It's been so long, so long. I know I haven't posted and there goes most of my small readership, but hopefully those who are using RSS will pick up this post. Huzzah! Really, I haven't had much to write about while back in the States. But I'll start back up with a tale of my most recent shopping trip.
When I'm back in the States, I like to get some new clothes items since my favorite stores aren't in Japan and also Japanese fashion only goes so far with me. You don't want to see me in full Japanese getup; you'd probably wet yourself laughing.
I've heard about how clothing designers/retailers have been secretly making sizes bigger in order to increase/maintain consumer confidence. You know, a size 2 or whatever is no longer what it used to be; a size 2 now is the same as what used to be a size 4. I wasn't sure if I believed it until my most recent venture into the mall. I used to be a solid medium. Shirts, pants, whatever. I certainly haven't gotten any smaller in the three years I've been in Japan, but apparently everyone else has gotten a lot bigger. I can't fit into anything labeled as a "medium" anymore. I've been moved down to a small, and even then things are huge.
What's telling though is that in every store, smalls are either very few or completely sold out. This tells me that either no one is a small or there are quite a few smalls who are buying everything out of the store. This is especially true on clearance racks. While there are racks and racks of M through XXL, there are (for example) three S-sized shirts.
An outrage! My only hope it seems is to go back to Japan to buy stuff that actually fits me. Hopefully without glitter, chains, and excessive fasteners.