Last weekend we spent in Michigan with friends of Chad's from college, which was low-key fun: much grilled food, and hanging out by the Lake, and so forth. This weekend can be summed up in three letters:
Dear Local Independent Bookstore,
I was planning to support you by purchasing Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows at your establishment. However, when I arrived at your store at 9:30 a.m. and found that you didn't open until 10:00, I said to myself, "If I go to the Borders across the street, I could be home by 10:00."
And so I was.
Very truly yours,
A missed customer
* * *
Dear bathing suit manufacturers,
Thank you for finally realizing that it's often much easier to find a comfortable and well-fitting bathing suit if one can mix and match tops and bottoms. Now that you've made lots of non-bikinis available in two pieces, I actually finished my Quest for Spare Bathing Suits in a good mood.
Love,
Me
* * *
Dear Eddie Bauer,
No company that sends me as many catalogs as you do has any business carrying "store-only" items. You could have sold four or five pairs of shorts today, instead of just the one that the local store had in my size.
Very truly yours,
A mildly peeved customer
The shorts were going to be for Japan, but Chad suggested that maybe they wouldn't be appropriate, because he didn't recall seeing a lot of people wearing them and felt that the general custom was a little dressier. Thoughts, anyone? (I was thinking shorts because (1) it's going to be hot and (2) I'd like to wear sneakers rather than sandals, and my personal dress code does not include sneakers with skirts.)
In my experience, there exist walking-comfortable non-garish cloth top, rubbery-bottom shoes that one can wear with skirts. (I admit, I don't, but DW does. She also says that a lot of people going to work do. OK, we're near 70 - dye your hair if you must.)
Coupla caveats: countryside usage is different from city, monasteries and temples can be particular about this, and there are probably still Japanese around who think that if you look Japanese you are Japanese and why are you behaving like a gaijin. They may not say anything but they'll be thinking it hard, and you may pick up on them doing it.
If you want to look like a fashionable young Japanese woman, you could wear short cuffed shorts and a dressy top with high heels. Sartorial horror!