A few weekends ago, Aaron, the boys, and I went to Asahikawa. Again. We’ve been suffering a bit from cabin fever due to the snow and isolation inherent to Nishiokoppe. This time, I took the camera, for fun, with the idea of snapping a few photos of Japanese Fashion. Here’s what I found. The man photo here is Aaron checking out a motorcycle with the boys at the mall in Asahikawa. They were having a cycle fair of some kind. Ridge is trying to push the horn.

This young lady is dressed in a very typical fashion for her age. Actually, skirts this short can be found on some high school girls. Short school uniform skirts are very popular in Honshu (the main island of Japan), and not frowned upon by school officials at all. I particularly love the knee socks and shoes in this picture. I think she was working at this clothing store.

Miss Twenty-something

This young Japanese fellow is sporting, believe it or not, an FFA jacket. For those of you not “in the know”, FFA stands for Future Farmers of America, and is an agricultural education group popular in high schools (in some areas). I have a jacket just like this one in my parents house, except for the fact that it says, “Smithson Valley” on the back. I couldn’t believe it when I saw this guy wearing it. Aaron said he’d seen some other FFA jackets for sale in a shop once, in Asahikawa, but this was the first time I’ve seen one. He also said you can buy letter jackets and old military gear.

Mr. Future Farmer of America

Here are some photos I’ve taken of T-shirts worn at the elementary school. It’s totally common to see English on shirts here, and it’s usually very, very wrong and/or funny.

Shirt 1
Shirt 2
Shirt 3

The last photo I have is not about fashion, but it’s remarkable nonetheless. It’s a pair of melons and their price. The price show is for ONE melon. The exchange rate, to give you an idea, is about 115 yen to one dollar. Check it out!

You want HOW much for that melon??