Monday, November 10, 2008

Japan Note: As Always, It Boils Down to Real Estate

Traveling in Japan, Mrs. B puzzled over the great number of really fancy schmantzy frocks she saw on fairly ordinary young women. I mean, we're talkin' like $5,000, $6,000 a pop.

Her friend Gudrun, a power shopper, offers a possible explanation: real estate. Japanese rents are so high that they live in little tiny apartments. So they can't afford to store the great tropical rain forest of backup garments that make our ladies so lovely. So they blow out the budget on one item. And wear it over and over until it goes out of style.

Sounds plausible to me [but a real estate aside: actually, I was surprised how many (seemingly) single family homes you see--not in the Ginza, of course, but around smaller cities down in Kyushu. From what we hear about Japanese RE, you wouldn't guess there are any].

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