Hozuki

At least I think that's the right name. Japanese lanterns, those odd flowers that look like a red lantern? Rather pretty. Here in Japan they are widely available now. Of course, that's a problem for me.

You see, my wife takes a lantern and opens it up. Inside is a little red fruit, that has a fairly large seed inside. She then carefully massages the fruit until she can remove the whole thing as one thick-skinned little balloon. It's about the size of the tip of my thumb, with a large hole in it.

She then puts this in her mouth and makes squishy noises with it. Bwashoo, bwashoo, bwashoo, phppppt. And again.

She claims that this is or was a popular childhood sport or hobby or something here in Japan. Sort of like chewing gum, chewing on honeycomb wax, or other odds and ends that kids get into.

But the unending phpppt, bwashoo, fwat little flatulent noises are difficult for me to ignore.

I guess I just didn't have a proper childhood.