When it gets cold – and it does, rather quickly once October’s over – Japan’s many drugstores, department stores and variety shops have plenty on hand to keep you cosy. Heated carpet? We’ve got that. Microwaveable foot blanket? Step right up.
One thing you’ll see everywhere is kairo, bundles of little heat packs you can tuck into pockets or socks. They either activate with a shake or by pressing/bending the pack. It’s not hard to find them – you can turn a corner in almost any store and fall over a large box of the stuff.
I’ve discovered that there’s a special kind of kairo, just for women.
No, it’s not pink.
It, um, it goes in your underwear. Underneath a herbal sanitary pad. You don’t have to be on a period – in fact, it’s probably better if you’re not.
Image from this Amazon listing in Japanese, which I’ll do my best to explain.
You can see that the packaging and illustration are both somewhat… leafy. The name of this product means ‘steamed Japanese mugwort’. Yes, ladies, now you too can lightly parboil your personal areas with some mugwort!
Some of them also contain mint, mainly peppermint or spearmint, as well as something called ‘chameleon plant’ which I do not trust. And I’ve seen this word for ‘mint’ translated elsewhere as ‘menthol’, shudder.
The pads are seemingly meant to replicate the health benefits of giving your bum a herbal bath. I did my due diligence here and looked up mugwort’s healing properties. It’s said to be effective for treating inflammation, circulation problems, ulcers, digestion issues, and… piles. I see where we’re going with this.
When it comes to ingestion methods, mugwort is typically either eaten or burnt during fire needle acupuncture. I’m going to go ahead and say both of those are preferable to a downstairs steam. You can get foot pads and bath salts with this stuff in, yet someone decided panty pads were still needed. As well as this other version that you apparently stick to your butt cheek.
General advice is that you should only wear one of these pads for 2-3 hours at most. I… I wanted to look into that in the interests of full disclosure. But honestly I’m not ready to find out what happens if you leave it longer than that.
I think I’ll stick with my hot water bottle and some thermal undies!
