In the past years, my encounters with Japanese expats in Jakarta has increased. Reason why, my condominium complex has serious Japanese population. Bet my bottom dollar that I will encounter at least one Japanese national 90% of the time if I go out to the lobby. Actually, the neighbor living across from me is a friendly Japanese family. So, these days, not only I encounter Japanese expats at the mall or at the Japanese supermarket, I am actually living amongst them. The more frequent I observe them, the more I realize, that they dressed differently from the Japanese I’ve met in their home country.

Without fail, people will categorize Japanese as a hip, trendsetter and fashionable. During my travel in Japan I’ve always feel like a country bumpkin. People dress so nicely in Japan. Even casual wear makes a statement. I mean, it was in Japan that I found out regular people will actually waste money to buy a pair of Gucci rubber flip flops. However these days Japanese expats in Indonesia is wears down to earth, regular clothes.