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odor

72 percent of foreigners in survey say they’ve been disappointed by bad breath in Japan

Dentist thinks part of the reason for bad breath in Japan is cultural.

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Mystery stink haunts Kanagawa Prefecture, worries seismologist

The cause of the foul odor is unknown, but when does anything good cause a foul odor?

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Japanese TV reveals the revolting truth about the source of jasmine’s alluring fragrance

Sometimes it’s better not to know where nice things come from. That’s the lesson Japanese netizens learned last week when a TV show revealed a very unpleasant fact about why jasmine has its unique and fragrant scent.

In a segment of the variety show aptly called “it’s better that you don’t know,” the president of an “aroma school” in Tokyo revealed that the compound that gives jasmine its pleasant fragrance is also responsible for a very unwelcome smell familiar to us all.

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So you think you have a refined sense of smell, do you? Well, forget that job as an aromachologist, ah, yes, the position actually does exist, there may soon be openings in Shanghai that will allow you to put your nose to work for the greater public good.
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Pretty White Soba Flowers Making Fukui Locals Want to Vomit

For those of us living in cities, the idea of moving away to a country home surrounded by vast meadows of these pretty white autumn flowers sounds nice doesn’t it? However, this year, in Fukui Prefecture, where crops of thousands of these soba (buckwheat) flowers are grown, residents are perplexed that all these little blossoms literally smell like an ocean of sh*t.

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