Unlike Esther, I'm a person who is a lot more Asian than I cook, eat, or act. I'm definitely another ethnic mutt... a mixture of pretty much the same stuff in different quantities squashed into the half of me that isn't Asian. I spent years working at a sushi bar, resigned to smiling and nodding and not bothering to argue as often multiple people per evening would smirk while saying, "hey, you're not Japanese!" The entire time I was there, only one person correctly guessed that I'm Hapa.

Not that it matters tons. I joke that I'm as Asian as I look, not for lack of pride in my background, but because honestly I don't even have a fraction as much of an understanding of the cuisine as Esther does. I even prefer imitation crab to real. I feel like an embarrassment to my culture.

But I do love the Asian markets. Esther covered the grocery aisles, but there are lots of other gems lining the shelves. One of my favorite indispensable items is the "beauty skin cloth," or the goshi-goshi as we always called it. I've had one as long as I can remember, and I thought everyone used one until I started traveling and being interrogated by baffled roommates wondering what on earth that thing draped over the bar in the shower was.

It's not much different from a shower puff or a loofah, just long and flat like a scarf rather than squishy and balled up, and because of this it claims to be more sanitary. It is definitely easier to lather up and use to reach that hard to reach spot right below the shoulder blades. I am so used to it and the constant exfoliation that if I forget to take it with me on a trip, I never feel quite clean enough.

Each of the times people asked me what on earth the goshi-goshi was and what it was for, I was caught so off guard that I didn't think to ask what it is normal to use instead? If you don't use a shower puff or loofah, how do you stay exfoliated? If you do use one or the other and you aren't double jointed, how do you wash your back??

For shower perfection, especially for those with dry skin, I recommend the goshi-goshi for sure.