Shoes of Asia

I have always been a shoe person. My grandma used to yell at me about it when I lived at home. 'Sarah, you have so many shoes. You don't need all those shoes!...' I am not a person who has over 100 pairs or anything, but in Japan, with limited packing space I think I have at least 20 pairs of shoes with me (including tap and flamenco shoes). I often judge people by what kind of shoes they are wearing. Not necessarily in a bad way, just to try and suss out what kind of person they are. For instance, pointy shoes- trendy, cosmopolitan type, teva sandles- outdoorsy type, running shoes- athletic, likes comfort, puma or other trendy sneakers- stylish but also likes comfort.

So naturally I have noticed the shoes of Asia. I will start with Japan. For girly girls, anything sparkly and strappy will do. They prefer slide on sandles with this straps. Usually silver colored with jewels on them. In my opinion, the Japanese prefer the most uncomfortable of footwear. Another popular shoe here is Chucks. Or Converse All-Stars, the old school kind. The kind that my dad wore as a kid, the kind that were popular when I was in middle school. I actually have a pair that I am currently wearing as indoor shoes at one of my elementary schools.

Next we will travel abroad. Thailand, honestly I can't remember anything that stuck out in particular. The markets sell a lot of knock off shoes. So I would say that trendy knock off pumas were in style. Hong Kong. The big style there were Birkenstocks. Not the Jesus sandle style but the thong style. Do you know what I am talking about? Boys and girls would wear these sandles in many different colors and patterns. Sparkly, black, green, polka dot. Girls also seemed to like a certain type of shoe. I will try to describe it. It was like a sneaker meets pointy shoes. You know the vans shoes that have the elastic on both sides (to make it easy to slip on)? They resembled those. Imagine those Vans shoes having babies with pointy dress shoes. You would have these shoes. They pointed at the end but had the sole and design of the Vans. Finally Korea. Old school 80's jelly shoes. No the type that were in style in the early 90's worn by goody goody middle schoolers. I mean the classic 80's ones, that pointed at the end and have the hole in the toe. Little kids and mothers alike would wear these shoes. You could get them at markets for quite cheap.

What shoes are you wearing today?