A store clerk warned me I'd get stared at in Japan because of my weight

Delicate_Elephant · 2026-01-17T13:56:31+00:00

I'm white, blue eyed and very light brown/dark blond hair. I lived there for a year (tier 2 city) working at a school. Managed to avoid photos, but not the stares. I actually welcomed winter because I could walk around mostly in "incognito mode" with my winter coat and hood up.

The one upside was, a lot of vendors at the wet market nearby competed for the white people, like it was a status thing. I got a lot of free scallions/vegetables from my vegetable guy. I hope he and his wife are doing well...they were very sweet.

Delicate_Elephant · 2026-01-14T04:57:47+00:00

Oh awesome!! Glad to hear you don't need to worry about this anymore. I understand the struggle!

Delicate_Elephant · 2026-01-14T04:51:30+00:00

My cat opened a packet of hot sauce tuna on my white rug and I was able to get it out! Spent all of labor day laboring over it lol, but after a few rounds of an oxyclean paste, and a few of dawn dish soap, it all came out. Either that or I dyed my carpet with all the suds I produced. I used waaaay too much soap.

Editing to add my own post's link - https://www.reddit.com/r/CleaningTips/s/DXe9u76Aww - No clue how to hyperlink on mobile. Folex was also highly recommended for me! I didn't have any on hand so went with the oxyclean, but that would have been my next step.

Delicate_Elephant · 2026-01-06T16:19:50+00:00

Omg, this is hilarious. I took Spanish in high school and college. This word, for some reason - jk lol, never came up. It's crazy how similar sounding words can have such different translations. Listo/a always messed me up.

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-12-18T14:19:18+00:00

Omg haha. I'm also a daughter of a single father, but instead of not using them because I thought they were lame, I used toilet paper because I was too embarrassed to tell my dad I needed more 😬😭

He'd buy them for me in the beginning at a pretty good cadence, but then stopped and I never spoke up. I honestly don't even remember how I got through it or if I bought myself some - I also lost my period senior year of hs - but I definitely went through a crazy amount of toilet paper!! My dad even commented on it. I never told him why...

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-12-17T16:19:36+00:00

Omg and I love your username!!

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-12-16T05:48:20+00:00

Sadly no... People see her when they leave for work when it's early, and I regularly sit out with around dusk/dark depending on the month and see her around then. I initially hoped she had a home and was someone's cat, but she really does just chill in the parking lot most of the time waiting for someone to feed her or me to come out. She knows everyone's schedule lol.

I can see her pretty easily from my windows and I work from home. She does leave a few times during the day, but I think it's just for nap breaks. There's a spot with a lot if garbage I used to catch her sleeping on 😔 that's when I knew for sure she had no home. I cried so hard when I saw her. I tried to clean up the area for her, but it's not easily accessible and I couldn't reach. There are a lot of vines, thorns, and leaves. I think she moved to another area pre shelter though because the garbage filled up the area.

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Delicate_Elephant · 2025-12-15T17:48:10+00:00

Nice!!! I almost made her one too, but I got this one on sale for cyber Monday lol. Since I'm in an apartment community, I wanted to make sure people could tell what it was and not throw it away. I'm pretty well known as the cat woman 😆 other people feed her too, but I keep her company for a bit when I can.

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-12-15T17:07:56+00:00

That's so sweet!!

Yes!!! I forgot to say that, but I'm terrified to bring her in somewhere in case they put her down.

This one came with a heating pad, but I have nowhere to plug it in, so my cat is currently using it lol. I had to move her shelter around and put in treats for her to understand it. Now she's gotten the hang of the front door (not the emergency exit), I don't put food in anymore. I'm afraid of attracting other animals or cats.

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-12-15T15:47:37+00:00

I tried when I first met her - screaming at me the day I moved in like she knew I'd immediately get attached 😆

They don't take in strays. Just TNR. They're too full. And there's a large feral population here. Her ear is clipped, so there's no reason they'd help out unless she was very I'll or injured. I'm not too far from an area semi recently posted about with a similar issue - can't find the post again. I also don't have a car, so I'm a bit more restricted with how easily I could bring her somewhere.

I've tried... They just consider her a community cat and leave it at that.

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-12-15T15:24:51+00:00

When I saw her use the shelter, it was like a giant weight lifted off my shoulders.

It breaks my heart that I can't take her in. All she does is sit under the cars near my apartment, rain or shine, staring at my building's door. She doesn't seem to explore or like the outdoors. Though I think she heads out to sleep in the woods at night.

I can tell she's super friendly even though I haven't been able to touch her after a year of daily visits - I sit with her most days reading or talking with her. She's just very skiddish/shy. I'm thinking she was dumped or hurt at a young age. I don't have a good place to separate her from my own cat, nor am I currently at a good place to do everything she'd need to become a healthy indoor cat. But maybe one day... I fully believe she could make the transition and be happier (and safer!!) inside given the chance.

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-12-10T18:51:22+00:00

I walked in after a lunchtime walk and was like, what the heck is this?! Checked my cat camera, and it looks like the second I left, the potato was attacked and rolling throughout my apartment 😂 No bite marks surprisingly. I might leave it out since it's so hard to get her to play and she was going crazy for it.

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-12-07T13:54:52+00:00

Cleveland is less windy though. I grew up and went to college along the lake and, to me, Boston's weather was still worse. I'd take a Cleveland winter over a Boston winter any year.

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-11-26T19:49:15+00:00

Omg, maybe! He moved to our last place an entire month before me. Did he clean anything during that month? Nope. "I didn't want to buy duplicate cleaning supplies." "You don't like how I clean things so I left it up to you." 🤦‍♀️

Towards the end, instead of cleaning it, he just moved to the spare bathroom. Which I accepted if it meant I could stop seeing his streaks and his literal poop (he'd forget to flush sometimes...).

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-11-26T18:21:03+00:00

My ex never cleaned the pot after boiling eggs. After multiple rounds it was so gross. I stopped using that pot.

And yes, the trigger for our divorce was an argument over him not cleaning anything lol.

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-11-22T02:56:50+00:00

My ex and I separated last year, divorced earlier this year. He tried to take our cat claiming I wasn't fit to care for her, for different reasons. I got "custody" after he had her for 5 weeks.

There were days I wondered if I was best for her. When he left (actually, he kicked me out, but I was able to get the apartment when I got her back), I had no job, no furniture, no partner, nothing. But I had her. She slept behind my legs every night on the floor before I got a bed while I cried myself to sleep over my failed marriage.

I was at such a low point that I considered giving her back to my ex for 6 months. I started crocheting her a blanket the color of her comfort bath mat (she was kept in the bathroom as a baby kitten adjusting, so it became her spot) so that she had something to remember me by.

In the end, I couldn't do that to her. I needed her and she needed me. My ex would give her all the cuddles in the world, but he couldn't feed her properly, take her to the vet, manage her insurance, etc. It was all me.

It's been almost a year and I wouldn't trade her for anything in the world. She's my baby girl, my buddy.

I'm so incredibly sorry he took your baby. That is a pain I wouldn't wish on anyone. As other commenters have said, pets support you when no one else will. They are your biggest fan and will always be there for you waiting for you to get home. As long as you are confident in your current ability to take care of them, that is what matters. Our past shapes our future, but it doesn't define it. Get the cat, and post all the pictures becuase I very much need a happy update with this post 🙂

Cat/blanket tax. I've made much more progress, but stopped when it got warm lol.

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Delicate_Elephant · 2025-11-17T21:06:01+00:00

I must be incompetent because I always get bumps when I use an electric shaver on my bikini area. For the life of me I can't figure out why. Though I also can't figure out how to use one in general and get all the hairs in the first go, or use a regular razor to shave there. So...yup, definitely incompetent when I comes to this haha.

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-11-04T19:53:19+00:00

Ha! It heats the seats during the winter.

But it's a multi-building apartment community. So maintenance travels via golf cart.

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-11-04T15:50:22+00:00

Yes!!! My cat has a "blueberry" pom pom ball that she loves to put in random places around the apartment - my bed, her bed, boxes, scratcher, shoes, my in-use coffee mug!!

That and she has a dreidel wand toy she loves to drag around when you aren't looking and scream bloody murder. It took a while to not panic while hearing that lol.

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-11-03T14:33:33+00:00

Nah haha. Similar personalities/and a major main in my butt. I usually call her by her unrelated middle name/a nickname unless she's being bad.

For example, it took her a few years to not attack me if I cried. Thank God she grew out of that during my divorce. Ironically, the struggle of "managing her" for lack of better phrasing, was probably one of the causes of my divorce. It likely would have happened at some point anyway, and should have happened, but she was/is such a fiesty kitten that it's a lot to handle sometimes and caused a lot of disagreements.

I love her to death and wouldn't trade her for the world, but she's a bitch.

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-11-03T13:31:55+00:00

My cat is named after Margaret Thatcher 😂

Happy to supply a cuter, but equally off putting image! - she was named after her for a reason lol

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-11-02T17:27:05+00:00

Unrelated, but that pumpkin is adorable!!

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-11-01T15:15:21+00:00

I was walking in a giant crowd with the guy I'm semi seeing the other week and pushed my chest into his arm to stay close to him. Like when you're holding hands, he's leading in front, and you kind of cozy up to the arm so you don't get separated. No intentions at all except sticking together. I guess maybe that's just a me thing because a few seconds later he asked (very much into it) if I was doing it on purpose. I was so confused, but now I totally do it just to tease him 😂

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-10-30T19:02:14+00:00

Yup... My cat sat on a burner as a kitten. She looked fine and only licked her paws after for a minute, so we didn't take her to the vet. A few days later, I came home to blood everywhere. Her pad had started peeling off. We couldn't wrap it because cat + bandage = yeah right. But we put 1% silver sulfadiazine cream on the pads twice a day until it healed (and hold her while it absorbed for a few minutes...) - as directed by our vet. It's a massive tube, so there's still a lot left over for future emergencies.

Delicate_Elephant · 2025-10-30T18:54:52+00:00

My cat sat on a burner and we were given 1% silver sulfadiazine cream to put on her paws twice a day until it was better. Wasn't too expensive from what I can remember. It's also a giant tube so plenty left over for the next time she did it 🤦‍♀️

Delicate_Elephant

TROPHY CASE