Today's adventures: a dentist and a Japanese clothing store

Today I went to the dentist. I think it is the first time I have done so in Japan without the trusty linguistic support of my husband. Sounds strange, I know, but usually we go as a family and get our yearly check-ups all done at the same time.

This time, however, I have a mouth-ache. Three of my molars have drifted apart and for the last two or three years they've been attracting a great deal of food. Meat fibres and apple are particularly bad. The last week or two I've struggled to chew on that side of my mouth, so I finally decided to go and check whether it was more serious. 

I was a bit concerned, not because I couldn't describe the problem in Japanese, but because I couldn't be sure I understood what was said back to me! But I think there is no cavity.  I'm not sure whether I'm happy on that front or not. These gaps have become a nuisance and I'd like to fill them in with "Seely's No Gaps", thank you!

I've been flossing and cleaning regularly, but she told me I have to increase the frequency. Ouch. Flossing has already been painful, but now I'm supposed to do it every time I eat! And I have to go back next week. I'm not really sure why!

After a very tedious day of magazine research (I won't bore you with the tedious details), and then a dentist's visit, I decided some retail therapy was not unwarranted. There is a "department" store near our dentist, so I wandered over there (kind-of like a down-market Myers or DJs).

I found some nice winter trousers that I wanted to try on. In the change room I found this mysterious box:

What? I'd put this in a "Japan Photo" quiz, except I don't know myself what this is. I can only wildly guess that it is to put over your made-up face to prevent make-up getting on the clothes?

Snapped that photo, then I realised that there were a few other things about this little clothes shopping trip that are different in Japan than they would be in Australia. Here's one:

You leave your shoes outside the fitting room.

The sizes of trousers are your waist measurement in centimetres. This takes some getting used to; for someone who's tried to ignore her waist measurement and certainly doesn't have it memorised.

I don't have to get special length trousers. The jeans you see on the floor are "short leg" length, bought in Australia, but I still have to roll the bottoms up twice. The ones I'm wearing are perfect! 

And I thought it would be fun to take a photo of myself taking a photo in those wonderful floor to ceiling mirrors. Smile.