Stench of death evokes images of summer
Having looked at healing sounds earlier this month, this time goo Ranking looked at what smells evoked images of summer. As usual with goo Rankings, we have absolutely no demographic information whatsoever, so take these numbers with the usual pinch of salt.
For me, if I were being cynical, I would say the smell of fetid sewers and rubbish bins are the most notable summer perfumes of Japan, but to be non-cynical it would be either the smoke of fireworks or newly-cut grass.
The scores are, as usual, 100 points for the top answer and all the others rated as a percentage of the top vote-getter.
Q: What smell evokes the image of summer?
Rank Smell Score 1 蚊取り線香, katori senko, mosquito coil 100 2 Watermelon (does it smell?) 66.5 3 Fireworks 64.7 4 Salt water, or sea shore in general 48.8 5 Barley tea (that doesn’t smell much?) 47.8 6 Swimming pool disinfectant or chlorine 44.8 7 Chilled Chinese food 43.8 8 Sun tan lotion 29.8 9 Campfire 28.1 10 Beetles (Never tried sniffing them!) 27.9 11 Electric mosquito killer 23.4 12 Barbeque 20.9 13 Eel grilled in soy sauce 18.2 14 Festival’s fried noodles (焼きそば, yakisoba) 18.1 15 畳, tatami, tatami straw mats 15.1 16 Grass 12.3 17 Goldfish bowl 9.9 18 Asphalt 9.8 19 Curry 7.2 20 Mint leaves 1.2
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RisingSunofNihon said,
July 30, 2006 @ 07:05
Summer in Japan definitely means the smell of tatami mats and mosquito coils for me. You mentioned fresh-cut grass? You’re lucky if you live in an area that has grass!! I haven’t smelled that in the summer since living in the States.
HanshinT said,
August 1, 2006 @ 09:54
Summer smells… Tatami, Curry, Unagi (eel) and the smell of decomposition.
“Cut Grass”…! Not cut in my area, it is almost waist high! Lucky there are no shakes around.
HanshinT said,
August 1, 2006 @ 09:57
Shakes? should be snakes
Ken Y-N said,
August 1, 2006 @ 11:24
RisingSun - I actually have a garden, but cut it by hand last year, and this year I’ve bought a hand-held cutter but not used it yet… It’s not even out of the box yet. Next door cut their lawn a few weeks back and I ended up with terrible sneezes.
HanshinT - my tatami doesn’t smell, but that might be because I’ve got the slightly cheaper and nastier (I think) green style, and the tatami room doesn’t get much direct sunlight as we keep the shoji paper door shut most of the time.