My new umbrella

I walked to work today through a light rain with my new Vancouver Daiso-bought clear Japanese umbrella.

The first thing I realized is that my shoulders and shoulder bag were getting wet. This is because the umbrella just covers me. And even though this makes it look like I stole it from a 9 year old girl, I soon discovered why it’s made this way: a business man with a golf umbrella – seriously, it was ridiculously huge – made it impossible to share the sidewalk with him. There’s way too many people in Tokyo to tolerate this kind of nonsense.

But I soon discovered another, more compelling reason for my umbrella’s design and why I will always use it: light. Everyone else, with their dark umbrellas, were walking around in shadow. Even though it was raining, my head was showered in light.

Once again, Japan shows us how it’s done.