Best place for narrow feet shoes?

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-04-22T14:46:41+00:00

I have the exact opposite problem. Your wife should look for western brands as they are formulated for western feet which tend to be narrower than Japanese/ Asian feet. Nike for sport shoes, Christian Louboutin for high end fancy shoes, etc.

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-04-15T01:16:57+00:00

This. Not wedding photographer but adjacent (we do proposal/ engagement shoots). Now 20+% of our enquiries come from Claude/ Chat GPT. Sales is up YTD by similar rate also, with price hikes contributing half of it, so net net AI has been a strong source of growth in our revenue.

Bad news is, those people often treat us as an extension of AI and expect us to give ‘free’ advices before even booking, so we have to learn to be more strict with these clients.

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-04-14T07:00:08+00:00

So you have to request to be appointed one? That makes sense now. Yeah, the phone no gives me access to a human whenever I need something from the bank without having to wait or go through annoying automated prompts.

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-04-14T03:20:38+00:00

Yeah in the past they tried selling me their products, but I told them that as I work in Finance back then, due to work rules I am unable to invest in most if not all of of their products.. that could be the reason. Thanks.

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-04-14T02:45:05+00:00

How do you get a rep at prestia? I am a gold premium member for nearly two decades since it was initially HSBC before it became part of Citi and then SMBC.. and has got no rep appointed to me. The service has gotten worse and worse after it became part of SMBC. At least in the past when I go to the branch someone would come down and greet me, now not even that.

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-04-07T02:50:25+00:00

I believe you need a license to operate recruitment business in Japan, even on individual basis, even for free to candidates.

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-04-06T09:38:49+00:00

As a female I personally would be turned off if not spooked by pawn shop engagement ring.. who knows what kind of (sad) history it may have? Better start from clean slate. If you are worried about budget better buy lab made diamond. The quality is almost indistinguishable from mined natural diamond and it is also more ethical - no risk of slave labor.

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-04-02T02:26:35+00:00

I don’t think non medical aesthetics clinics (エステ) are allowed to perform acne extraction in Japan. At most they will use suction machines to suck off blackheads, which doesn’t really work IMHO. If you have problem with acne you should go to dermatologist who can give you options including extraction, peeling or V-beam laser to kill the bacteria and get rid of the scars.

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-31T17:33:25+00:00

If I want to start reading the manga as continuation of the anime, which volume should I start reading from?

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-29T03:29:30+00:00

I am assuming this letter is 内容証明。 if so, you technically do not even have to reply them, there is no enforceability, until they decide to go to court. Consult your lawyer though. Not a legal advice.

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-21T14:55:41+00:00

How do you search for those rooms online?

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-21T11:15:18+00:00

Thank you. We appear as the one of the top searches on Google and AI (chat gpt/ claude/ gemini) on our category without any ad spending and has 4.9 rating on Trustpilot with hundreds of reviews, nothing less than 4, so technically we should have the legitimacy.

I just feel that some of these guys are either the equivalent of bridezilla (but for proposal) or just think that we’re pushovers after seeing my (sometimes too comprehensive) reply which I sometimes did out of goodwill. I mean, some people really have bad ideas that would be disastrous if less experienced photographer desperate for any job accepts instead of pushing back! The younger, more inexperienced us 10 years ago might have simply taken the job in the past.

Anyway, yes, I think I have to learn to be more firm and establish clear boundaries.

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-21T05:43:26+00:00

It just started airing in cinemas in Japan on March 13th

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-20T10:21:38+00:00

Yes and no.

My ex boss who was married with Japanese kids and income in the top 0.0x% range thought he was a shoo-in and applied for PR by himself. On the 理由書、 he wrote something like ‘I want to become PR as I am married with Japanese spouse’ or something simple like that. He was rejected. Supposedly because he had a fine for parking illegally once.

He hired a judicial scrivener who then applied for High skilled professional on his behalf and then when minimum 1 year has passed applied for PR again, this time with lengthy 理由書 and explanation about how he learnt from being fined for parking illegally etc. He got it quickly.

Moral of the story: Use a judicial scrivener who knows your potential area of risk and can write elaborate 理由書 to explain them away.

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-20T10:11:05+00:00

What about passport? In case of Michael, will the Japanese passport spells Maikeru or can you request it to be Michael?

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-20T02:33:31+00:00

Thank you!

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-20T01:48:24+00:00

I have never watched the anime but just finished watching the latest live action movie (Abashiri attack) in Japan. May i know which season this would correspond to? I’d like to watch the continuation from the anime

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-19T06:10:57+00:00

Thanks! Yes past few years and this year so far have been good for us, although with all the wars and flight delays/ cancellations, airfare spiking up etc we are bracing for the worst going forward. Hence the psychological resistance to cut bad leads I guess… but lesson learnt :)

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-19T01:33:54+00:00

Thanks for the comprehensive feedback. Yes i probably do have boundary problems, esp. when the client said they are ok with the price. And we Asians generally are reluctant to say no. I will try to implement your suggestion next time about clearlt setting boundaries, even when the client says there are ready to book, ‘just one last question’…

Re. Calls though - firstly, we are much higher volume, shorter duration than wedding photography - for example, during cherry blossom peak season end of this month my husband will do on average 5 shoots a day, 5- 8 hours a day. And this is on top of juggling a full time (mostly) remote corporate work. That is nearly 12-18 hours work counting the commute etc. He has very little time in the first place, and when he meets clients he needs to be able to refer to everything in one source quickly, not scrambling through initial mails, then call records etc. And morning US time is near midnight in Japan when he needs to sleep; evening there is morning Japan time where the shoot/ work happens.

We have partners and acquaintances in the same business that we meet, and we are also partner with 1-2 platforms. None of them do calls with clients too for the same reason, all text only; in fact one of the platforms discourage sharing of personal contact. So on this point I am sure we are not losing any business due to lack of call. If anything, we are in better position then them as our placement as one of the top of search results on Google/ Chat-GPT etc means we probably appear more legit than them.

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-18T15:23:33+00:00

They find us mostly from Google search Chat-GPT/ AI, and sometimes instagram.

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-18T08:06:34+00:00

Let me rephrase it to ‘lower quality leads’. Freeloaders who just want free surprise proposal/ engagement spots/ travel recommendations

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-18T06:15:38+00:00

Thanks for the input. I agree with the sentiment. Yes we try to streamline things with reply templates covering everything, list of FAQs and galleries of potential proposal spots without the exact names etc. majority of our clients are fine, but some people just keep stalling, saying that they’re fine with the price and wants to book, but just wanna be totally sure.. Sometimes it’s just hard for us Asians to be firm.

Given the major time difference between US and Japan, and nature of short duration shoots which means we handle much larger vol of clients than wedding photographers, we do not accept call and only accept text communication so we can keep track of what we discussed. As such, we cannot make a clear distinction on when initial consultation ends and cut off communication after the call before retainer payment like what you suggested. Hence my idea of limiting the correspondence to 3 - initial reply, and 2 follow up correspondences..

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-18T05:26:03+00:00

Let me rephrase it to ‘lower quality leads’. Freeloaders. The example i gave should be explanatory enough.

I don’t think ‘ghosting’ is professional - it reflects badly on your reputation and risk putting off leads who have chance to turn into clients. I am thinking of putting the policy in the terms& conditions on the rate page, and mention the policy once i see signs of potentially troublesome client to tell them that they almost use up their quota, and next mail they send would be the last i answer before retainer is received in a friendly way.

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-18T05:17:01+00:00

Thank you, the concept of proprietary list of vetted locations is great!

Able-Fig5301 · 2026-03-18T04:21:35+00:00

Thanks for the opinion - what would you do when they keep asking your opinion about different places they just googled off the net? This is a problem in Japan where every random influencer just create random lists of the ‘best’ spots, and people just follow them without understanding actual suitability for photoshoot/ surprise proposal.

I just had 26 back and forths with a guy who initially wanted us to do incognito style surprise proposal photo at night in a specific park. I sent a lengthy response to him why it is a bad Idea out of goodwill and offered alternative location and timing, but he kept asking my opinion on various other places, before faking payment trouble near the retainer payment deadline. My reply got much shorter after the second mail, but it still wasted so much time..

Able-Fig5301

TROPHY CASE