In a Toe-Jam

I have very long toes. And very narrow feet. When I was a kid, I couldn't wear the regulation JC sandals to school because they were too wide. My mother use to (actually, still does) tease me about my lanky toes, saying they were freaky looking and that I should try swinging off trees. As a 10 year old, I thought I was a toe-nail away from being sold to a circus.

My mother, on the other hand, has short and (she calls them "neat", but they're actually...) stubby toes. I am an anomaly in my own family.

I am not an anomaly in the big happy tribe that is Japan, however. Recently I have noticed thousands of similarly freaky finger-like toes popping out of thongs and open-toed sandals in search of the sun. I thought at first I was in a delicious dreamland where everyone could play the piano with their toes, but no, it seems that a disproportianate number of Japanese women really do have gangly toes which are out of proportion to the rest of their feet.

And I thought it was just me...