Will Miss #518 - few or no tacky clothes

Maybe making them "cute" makes them seem less tacky? Or maybe I've lost my mind.

Perhaps this is my imagination, or I don't frequent nice enough stores in the U.S., but I see a lot of profoundly ugly clothes in America. In fact, in some stores, the styles and types of designs that I see are almost painful to look at. Even the strange T-shirts in Japan didn't look as stupid as the T-shirts here. They're full of the sort of contrived "jokes" and sayings which are far less clever than the writer seems to believe they are. I'm talking about shirts which say, "pobody's nerfect," or "think ahea..." with the "d" not fitting on the line and being crammed off to the side. The designs are also ugly as hell most of the time compared to those I saw in Japan.

It seems that the Japanese aesthetic influenced even their cheap clothes in this regard and kept designs that might be cheesy out of public view most of the time. That's not to say that there were never any tacky clothes, but it was always my sense that those were intentionally tacky. I really miss the clothing designs in Japan.

Won't Miss #375 - spider eyes

There's a trend in Japan which I find vaguely disturbing, and that's young women who get long and ridiculous-looking false eyelashes glued onto their eyelids. This trend has been gaining momentum over the past few years and more and more women look like they're walking around with spider legs attached to their faces. Frankly, it looks pretty creepy and can be quite distracting when you're attempting to have a conversation with someone. Though I'm sure not only Japanese women do this, since copying bad fashion trends is pandemic in Tokyo, I'm sure I'd see a lot less of it anywhere else.

I won't miss seeing women who seem to be attempting to imitate a porcupine.

Will Miss #285 - La Puta posters

There is a theater in my area which shows vintage Japanese movies. For some reason, they put up a poster on a back street which is the most common path for me to follow to get to local grocery shops. It's an odd place for a poster which advertises old Japanese movies because it would seem foot traffic would hardly bring in a substantial number of patrons, but I love the fact that they are there. Because of these posters, I have seen a veritable visual history of Japanese film merely by walking to the grocery store. You can see how fashion and styles have changed in the way the actresses are made up, their hair is styled, and the clothes they wear. Things like how high school uniforms have changed are reflected in the movie posters, as well as the shape and style of eyebrows and density of make-up. You can see where the path of Japanese cinema followed and diverged from western styling of the same eras. It's one of those little things which is easy to take for granted, but offers a wealth of cultural information.

I'll miss these glamorous little incidental history lessons on my way to the shops.