I once took a bus from Munich, Germany to Istanbul, Turkey some 50 years ago.
However, the adults did not notice me because they were thinking with their minds that there should be no Japanese on such a bus. They said that there is a city (a city called Eskişehir) where many people who resemble Japanese live as part of their race. They must have thought I was from there.
Be that as it may, from Munich, Germany, I arrived in Istanbul, Turkey via Austria, old Yugoslavia, and Bulgaria. Istanbul is a large city with a population of 3 million (now 8 million) that straddles the shores of the European and Asian sides. The east side of the Bosphorus Strait is considered Asia, while the west side is Europe. In Istanbul, people from the east think that this is where Europe begins, while those from the west are deeply moved by the thought that this is where Asia begins.
I, of course, came from the west, but I noticed something interesting when I came from the west. The further one travels, the deeper the level of poverty becomes. The standard of living in Germany and Austria is not that different, but when you go to Yugoslavia and Bulgaria, the economic level gradually declines. From Turkey to the east, we move on to Iraq and then to Iran. From Turkey to the east, the economic level continues to fall in Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh. Bangladesh is the poorest.
One symbol of this is toilet paper. Paper has been missing from toilets from around Turkey.
Of course, there is paper in hotels and public toilets. But there is no paper in the homes of ordinary people. It is often said that the left hand is unclean in Islam and India. Therefore, it is considered etiquette to shake hands with the right hand. Since only water comes out of the toilet, excrement is disposed of with the left hand.
Since I lived with a Turkish family for the first few months, I was a bit intimidated at first. I did not know what to do. Some people who are very careful and like to be clean seem to put perfume on their hands after washing them.
The water-only process is intimidating at first, but once you get used to it, it gradually becomes a comfortable process. My own vagina is weirdly bumpy. Also, excrement is something we usually don’t take into account at all, but it is the remains of the body after the internal organs have absorbed the nutrients for themselves. It belongs to no one, but to oneself.
I mentioned earlier that Istanbul is the dividing line between East and West, but it is also a place where people from all over the world gather. One day, while having dinner with a friend at a restaurant, I met a Japanese tourist. It was a woman.
She was traveling alone, and had come here by land from Afghanistan or India, I forget which. I thought she was a very courageous woman, but it was interesting to hear her story. In Muslim countries, many women do not show their faces, so when they see that you are a woman, they come up to you out of curiosity.
She had a stone in her hand, and unless she really tried to hit them with it, they would not move away from her. I have met maybe two such women.
It was a long time ago.
