Thursday, March 15, 2007

Japanese sizes

When I go to New Zealand I don't feel particularly out of place because of my size. In fact as I see the size of the bottoms of the younger generation I even feel relatively slim sometimes! Here in Japan it is another story though. Even in New Zealand I am not a big clothes shopper, but here in Japan I avoid it as much as possible. However with the first of the big ceremonies coming up on Saturday I finally decided to go brave the shops. I managed to find clothes reasonably easily (of course they are all XL sizes with elastic waists!), but shoes was another story.....
I am only a size 8.5 in New Zealand, which is probably the most common size there is. In Japan that translates to about 25.5cm and unfortunately all the womens shoes here finish at 24cm.... After looking in 9 shops I finally found the first pair in my size. By that stage I was so sick of looking that I hardly even bothered to try them on, didn't look at the price and just said "I'll take them!".
The lesson to be learnt.... if you are a New Zealander with average sized feet bring plenty of shoes with you to Japan! Mind you you only have to wear them for a few minutes before taking them off to come inside again!

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