This is a common sight in Okinawa.  People walking around in surgical masks.  At first, the concept was trivial to me, because it seemed...  well, odd.  Honestly, who walks around wearing a surgical mask all day?  It's almost a tad creepy at first when you notice someone wearing a surgical mask out in public and then there's the language barrier which prevents you from having the opportunity to ask them why.  But after some research I understand that it is common practice here to avoid the spreading of germs from the mask-wearer to "healthy" folk.  And that makes it seem downright polite.  And significantly less bizarre.  If only people in America were so considerate, hm?  It's pretty clear that not everyone wears the masks in Japan, otherwise we'd not be in our current predicament.  I'd be fine and dandy and Amaris wouldn't be up all night coughing and crying and "sounding like a dying cow," as Mark so eloquently put it sometime after midnight last night when the poor girl was alternating between coughing and moaning miserably.  But in Japan's defense, I'm fairly certain that this particular germ currently running rampant through our house is all thanks to other Americans on the bases.  Who obviously don't wear surgical masks when they are sick because they're afraid to look like Michael Jackson.