biginjapan

I have one box of clothes to "shrink into" - mostly size 14-16 (or mediums for tops), and a couple of loose-fitting 12s...The clothes that are slightly too tight to wear in public are already in my closet now and are marked out with hot pink hangers.

I have one entire box of clothes that still have tags on them, never worn. Hopefully I can get some decent money (30-50% of original cost) for those. Another box of barely worn clothes (5 times or less). I don't even want to think about how much money I've wasted on clothes never or barely worn (a couple thousand at least). As for shopping, of course, I want my rate of weight loss to continue as it has been, but at the same time I hope I don't have to do too much shopping online before I go home this summer, since trying things on in person is always so much better than guessing with online shopping (especially with international shipping).

How is the rate of clothes there in Japan? More expensive? I can only imagine everything being a petite and size 0 there. LOL

Actually, the cost is probably similar to most other first-world countries. You can get cheap stuff and really expensive stuff. There are a few foreign brands here, like the Gap, Eddie Bauer, H&M...and some Japanese brands that have become more popular worldwide like UNIQLO. However, most of the sizes are only for Japanese - so for example, the biggest size at Eddie Bauer is a 12, but it's a 12P (for petite). That doesn't mean for shorter women, it's smaller overall (more like a 6 or 8 back home). Interestingly, UNIQLO is selling larger sizes (up to 3X - Japanese 3X, not US sizes) to cater to the many tourists who shop there while visiting the country. As such, I was able to buy a cardigan and a pair of pants there that I really like. The pants are still too small - but if I lose 20 pounds I'm pretty sure I'll be able to wear them in public.

Generally speaking, many Japanese women have next to nothing for boobs, at least until they have children (99% of bras are padded), narrow shoulders and backs, no hips, no butts (flat, flat, flat - sometimes it's just a fold to indicate where the butt stops and the leg begins). That means, even for thin Western women who live here, there isn't much for them either, since the tops are too small (not broad enough in the back/shoulders, no room for boobs), and pants don't fit well either, since they don't leave any extra room for a real booty or hips. Of course, that's just a generalisation, but I have no idea where larger women who don't fit the mold shop for clothes. Luckily for me, even though I don't go home that often, I do travel in Asia quite a bit, and almost any other country has more options than Japan has, either because they have a legacy of colonialism and/or have a long history of Western tourists visiting. That means there are many other foreign brands that I can shop at, and they do carry real plus sizes.