[Hotaruchan]

Hi guys,

I'm nowhere near my goal, but after going on a rather lengthy bike ride and swim, I stepped on the scale...and it told me that I'm 179 lbs! I don't think that I've been under 180 since high school...

...but I digress...that was actually an afterthought random weigh-in on the heels of a rather astounding discovery: my bathing suit from last season absolutely did NOT fit this morning. Rather than risk being deported for indecent exposure, I decided that I needed to man-up and go try to find a bathing suit in a Japanese clothing store...which leads me to the actual news:

The good news: I fit into Japanese bathing suits. Normal sized ones even...which is probably a good thing since the store I went to had no plus section to speak of.

The bad news: The only one-piece bathing suits that I could find were in the children's section. When I brought one of those to the cashier and asked if they had them in adult sizes, she looked at me like I had 14 heads.

The WEIRD news: while wearing a bikini for, well, pretty much the first time, I resemble some type of marine mammal decidedly less than I would have anticipated.

So here I am, 179 lbs and not looking nearly as smashing as most of you smoking-hot ladies, but looking much better than I thought I would:


Probably not that big a deal, but it made me do a little happy dance.

[amandie]

Seriously, you look good!!!! I wish I looked that good in a 2 piece. Keep it up, girl!

[LeilaJey]

It's funny that you couldn't find one piece suits, I would have died!

You look great! You're around my starting weight/height and I wouldn't have been able to pull that off at all, so way to go!

[ChickieChicks]

I like that suit! Do you have a sarong? I only ask b/c it is so cute that you could easily wear it casually to swim without a bulky coverup. Sexy thing!

[Diana3271]

Well, I totally love your curves and think you look great! I think you should wear the two piece and be comfortable in it. I wish I looked as good as you.

I have tried various swimsuits on and hate all of them. Maybe I need to clear my head and try again.

[juliana77]

Very cute!! What a roller coaster of a day though!

[McMurphy]

You look fantastic! I love Polka Dots.

Are you studying abroad in Japan? I'd love to go there.

[Thedollylala]

You look fantastic!!! Congrats on finding a swim suit!!

[Kitcherella]

[Hotaruchan]

Thank you everyone! I don't know that it looks as good as people are making it sound, but I was just happy to not scare anyone when I went out in public.

Chickiechicks: No sarong, but it came with a weird cover-up dress thingy. Unfortunately I wanted to swim laps at the pool and it was pretty impossible to do so with a bulky cover up. The same store does have a lot of Indian-inspired clothing in the back, so I'm sure that I could find something drape-y and nice to use instead.

McMurphy: I'm an English teacher in Japan. I studied abroad in 2009 and had a blast, so I'm back for round 2

[ShetlandSheepdogLove]

You look so amazing! I just went to a store today to buy (originally) a one piece and hated a lot that I saw because they were too tight on my stomach. I ended up walking out of JcPenney with a bikini that looked better than any one piece swimsuit I tried on!

Isn't it an incredible feeling when you look that good in a bikini? I can't wear that certain style of the top but you definitely pull it off; you're really rocking the polkadots, too! YOU GO, GIRL!

[Joryan17]

Keep doing the happy dance you most certainly deserve to be in that suit!

[babyshambles7]

Omg I know exactly how you feel! I've lived in Japan a couple of times and I visit there alot and I used to always feel so huge compared to everyone else. I could never really fit into their clothes, I think I was a large there? And I could never buy shoes!

Anyway, now that you have a swimming suit, you should hit one of the onsen theme parks.. Where you can have a curry bowl bath :P

[Hotaruchan]

Thanks again for being so supportive, all...you make me feel warm and fuzzy inside <3

ShetlandSheepdog: Glad to hear that you found a suit too! I'm sure you rock it like no one's business.

babyshambles: I've never heard of onsen theme parks...I've been convincing myself to go to a normal onsen about 5 km from my apartment every once in a while to try to get over some of my body issues, but curry bowl baths sound intriguing. My feet are about 28 cm, so shoe shopping is entirely out of the question, but I can occasionally fit into Ls here. If they have them, I usually grab LLs, but luckily a lot of the styles now are drape-y enough that I can get away with wearing them even if the fit isn't perfect.

[Keish]

yOU LOOK AMAZING!