The other day I was feeling a little unwell and had to spent the afternoon at work being wound into a tight ball of stress by the pen clicker sat next to me. You know the type, those that click out what I can only assume is a tune in their mind on a pen. Click click clickety click. CLIIIIIIIIICCCCCCCCCCCCKKKKKK. As you can see it drove me a little crazy. The day had taken a downward spiral, which continued when my PC got stuck on CAPS LOCK. I was furious and could do very little as all of the buttons are Japanese. I did, however, bash the keys with such force that I stopped the pen clicker in his tracks. Every cloud…

I then trudged home having to yank my dress down every three feet to prevent further gaijin humiliation. It rained in my face and I dropped a glove in a puddle. At least I had one warm hand…On the way I decided I had to buy some bubble-wrap not for gifts or the sheer joy of popping, but to wrap my windows. Yep, wrap my windows. It is -5 in the apartment and I’d rather we didn’t die, so this is my choice. Oh, and it was Monday.

So that was the scene. As I stood there weighing up whether I wanted the 90cm by 90cm or 90cm by 50cm wrap, a little something caught my eye. Now, these have caught my eye before, but there was something special about this day (being particularly rubbish). This was just the lift I needed…

Chair socks. Socks for chair legs. Tiny little socks with tiny little animal faces on for the legs of a chair. Socks that you slip over the ends of a chair leg to keep the chair leg warm (I think it actually to prevent tatami mat dents, but still…) Socks that are worn by chairs. I can keep going (but will only in my mind) because if you are not from Japan, this is like nothing you ever seen or even considered. The Japanese solution to dents in the carpet is not to pop an ice cube in and hope for the best after years of weighty abuse, but is to prevent the dent in the first place by putting socks on your chairs. And, because it is Japan, they are cute. CUUUUUUTTTEEE.

So if you ever have a bad day, let me know. Send me your address and in 3-6 weeks you will be cheered by tiny little cute socks for your chair (you could also put them on a tiny baby or doll or wear them on your little finger or put them over the top of a drinks bottle etc.), and life will be good again…