When You Want to Take Away the Taste of Unagi

I received some lovely presents for my birthday last week, but I'm especially fond of the bottle of "Ugai" mouthwash tablets that my daughter got me from Lush. Lush is of course a Dorset company through and through, but it's big in Japan, so I wasn't totally surprised to see them give mouthwash a Japanese twist. Nevertheless, the label is deliciously ridiculous:



"Inspired by the Japanese custom of gargling." Really? Are we going to pretend that gargling is a quintessentially Japanese concept, like bushido and origami?

In case you're wondering, "ugai" is indeed the Japanese word for gargling. In this context, though, it's reminiscent of Ross Geller declaring the necessity of "achieving true unagi".