although i haven't written in quite some time, there is no need to worry. japan is as strange as ever.
just a few days ago while browsing through a fashion magazine on my lunch break, i saw a six page spread (yes, that's 12 pages) on sub-bags.
in case you don't know (i certainly didn't) a sub-bag is a second purse that a woman might carry for several reasons. first of all, she's paid a lot of money for her louis vuitton, coach, tod's, pinky and diane or gucci bag and the thought of not carrying it makes her sad. secondly, her designer purse is most likely too small to carry everything a girl needs for a day of shopping. lastly, she wasn't sure that the brand she chose was the right choice.
a sub bag solves all these problems. she has twice the carrying capacity, she can always carry her first choice, and she can buy a second, third or fourth purse if she wants and then she never will have bought the wrong brand!
this is no joke. according to the article the sub-bag should not be as expensive as your primary bag. it should also be carried farther away from your body (e.g. primary on your shoulder, sub-bag in your hand). it should also be fairly plain compared to the primary bag(kind of, i mean, we are talking about japan here).
i guess i'll have to go shopping again. damn, it's hard to live here.
one of the country's three big cell phone providers, docomo, has just released a new phone for women.
it comes in colors like powder pink, lavendar, baby blue, and such, with decals of rhinestones and disney characters. The phone comes with a convenient 'camouflage' tone. a lady can set her push-button-activated 'camouflage' setting to sound like a regular ring and use it to conveniently excuse herself from unwanted or uncomfortable situations.
the best part is that she can enter data from her menstrual cycle and the phone will predict her future cycles. she can even program it to notify her during her most fertile times of the month. speculation is that this convenience was inspired by the increasing age of first time mothers, falling birth rates and fears of a shrinking japanese population.
