You may have noticed that I’ve been mysteriously silent for the past two weeks.  Or maybe you haven’t, because Shoesense and Shomore have been keeping you footfully entertained.  But I’ve returned.

And where have I been, you might ask (that is, if you’re one of those who noticed my absence).  Exploring Japan is where I have been.  It was my first time there, and I was all over the country, so the main focus of the trip was not shopping.  I mean, I love to shop as much as (and often more than) the next girl, but this time it was really about the sightseeing.  And that’s not even getting to the terrible dollar exchange rate, which worked as a very effective retail deterrent.

But it’s all relative, right?  Not much shopping is different than no shopping at all.  I’m only human.  And when I walked into the Tokyo Takashimaya Times Square entrance and saw this display, I was, of course, lured further in.

So, further in I went.  And discovered a whole line of shoes by Tsumori Chisato, a Japanese designer whose quirkiness and style I’ve long admired, but isn’t easily accessed in the USA.

It was actually these that first drew my eye to the opposite side of the shelf pictured above.

But I manfully (womanfully?) resisted.  It was, after all, the first day of the trip, and who could predict what other things would be in store.  But I kept thinking about them as I watched the Japanese women walk to and fro on pavement and gravel and cobblestones in their stiletto heels.  And by the end of the trip, when I discovered that our hotel in Kyoto wasn’t far from the Takashimaya store there… well, a purchase-minded visit became a rather high priority.

Into the store in Kyoto I went.  And out I came with these red patent leather lovelies (which are actually the same shoe as four colors on the bottom shelf in the first Tsumori Chisato picture).

They’re surprisingly comfy, actually.  They look very narrow when they’re not on my (rather wide) feet, but the individual pieces of leather over the toe all stretch and move by themselves, so the effect isn’t a toe-squishing one.  And keep your eyes peeled for this look, too (the multiple strips of leather gathered up over the toes).  It was all over the place on lots of Japanese shoes in stores and on feet.

The other thing that was on many a Japanese foot was crazy fun little socks (colors, lace, sparkles, bows, toeless… pretty much you name it, I saw it somewhere) that spice up a pair of pumps or flats or t-straps or pretty much any shoe with an open area on the top of the foot.  So I had to snag a bunch of them, too.  That’s what the gold bit in the above picture is.  And in case you can’t see it clearly, here’s a separate photo.

So I came home from Japan a happy shoe lover.  And a happy OCD shoe lover at that, because I was able to bring home the shoes in their shoebox, which can now be used for the careful storing and protection of the new babies.

Stay tuned for some more photos of shoes from Japan as I get them sorted out from the depths of my camera’s memory card.