2003

A Taiwan doctor, Lee Chi Wei, has a hypothesis...
...He suggests that more than 90 per cent of people living in Korea and Japan take off their street shoes before entering their apartments, while those in China, Hong Kong and Singapore wear their street shoes into their apartments.

[cstaylor]

I'm guessing SARS is here already, but those wonderful quacks are covering it up.

[ramchop]

I'm guessing SARS is here already, but those wonderful quacks are covering it up.

I don't think it is here. Luck more thn good management, but the hospital system is gearing up for it.

One suspected patient in the special ward here was confirmed as not having it, he was transferred to a hospital closer to home. They rejected him, and bounced him back. Yes the system here is woeful.

One comment I heard this morning was that the Americans were being secretive as to where their cases have surfaced as they don't want to "offend" the Chinese communities there.