The tools and rules of hygiene are generally cut and dry: Brush your teeth at least twice a day, floss once, remember to bathe, and clip your nails to meet your own taste. But what about cleaning your ears? For some people, once every couple of weeks is enough, but others like to do it every day.
In North America, many use a Q-tip (known as "cotton buds" in Europe, Australia and New Zealand), a thin plastic straw with a cotton swab on either end.
In line with its reputation for embracing the modern, ear-cleaning services in Japan have gone high-tech, with salons inserting miniature video cameras into customers' ear canals in search of chunks that are then removed with various contraptions. In shops, all manner of elegant or cute ear-cleaning tools, including some that hang from cellphones or key chains, can be found.