Monday, July 2, 2012

Won't Miss #465 - guys with long nails

The camera didn't catch the shot because I couldn't really get a close up or use a flash, but he did have long fingernails and it was icky.

One of the things which I noticed in Japan which I don't see in America is that Japanese young men (usually teens to early 20's) often didn't trim their nails. It was first brought to my attention when a clerk at a local convenience store scratched my hand while giving me back my change. Men, who generally have long nails because of laziness about hygiene, often do not know how not to manipulate things with claws as women do. From a young age, we become practiced in the art of having longer nails and try not to savage random strangers with them while doing mundane business transactions. After that minor random wounding, I was cautious about being handed money or anything else by young males and, sure enough, I saw a not small number of them with nails that, while not in the range of what women would sport, were definitely in need of a good trim. Once I noticed this, I occasionally went out of my way to look at the hands of teen school boys when they stood in gaggles on trains and, sure enough, at least one of them seemed to have nails that made me cringe. I'm guessing this is just carelessness among young males and not a fashion statement. 

This is a subjective thing, but I find long nails on men who are not trying to dress intentionally as women rather creepy looking and unappealing. Perhaps I saw Nosferatu too many times or I'm so rigid in my thinking that I find long nails undeniably feminine, but I won't miss seeing young men with long nails or worrying about getting accidentally scratched by them.