Japanese Cloth Sanitary Napkins

While we were waiting for lunch in a cafe on Ishigaki, I was flipping through a natural living magazine (天然生活) and saw an advertisement for cloth pads. They were beautiful, and oh-so-Japanese. Seriously, would any other culture make something designed to soak up blood in white and add lace?! The brand advertised was Pristine and if you click the link and look at all their products, you'll see what I mean.

I started using cloth pads when I was 14 because they are so much cheaper, although I felt like there were good environmental reasons, too. I bought a set from a local Tasmanian lady (Moonpads: the designs now are so much nicer than they used to be!) and since I only use them when I'm at home (I found them inconvenient while at work or school) and I spent most of the past fifteen years using contraception with the welcome side effect of irregular periods, I am still using that same set. $70 well spent. You can read more about reasons to use cloth here. At the time, no one else I knew used them and they were a very functional thing, none of the cute designs and diverse shapes that you can buy today. So, when I saw the lovely fabrics on offer in Japan, I looked into it further. I was really intrigued by this design, which seems the standard in Japan but a quick google of US and Australian suppliers indicates is uncommon in other countries:

Image from www.pristine.jp/products/detail828.html

A small band of lace hold an insert inside the part that is fastened under the gusset, meaning you wouldn't have to remove the whole thing each time. It seems like a really good idea that might make using them at work less of a hassle.

Although the Pristine brand are lovely, I wasn't really down with the idea of all that white. So, I typed 布ナプキン into amazon.jp and this is what came up. Since we're broke I went for the cheaper options but wasn't stuck with boring block colours or tired prints: