For the Ladies

So I went on a Watsons haul today; okay I guess it wasn't really a haul since I didn't buy that much but that is besides the point. Anyways, Watsons, for those of you that may not know, is sort of the Duane-Reade or CVS (Walgreens?) of Asia--think health care, body care, cosmetics, health foods, and snacks. So if you are in need of soap, body wash, shampoo, lotion, face wash, or any sort of toiletry, Watsons is your best bet. They carry international brands in addition to local brands (I've seen Head & Shoulders, Vaseline, Nivea, and Missha, to name a few) and they are all over South Korea and all over Taiwan (though to be honest, while I was in Korea, I usually found emart to be a lot more convenient for toiletry shopping than Watsons). Admittedly some of the international brands can get a little pricey, but isn't that pretty much true everywhere?

Some of the bigger stores will even carry things like laundry detergent and fabric softener. Also Watsons is organized very nicely with both English and Chinese labels for each section so if you can't read the Chinese, the English will be there. And the cashier was very nice--she seemed to be the only one working there this morning or something, but she was helping a customer when I went to pay so I had to wait a bit; when she was finally able to ring my stuff up she kept apologizing, quite sincerely might I add, for making me wait so long even though it couldn't have been more than five minutes.

With its distinct coloring, it's pretty hard to miss any Watsons' sign

emart is basically the Target or Walmart of South Korea

Anyways, as the title suggests, this is a post for the ladies, but guys (if any) are welcome to keep reading if they so desire--just know that the remainder of this post is going to be related to that time of the month.

When you're used to buying a certain brand of anything--shampoo, detergent, pads--it can be frustrating when you're in a new place and they don't carry your brand, even more so when the brands are all in another language. For us girls, when it's that time of the month, we want to be comfortable; we don't want to worry about...well, any of the discomforts that come with our periods. Luckily, in terms of buying pads (or sanitary napkins), it's not too difficult; if you prefer tampons however, you'd be a little more hard-pressed to find them (in both South Korea and Taiwan). That's not to say that you can't find them, they're just hard to find. I'm not even sure if I saw any at Watsons today, though it is on the website, so perhaps they sell them in stores as well. However, Asia in general (or East Asia at the very least), is not very tampon-friendly, so pack a bunch if you need to.

Now in America, pads are categorized by sizes like panty-liners, regular, long, or overnight. In South Korea and Taiwan however, they sell them by length, so 24 cm, 28 cm, 33 cm, 40 cm, 42 cm. Coming from sizes such as regular or overnight and from a country that uses inches, this system of measuring by centimeters can be a little confusing (especially when there are so many choices) so bring a measuring tape. Haha I'm just kidding. I wish I had gotten a picture of the shelves of pads, but I was afraid of looking like a weirdo. Sorry gals.

Luckily you can tell which ones are the overnight ones by the pictures of a crescent moon and stars or a sleeping woman on the packaging (also anything 40 cm and up tends to be overnight), but for the others you would have to guesstimate. Even after a semester of this system in South Korea, I still had trouble equating 28 or 33 cm to American standards in my head. Actually Asian overnight pads tend to be longer than American overnight pads and are wider in the back as well. 24 cm I would say is between the size of a panty-liner and a regular and 33 cm I guess is about the size of a long.

Another interesting thing is that in America, while you can buy pads in packs of 16, 32, 48 (sometimes more or less), in Asia they don't have as much per pack. In South Korea, I found that a pack of overnight pads can contain as much as 20 and as little as 6, while a pack of 24 cm can contain as much as 32 or as little as 10 or 8. Likewise here in Taiwan, pads are sold in pretty small packs, less than in South Korea I would venture to say. However, in Taiwan pads are sometimes sold in multi-packs, so two packs of six (for a total of 12) or three packs of 13 (for a total of 39), for example. Prices can range from about NT$89 to NT$169 (give or take), which I was going to say is cheaper than in America, but you have to take into account that you get less too, so it would probably come out to be about the same.

There you have it ladies. I hope that this basic guide to pad buying in Taiwan has been useful or at least interesting for you. If I ever make another Watsons pad trip, maybe I'll snap a picture or two for this post. Until then I hope my descriptions will suffice!

Everyday Chinese

• (月)經期 ((Yuè) Jīngqí) - Menstrual period
• 衛生棉 (Wèishēng mián) - Pad (referred to as a sanitary napkin in Watsons)
• 衛生棉條 (Wèishēng mián tiáo) - Tampon
• 夜用 (Yè yòng) - Overnight