Large Traveler at Large

For those of you who know me in real life, you are all aware that I am not a small person, in size or personality.   And for a long time, I let the idea of how big I was stop me from trying things, or doing things because I didn’t want to look silly or draw attention to myself or my size.

One of the very liberating things about moving to a country where you are an oddity and people are going to stare no matter what is that I no longer worry about trying to fit in. I’m never going to fit in here, so I am free to stand out.  I have a very loud neon pink pineapple dress that I love, but didn’t wear in the states because it would make people look at me.  People here look anyway, so I might as well be comfy and happy.

This is all a precursor to the idea I want to talk about in this post.  Traveling while overweight, plus size, fluffy, fat,  whatever you want to call it.   I read so many blog posts  before moving here and traveling about what are overweight people treated like in China, in Japan,  what are the words for fat so I will know if someone is talking about me,  what to expect in terms of clothing options.  I was terrified. Every one said that overweight people would be judged, people would be mean, there would be no clothes options, everything over a size 7 shoe didn’t exist.

People are people, no matter where you go. Some are nice, some are mean, and most are in between.  I’ve had people stare, take pictures, call me fat when they think I couldn’t hear or understand…. but I had all that at home in the states too.  I think I get more stares here because we live in a “small town” for China and there aren’t so many foreigners here that everything we do is interesting.

As for clothes, I am currently looking at a pile of shoes that I have bought here (in a size 10) that I love and are super comfortable. Now, I will be honest, some of the cutest shoes I’ve found only go up to an 8 or 9 and I can’t get them, but my wallet and shoe cabinet are pretty happy about that.

If you look at the label on lots of your clothes, you will see made in China.  My favorite clothing store Torrid makes their clothes here and I am able to buy them for a literal 10th of the price that I would pay in store. Again, I don’t get an option to buy everything, and some things I still have to buy in the states and ask my mom to ship for me, but I’ve been able to buy quite a lot of cute clothes (including some torrid jeans that I never would have bought because in the states they are too expensive!).  I can’t go to the mall and find something in my size, but so much of shopping in China is online anyway it doesn’t matter.

It’s thickened my skin as well, I used to be so hurt by the word fat.  To find plus size clothes in China, you have to search things like  “super fat 300kg pants” to find skinny models wearing one pant leg on their whole body.    Fat has become a word that is just a descriptor like tall, or brunette. It has exactly as much power as I give it, and I no longer choose to give it any.

When we were planning our Japan trip, I again took to the blogs wondering about what to expect as a plus size visitor to Japan. Again I was met with nothing will come in your size, people will judge you.. blah blah blah.   I will write all about our Japan trip in the next couple of posts, but honestly, I never really felt judged at all. Mark mentioned one lady who may have been judging, but may be she wasn’t and who cares anyway? I’m never going to see her again and I’m sure not going to let that ruin my time in a new place.

If you’re plus sized and reading this because you came across it doing the same search I was, I’m going to give you some advice. Stop reading these blogs, they will only make you nervous.  Enjoy your self, plan your trip, eat what you want, and have a blast.  Don’t let anyone make you second guess yourself. And email me, comment here, send me your email and we’ll talk it out!