Another week amongst the bears and the station.

Ok so you know sometimes you think to yourself 'Man, I have GOT to clean this car', as in tidy the mess inside.
And, sometimes, you find things, like, I don't know, an umbrella.
And then when it's all done you feel you have achieved something (ok this sounds sad, but it's the truth).
I am using the car of my bosse's wife, who passed away nearly three years ago.
Needless to say my boss and the kids had other things to do than clean and tidy the car the last three years.
Anyways - to give you an idea of the state of the car, I didn't find one umbrella. No...I found nine.
Nine. F*cking. Umbrellas.
And at the end of it the rubbish bag was half my size and about 8 kilos.
And my achievement feeling was proportional.

Anyways, we took the motorway last week-end and I think for once in my life (I'm car sick - to the point that even when they don't move I feel nauseous, like when cleaning one...) I LOVED it. The landscape was amazing and it had been raining so the light made me drool.

 Plus there were 'Monkeys crossing' sign roads. Now you're talking about living in Japan.

Also, I have a green and pink hello kitty tattoo... for two weeks, don't freak out.

Anyways, I decided I needed some shoes that I can slip on (you take your shoes on and off about 40 times a day in Japan, at the doctor, at the kindergarten, in some shops...).
I'm a little of a pain in the ass as I don't buy anything made in China, Taiwan, Indonesia unless it is from a specific brand whose factory has been audited by an independent third party. Basically I do everything I can to avoid buying clothes manufactured in conditions I disagree with, meaning that most of the time I only buy made in France, made in the UK, sometimes made elsewhere in Europe, and here made in Japan (and yes, it also mean I don't buy a lot - hell I'm such a cheap date! Vegan and don't do clothes-shopping! I don't understand...Where ARE the men?).
 It doesn't eradicate the chance of it coming from a sweatshop a hundred percent, but it surely limits that chance. That's all I can do appart from making my own shoes (which I cannot), go bare foot (man, it's still 0 degrees here in the evening, no not an option), or buy second hand which is like non existent here (second whaaaat?).
 ANYWAYS- to cut it short it's not easy for me to find shoes, because on top of this I also don't buy any animal product so no leather or animal skin and fur.
SO: I find a shoe shop in town, and BING! they have the most cute but not too childish shoes, red and shiny, non leather, made in Japan, and not expensive (about 30 euros/pounds). I'm like hey, maybe god does exist.

What had slipped my mind, is that the maximum size in a normal shoe shop in Japan for women is roughly half my foot. So not only my back hurts like hell because my 1m75 is totally alien to any furniture designer here in Japan, but on top of that I have to go to specialised shoe shops for big sizes... my humiliation is now complete.
So to make up for it, I bought some other shit!

A totally amazing hair pin that makes me look like I care (hahahahaha), and makes my hair wavy.

Now I am finally a woman. High five.

Modelling the hair pin between the pines.

So I get up the road frustrated as hell and then I find the most amazing clothes shop with like 95% of their stuff hand made in Japan. 

Most things I simply couldn't afford, but this super-duper-amazingly-comfortable dress I could

 and is what I'd like to wear more of (as in, anything that is not a sweatshirt I have had for the past 15 years, basically). 

It has a tummy pocket and feels great and is one of my favourite colour. 

The cat likes it too, and he knows a hell of a lot about fashion as its diamond-turquoise necklace would suggest.

Those are the Made In Japan shoes I bought a few weeks ago. They are equally fully cat-approved.

As I was already going to hell for being a thirsty-capitalist-consumerist-piece-of-crap, 

I also bought a made in Japan purse made from kimono fabric to put my many coins (as I am indeed very rich).