5.29.2011

They Might Be Giants

Dustin, though he is the smallest male in his family, is 6'2. As for me, even the germanic people from whom I am descended would consider me "schön groß", or nice and big. At 5'10, I only occasionally meet women that are taller than me, and have a hard enough time in Canada finding pants that cover my ankles and shirts that cover my midriff. I remember that while living in Cambodia as a kid I had already started wearing women's large sizes by the age of 8. In Japan, where the average height for a man and a woman is 5'7 and 5'2 respectively, we will be hard pressed to find anything that would come near fitting. Our feet are proportionately large too, and unless I take to wearing men's shoes, or Dustin binds his feet, we will need to bring a few extra pairs.

Watch out Japan!

Next weekend, Dustin and I will be driving to the U.S. to take advantage of their good prices and our fantastic exchange rate. Our mission is to purchase most of the extra clothes/shoes that we will need for at least a year in Japan. I absolutely despise clothes shopping for myself, especially when I know that my body will continue to change over the next few months in its journey back to pre-baby shape. I know that what fits now will be fairly large in 4 months, so it is a gamble trying to buy clothes for the future. I am sure that I will end up mail ordering a few more things once we are in Japan. At least I enjoy shopping for shoes and Dustin's clothes, and we will be accompanied by my in-laws, so the weekend won't be completely joyless.

We are still impatiently waiting to find out where we are going to end up, but as Manitobans we have a freakishly large hoard of sweaters, jackets, balaclavas, thermal underwear, toques, etc. to use in the unfortunate event that we are placed somewhere cold. Here's hoping we find out next week!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I seriously can't wait until you guys find out your location. Part of me really hopes it is Miyazaki, because I think your family would love it here. It's a great prefecture, very kid friendly and the JETs are of a good quality (but of course not without their 'interesting' characters).

I'm 5'8" and I hate shopping for clothes in Japan.
The best I can do is the GAP, although I have found some interesting pieces randomly.
Bring all the shoes you want...I miss shoes from home, although it's not impossible to find decent ones...still clothing back home rocks in comparison to anything i've found here for myself, unless you are in Tokyo ;)

Cheers!
Martine
http://industriousants.wordpress.com/

The Freys said...

When we were in Beijing, there was an area of town that had been heavily "Russianized" back in the day. There was a street (wonderfully called "Aliens' Street") where you could buy all sorts of shirts and pants that fit large Russian men. Unfortunately, they were also well-suited to the Russian Mafia, because the shirts tended to only button up to about mid-sternum (you wouldn't want to obstruct anyone's view of your gold crucifix) and the collars could double for aircraft wings.

So if you can find a Russian area of whatever town your in (maybe where the sailors stumble in for a sip of grog), you'll find something. Dustin would look good in Mafia chic.

Ring of Fire said...

I'm planning on visiting several thrift stores to pick up some inexpensive collared shirts before we go.

Laura said...

We would be pretty pleased to find out we are in Miyazaki! It was our first choice.

Large Russian men...sounds like all of Dustin's brothers could get clothes in Beijing. I could actually imagine Tim decked out like that, gold crucifix and all. Dustin on the other hand, needs to grow a little chest hair first before he could pull off a shirt like that!

Laura said...

Jeff, is your Captain Kirk shirt coming along to Japan? Dustin has let me know that he is pretty jealous.

Carol said...

I remember going through the used clothing section of the market in Phnom Penh (the Russian Market!) and a woman leaped out and chased me down, waving a pair of black flat shoes. Amazingly, they were US size 11's, and we parted happy customer and vendor.