Yesterday I was in a large department store.  Since it has gotten cold recently, I was thinking maybe I could use some new jackets or pants or something to keep me warm.  Yes, I've been given many things over the 7 years since coming back to Japan, and have spent over 50usd a year on clothes only once, when I bot a new pair of waterproof boots.  But now, some of the things are getting more air-conditioned or stained or stretched or what not, so I thot I'd take a look, as I had some free time.

Two hooded jackets for just 27usd!  Hmmm.  That looks interesting.  The hooded jacket my brother gave me for my birthday 9 years ago is literally falling apart, and the fleece jacket someone gave me 6 years ago had a big iron burn on it when given me (which is why they gave it to me), and doesn't look very nice anymore, so why not take a look?  It soon became obvious that most of them have English written on them, some "normal", like "Westchester Academy, since 1987", or "Phoenix City, State Arizona, USA", etc.  But there were some odd ones too like "One Industrial, At All Costs", and so on. 

So what has this got to do with..... There it was "Build Faith".  Wow!  Now I know the maker had no intention of building up the body of Christ.  They just found some words and stuck them together.  But this is awesome for me!   While the color of herringbone dark gray and light gray is not very good (I like light colors, but Japanese now like black, gray, white, and maybe dark brown or dark blue if they are adventurous), the words are fantastic.  I searched out another jacket kind of at the end of the row with nothing written on it (medium blue), paid for it all, and went home with my first clothes' purchase for the upper half of my body costing over 10usd in, idk, maybe the last 18 years or so. 

When I got back to the house, I looked at the tag attached to the jacket: "Refuse substitutes; Insist on Advertised Brands!  Natural Story  What is allergy?  What is Pragmatism?  Why will fast transoceanic airplanes of the future travel through the stratosphere?  What is television?  Authentic Garment".  The back of the tag said (in Japanese) that it was made of 100% polyester, and made in China.  A normal, slowly fading from Japan, "funny English" thing.

Then I looked at the front of the jacket again.  In huge, capital letters: "BUILD FAITH".

How?