Buying Clothes for the American-Sized Man

With the mercury dropping, and a winter coat missing from my wardrobe (the 12-dollar one I bought last year in Prague made it through one and only one winter, as I had both expected and wanted), I set out looking for a good replacement to keep me warm.

Two weekends ago, I went to UNIQLO - a cheap clothing store not too far from where I live. I had been successful at UNIQLO before when looking for other clothes - a couple fleeces, a shirt or two - and was fully confident a jacket would be next in the line of purchases.

I found a jacket I really wanted - a thick, wool jacket, and was excited to see the jacket was only 8000 yen, or about 75 dollars US. Found it in a Large. Tried it on, and then I quickly came to the realize something which should have been obvious to me well before I walked into the store - a Japanese "Large" is an American "Medium." And of course, looking for a Japanese XL (an American L) jacket was like looking for an endangered species. A salesperson informed me that these were clearance items, so they had only L's and M's. (M's and S's)
Sigh.
Well, not to worry, I knew of a few other relatively-cheap clothing stores in the area. Went to them all. Not in one of them did they have a jacket which fit and was less than 20,000 yen (roughly 170 USD). My budget was half that.
Frustrated, and cold, I went back home. I would try again next weekend.

So I did, and I went to more stores all with the same results this past Saturday. Again, no luck.

Day 3. Sunday.
I dislike clothes shopping. Strongly. I buy myself clothes maybe once a year, and when I do, I make it a one-day affair. The fact that my search for a winter jacket was entering its third full day was, well, a source of tension for me.

I head to Kyoto. Surely a city of this size has a jacket in the XL category. Five hours, six stores, and zero purchases later, I was succumbing to the idea that I just might have to spend 20,000 yen on a jacket. One last stop at the UNIQLO in Kyoto before heading back to the 20,000 yen jacket I tried on earlier but rejected because of its price tag. Perhaps the Kyoto UNIQLO would have that initial jacket in the XL.
Upon entering the UNIQLO, there was a guy holding an advertising sign out front. The notable thing about this guy was the rather large afro wig he was wearing. OK..., I thought.
Inside UNIQLO, as there was no employee without the same giant afro wig, there was no jacket with the right size.
Disheartened, I decided to head upstairs to the used-clothing section of the store. After great effort, I managed to navigate my way through the sea of shoppers and clothes randomly strewn about the tables and floor to make my way to a rack of jackets. Where, lo and behold, I found one that looked like it just might fit.
Tried it on, and was astounded to see that yes, it did make its way entirely around my seemingly inhuman frame. And with the price of a mere 8300 yen, I ecstatically made my way back through the sea of strewn clothes, wandering and cell phone-using shoppers, and salespeople wearing those giant afro wigs to the cash register.

Upon making it to the front of the line, I joked with the clerk in half Japanese, half English that we had the same hair, only that mine was natural. He seemed to think this was one of the funniest things he had ever heard. So much so that he immediately said "10 percent off!" Floored, I ended up walking out of the store a mini-celebrity cause I was the only person with a natural afro, saving 12500 yen, and warm in my new winter coat.

Still strongly in need of slippers (which seems to be even more of a Herculean task than a jacket), but at least one thing can be checked off the list.

Yatta!