Shoe shopping.
Sometimes it’s blissfully easy. Walk into the shop, spot the perfect pair immediately, the fit’s great, on sale, boom. Done.
And sometimes… well. Consider the whole day a writeoff.
For me, shopping for shoes is a ‘take the day off’ adventure. I have very small feet. And small everything else, to be honest. Even in Japan, finding reasonably suitable shoes that fit isn’t easy. Under a certain size, everything’s got Velcro instead of laces. And there’s always glitter somewhere. Nightmare.
There are a few branches of Next in Japan, as it happens. And it was on their website that I discovered a pair of sneakers I really wanted. They weren’t exactly ‘grown up’ shoes… well, they’ve got bunny ears and a tail. But I liked the colour, and the laces, and I decided to buy them.
I tried ordering online, for a few reasons. The shop nearest me isn’t that big, so they might not have had this pair in stock at my size. And I thought, with there being a shop over here, that it’d be quickly delivered from inside Japan.
Won’t be making that mistake again.
I ordered, and got my confirmation email with the tracking number. That was fast! Checked the tracking website. The package was being shipped from England. What the hell. I may as well have picked them up the next time I visit home.
My parcel then took a leisurely cruise. It was transferred to Germany, and then to China.
For some reason, China didn’t want to pass my shoes on to Japan. Perhaps the warehouse team really likes bunnies. They was still holding that package on the day I chose for delivery. I stayed home all weekend for nothing.
So I waited some more. I rescheduled the delivery again. At which point the package was passed on to a local delivery company within Japan. Crap. Last time that happened, they showed up at a random time while I was at work.
I got the shoes after a week. It was meant to take two working days.
And they’re a size too big…
