happy feet.

It’s been one week since I arrived back in Los Angeles from Tokyo. I have spent most of the week safely strapped into the passenger seat of my car being driven around by my brother. The nerves in my legs are starting to atrophy and I can barely remember how to put one in front of the other, but my feet, my two big feet are tingling with excitement.

It’s not easy having size 9 ½ feet in Japan. Japan is shoe purgatory for women with big feet like me; no buying, only looking. To make matters worse not only do I have large feet I have bone protrusions the size of baby tomatoes sticking out at the joints beneath my large toes, otherwise known as, bunions. When I am purchasing shoes I have to consider size (width, length) and how funny my bunions look in it. It is no easy feat to find shoes that fit and flatter my feet.

But in North America, California, Los Angeles they have my shoe size at every store. They have shoes in 9’s and 10’s, in wide and double-wide. They have half sizes between whole sizes. I can run wild in all, more, well, most of the shoe fantasies that I had put on hold for the past two years in Japan. I had forgotten how satisfying a sensation it is(for me) to try on a shoe and have it be too big(never happens in Japan). America, the land of shopportunity and shoe size equality for all.