Cash and carry -Afternoon on the Islands of Langerhans-　Haruki Murakami

For most men, the most difficult thing about dating their girlfriend or walking with their wife in the city is being dragged along for clothes shopping. Even if it's just one or two stores, after being dragged along to six or seven stores and then being told "let's go back to the first one," it's really discouraging. Women may also feel obligated to accompany men who are lost in record stores or toy stores, but the obsession they have when it comes to choosing clothes has a power and intensity that even if all of men's hobbies were combined, they still couldn't keep up with. Personally, yesterday I was forced to walk from Daikanyama to Harajuku via Shibuya and Aoyama. Fortunately, I wore jogging shoes carefully, but what can you call the energy to walk that far in heels other than obsession? By the way, boutiques in the world are somehow uncomfortable places for men. They can't stand the short intervals, and the atmosphere is somehow uncomfortable.

When it's crowded, they just stand there, obstructing other customers, but they don't have enough interest to kill time by looking at each item. It's really troublesome. However, when I go abroad, I strangely don't remember feeling bored or restless when accompanying my wife on boutique tours. I think this might be because the stores pay attention to the accompanying men and take care of them. At Laura Ashley in San Francisco, a cute girl in the store kept me company while my wife was choosing clothes, saying, "Are you from Tokyo? What's a good place to go? I want to go there. I was born in New Orleans. Have you been there?" In a boutique on the outskirts of Honolulu, they even let me sit on the sofa and served me cola and pretzels. If there were more stores like this, even men would be willing to go again. Tokyo's boutiques should also consider the position of men. Men are not just "CASH AND CARRY" people. Men are also human beings.