Cultural Differences: Sock Glue
A while back I was sitting on a train on my way to meet Marty when my I noticed that the girl beside me was fiddling with her socks. Girls in Japan tend to wear long socks which are pulled up to their knees or that are worn over the knees. These socks were just below her knees. She had pulled one of her socks down and was holding something that looked to me like Pritt Stick. She started to apply this to her leg. I looked away, as it’s rude to stare, but couldn’t help but look back. She appeared to be gluing her sock in place. She then did the same thing with the other sock.
I have always thought that schoolgirls in Northern Ireland did strange things with their socks. They roll them down in a certain way and the last time I asked my little sister they were wearing about three pairs of these at a time. But they don’t glue them to their legs!
I asked some Japanese friends about this and they wanted to know what I did to keep my socks and stockings in place, as the obvious way to do this is to use sock glue. I think for now I’ll continue to let mine slide down.
February 6th, 2008 at 8:18 pm
Have they never heard of sock garters? That’s what we had to wear years ago when I was in the Cubs (ah, happy days …) to keep our socks up 🙂 Fold the top of the sock over it, and you’d never know it was there.
I’d rather have a red ring on my leg where the elastic was pressed against it than physically stick a sock to it (although I’m assuming sock glue is as sticky as a Post-It note). Maybe Japanese girls have a different view on this, though.
February 7th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
Thankfully I have never worn sock garters either 🙂
February 7th, 2008 at 10:07 pm
If I remember my Cub Scout sock garters correctly, they had two green tabs hanging down from them to decorate, in a more scoutly fashion, otherwise ordinary grey school socks. 🙂
You don’t know about sock glue? Really – you don’t watch enough anime! 😉
February 8th, 2008 at 3:00 am
I didn’t know about sock glue. I also hadn’t really thought about sock garters either though and even if I had it would never have occurred to me that I knew people who had worn these!
I asked Marty about them this morning but he just held out his hands and said “I know nothing”.