The World's Largest Dispensable Income

I hate shopping for clothing. I hate shopping for clothing in Japan even more. I wore a hole in my pants from riding my bike so often, and because this event reduced me to only two pairs of daily wearable jeans, I felt that I needed to try to replace them. Ha. Hahaha. Japanese stores sell two kinds of jeans. Small and extra small. And these both fall under the category of "You're absolutely kidding me" expensive. I glanced at the normal clothing stores in the shopping district, then I headed for the Big and Tall store down the road, where they politely informed me that women shouldn't be tall or bigger around than a toothpick (that is, they don't sell women's clothing). So I headed for the next logical place, The Gap. I figured that if such a name in clothing existed in Japan, it must carry sizes reasonable for the rest of the world. Oh, how I was wrong. A size ten is the largest size they carry. It took me ten minutes to find one. I don't know why I was still looking even after three minutes. It then took me fifteen to find a pair of pants that cost less than $88. Every single pair of pants in the store, save one (which cost the oh so inexpensive price of $59), was $88. I almost cried, it was so funny and miserable at the same time. I don't understand how they can charge twice the amount in a different country for the same exact pair of pants. I guess it's because the Japanese women will buy them. Dispensable income. Amazing. Well, I finally found a pair of pants, although not jeans, at UniQlo, an Old Navy sort of store. I searched out the largest size they carried, and miraculously, the pants were on sale. Hallelujah. A reasonable store. If I ever have to do this again (oh, how I pray not), I will shop there.
Moral of the story: DO NOT attempt to buy clothing in Japan if you :
a) are of or above average height and weight
b) understand what money is
c) have any sense whatsoever