Teetering on 15 centimeter and higher platform shoes, these bone-thin girls are tanned to a chocolate hue that is intensified by white fluorescent eye shadow and white or black lipstick. Hair color ranges from shocking pink, yellow or green, and skirts are the mini-minimum. Enameled long nails burgeoning with intricate designs, decorative cordless phones, false eyelashes and big bags are part of a look that is labor intensive. I never tire of watching these eccentric fashion plates because each creates embellishments of originality, within the overall design scheme. As most everywhere, Japan has incorporated a plethora of western ideas and items into its culture.
Modern buildings follow western designs.
If you think this is a nation of copiers, though, next time you are in Japan, check out the local fast food hamburger joints and see what's on the menu. These exotic delicacies don't hold to the basic western tenets of fast foods. They sound healthy, for one thing. Healthful is not the appropriate spirit for fast foods whose tasty tidbits are meant to clog up the arteries, break out the face and pad some lard over those bones. Then there's coffee.