Tim’s Ramblings

I WILL do a picture update. Soon. I swear.

Today I didn’t get back from my parent’s place until 10pm and am pooped. It was a long day and it’s a 2 hour commute (I take a bus, then a train, then another train and then one more train before getting back to the hotel…..blaaaaah….).

But one thing stood out in my mind today so that’s the subject of this here post. I know you are all excited. All 2 of you readers. (>_<)

So, a bit ‘o background. From Wednesday to Friday I was at a place called Tokyo Big Sight (pictures coming….) for a trade show called the E-Document Japan. Exciting, I know. So basically, starting from 8:15am or so when I leave the hotel, I am on my feet until I get home around 7 or 8 at night. Wearing a suit in an uncomfortably warm convention hall in dress shoes on concrete (they don’t really carpet the show flloor in Japan…only in the booths and even that’s a very very thin layer) sucked. And it also happened to be the final hurrah for my dress shoes.

I’ve had this pair for about 3 years or so now…maybe a bit longer. Up until this year, I wore these shoes maybe a total of a week or two a year…maybe… But this year I started wearing these more often. An average of 2 weeks per month. And unlike the US, I walk ALOT here so there was definitely more wear and tear on the shoes. They weren’t the most expensive pair either. Actually I probably paid less than $40 for them. Back then I really didn’t give a damn as long as they looked nice.

But after the past 3 days, it finally died on me. Thursday night I realized that the heel on my right shoe was starting to slooowly separate from the sole and the leather was starting to split. I still wore it on Friday since I had no choice but by the time I got home, I realized that the bottom of my right shoe has also split and was starting to crack and such. It basically gave it it’s all and died. Of course I still have 2 full business days to go here…..

So today after having lunch with mom and dad, I told them what happened and mom took me to a shoe store nearby. It looked like a small neighborhood shoe shop. Nothing special with a pretty faded sign out front. But when I walked in and started looking around, I noticed that these were not cheap shoes…. The cheapest shoes they had there was over $100. But I wanted a nice pair since I’ll be wearing these for a while I think, so I looked around and found a pair I liked but I wasn’t sure what shoe size I was in Japan. I did do a preliminary lookup online and they told me I was a 27.5 and when I said that the woman looked sad and told me that they didn’t have shoes that big….but since I don’t know my shoe size for real, the owner will measure for me.

I knew something was up when, after I replied saying “sure, I guess I can get a general sizing” thinking to myself “how off can I be?”, she kinda looked up and told me that “it’s not a general sizing, we will tell you what size you are for real”. Hm.

And she was right.

I have never ever had a professional “foot sizing” (I have no idea what else you call it…) done before. It took 15 minutes to figure out my shoe size. He first had me stand on a pressure sensor so he can see what part of my feet landed where and with how much pressure in real time. Then the true sizing began. He first had me stand on a peice of paper over an ink pad and then drew a contour of my feet. Then using various types of calipers and tape and rulers and other stuff, proceeded to take, I swear, like 10 to 15 measurements per foot.

After all of that, he had me flex my feet and toes (apparently I am quite stiff and unflexible…who knew?) for both feet and then had me wait while he consulted one chart after another and started doing some math and so on and so forth until he came up with my actual shoe size and width in Japanese measurements. Apparently I am a 26.5 with a width of EEE. I guess the web was wrong (nooo….).

He then proceeded to fit me with just the right type of shoes, not just for size but for the way I stand and walk and my weight distribution and my width. And I have to say…after trying out a few he chose and some I chose purely based on my size….his choices were unbelievably more comfortable. I mean…it was even better than wearing my tennis shoes. It truly was a perfect pair of shoes.

Now I know what it’s like to have a shoe fitting and I have to say…it was worth it. Now, I can actually look forward to wearing these to work on Monday and not fear the long walk back and forth from the office to the hotel.

Oh…I should also point out that these are, by far, the most expensive shoes I have ever owned in my life. Over $200. But I’m hoping these will last me a long long long time.

So there you go. My experience in shoe fitting. It was much more interesting than it reads….I swear (^_^) If you actually read this far down, I give you my congrats and you deserve a prize!