Say it louder, that'll make me believe you

Ah - it is SO lovely to have a whole day to myself. I've been Christmas shopping (somewhat unsuccessfully) and borrowing library books today. I did actually buy myself a few warm things for winter, skivvies and the like. Now that it's winter I have felt the desire to purchase a pair of boots resurface again. Every winter it crops up, and every winter I go searching for the perfect pair, find them, and then realise that there's no way I can afford them if I also plan on paying my rent. This year I am bootless for a different reason - my giant feet. Women's sizes only go to 25cm in Japan. My feet are 27cm. BOO. And what makes it worse is that the Japanese are crazy about boots and so have heaps of different styles and colours that you just don't see at home. Maybe it's a good thing that I can't fit into them cos otherwise I would surely have at least 5 pairs by now... So at this stage it seems I will be tramping around the snow in my running shoes. Well, I did use them to squish around on the touch field all last year too so no reason why they shouldn't get to see some snow action. Hmm, my Asics are very versatile indeed and I do love them, but I feel sure I have space in my shoe heart for some black boots too...

Today while walking along in the shopping district my ear drums were assaulted from all angles by a woman's voice yelling over a loudspeaker which was mounted atop a van parked in the street. In addition to this there were about 10 people standing in front of the pedestrian crossing yelling - although without any electronic assistance - and trying to force pieces of paper into the hands of all those who walked by. It was so loud, and there were so many people assualting me from all angles, I felt very disorientated and overwhelmed by it all. I wonder why, in this first world country, it isn't possible to simply walk down the street without being affronted as such, you end up feeling as though you have survived a violent ordeal. I couldn't even tell you what it was all about because it was just so noisy that I couldn't hear properly.