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Published: August 6th 2006
The road to getting settled is coming along nicely for me in Hekinan, Japan. More and more, I'm starting to feel at home. I've finally found and labelled a map of the city. You'd think such a task should be simple, but alas it was not. First finding a decent map and then figuring out where I am and where everything else is when all the writing is in Japanese was actually much more difficult than one might think. With the mission now accomplished, I have found a new shopping mall, the roads to Nishio and Handa (two other cities where I will be teaching), a quicker route to Figaro's (the bar), my orthodontist's office, and a hospital in the event I ever need medical services (knock on wood).
So... let's discuss this new shopping mall experience, shall we? Before leaving Canada, I wanted to prepare myself as best I could. In large part, for me, that meant packing all of the essentials. So I talked with some very helpful people about their experiences in Japan. They all told me that I should take some professional clothing or something light for the sweltering summers, but not to worry too much,
as "the shopping in Japan is GREAT"! I should mention here that the people who gave me the most advice about Japan were Aubrey, Cam, and Mark. Note that all of the listed names are of males... Kara's mistake - trusting the advice of three males on shopping. Now don't get me wrong gentlemen, I appreciate all of the advice you gave very much (thank you, thank you, thank you). However, perhaps while you were in Japan, you did not notice the difference in body make-up between Japanese and Canadian women (which I'm sure your wives all appreciated greatly). The fact is, Canadian women have asses; in the case of some, they have big asses, myself included. Japanese women, on the other hand, not so much. As many of us know, the Japanese are generally a smaller people than us giant Westerners. This all equates to a very difficult and demoralizing first shopping trip in Japan. To give a few examples of the difficulties I encoutered yesterday... Empire waists on the tanktops came to about my armpits. Long blouses and sweaters hardly covered my torso. Only the largest sizes of pants would fit over my ass and hips, and even
then, they look like flood pants on me! Are the fashions awesome? Yes... gentlemen, you were right on that one. Will they fit a Canadian girl? I will admit that after several hours of ego-crushing shopping, I was able to purchase a pair of capris and two tops. I suppose shopping will test a whole new level of patience. Now I know.
On a less personal note, I took in Anjo's Tanabata Festival today! About twelve of us went, mostly ACC staff. The festival has amazing decorations and streets upon streets of kiosks and food stands. We saw some traditional drummers and got to do a little drumming ourselves, and some awesome Japanese dancers. There was a lot to see and the vendor food was actually quite tasty. With the good company to boot, it was a grand day!
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Cam
non-member comment
Canadian Asses; Japanese Pants
Sorry Kara, I didn't think your ass was that big. If you like, I can go over to Blooming Gals and have them ship you some duds!