A Question for Travelers

Once upon a time, in a book about journaling, I found a great question. Here it is. "The next time you visit a foreign country, look around and ask yourself this: what do these people know that I don't know?"

Here is one answer about the people of Japan: they know how to wrap anything, from a simple box to a dozen loose, fresh eggs. Two clanking bottles of sake? No problem. A watermelon? No problem. A picnic? Of course.

Their solution is older than paper shopping bags, more environmentally-friendly than plastic, more flexible than a basket. Their traditional wrapper is flexible enough to cover any shape, and it can be used again and again. What is it? Japanese traditional wrapping is a square of cloth called a furoshiki. If you already speak a little Japanese, you may recognize the word furo (bath) in furoshiki. One of its traditional uses was to wrap up everything needed for a bath--soap, shampoo, a towel, a basin, shaving equipment, a hair dryer. These days, furoshiki are more often used as elegants cloths for wrapping gifts.

Books abound on clever and beautiful ways to wrap a gift in a furoshiki. The etiquette for the recipient after duly admiring the presentation and the gift it encloses is to return the furoshiki to the giver, who will use it over and over until it wears out. Unlike wrapping paper, it doesn't crease and there is no tape to peel away. Also unlike paper or plastic, the furoshiki may have a monetary value much higher than the gift it enclose, so returning it is the right thing to do.

There is a lot of wisdom to be found in the folkways of Japan, and the ingenuity of the furoshiki is one of my favorite discoveries.