Our male reporter cross-dresses for second time, learns more about how hard it is to be a woman

They always say that you should try to walk in someone else’s shoes if you really want to understand them.

In June, our Japanese-language reporter Ahiru Neko borrowed the skills of a professional make-up stylist to transform himself into a girl for the first time. Through that experience, he learned how truly challenging maintaining beauty is, from shaving one’s whole body to putting on makeup, and even removing it at the end of the day, he realized that women have to do a lot for the sake of beauty.

As much as he enjoyed the experience, Ahiru Neko hadn’t expected to put on women’s clothes again any time soon, but recently he had a certain job that required him to cross-dress, so he enlisted the help of another professional stylist to bring his female alter-ego back to life. But what he gained from becoming a lady once more was not just a few bucks earned on the side; he also learned a little more about what it’s like to be a woman.

Since it was apparently so important to Ahiru Neko to have a complete transformation for his unspecified job, he needed someone tried and proven to do a good job, so he made an appointment at the reservation-only salon RAAR, whose stylists have often helped our other Japanese-language reporter Go transform into his feminine alter-ego Rei-chan.

Having done it once before, he was confident of the procedure and of the ability of the stylists, so this time he was very casual about it. “I’ll leave it up to you!” he said as he relaxed back in the salon chair, and he entrusted his body and soul to the skilled hand of the stylist.

They chose a natural look with a fall-inspired outfit, and Ahiru Neko was pleased about the clothing choice. Last time, the other stylists put him in a cheerleader outfit for some reason, so he couldn’t really go out and show the world what a feminine Ahiru Neko looks like. This time he was even able to borrow a cute pair of black ankle boots to wear with his outfit, so for the first time ever, the world could finally meet Ahiru Neko-chan! 

Now that he looked like your average woman, he expected that he wouldn’t get weird looks when walking outside, so he decided to walk back to the office, since it’s not far from the salon. But since it was his first time walking in heels, he quickly learned a shocking fact:

Walking in heels is hard.

By the time he realized this fact, he was already committed to the walk, so he continued on in his journey, but it was painfully slow going. In sneakers it would usually take him about 10 minutes to get to the office, but in heels it took him more than 15 minutes. He realized he would need to give himself way more time than usual to walk to his other job later.

“What the heck!” he thought to himself, after he’d gone just 100 feet down the street. “This defeats the purpose of shoes!” He wondered if these were normal shoes, too, because how could such tiny sticks support his whole body weight?!

▼ Somebody should also tell him that young ladies don’t walk with their hands behind their backs…

The tiny heels posed another big problem; there are little traps for them planted everywhere in the form of manhole covers, which have holes just big enough for them to slip into. If one of the little sticks were to get caught in one of those little holes, he wasn’t confident he’d be able to get it out again. He’d never thought about that before, but during his walk he was so afraid of them that he noticed every single one.

But that wasn’t the really scary part. Any man who has never worn heels can probably imagine the struggle of having to walk slower in heels, or having to be more careful where you walk. It’s not such a shocking revelation that walking in heels is generally hard. But what Ahiru Neko never imagined would be truly terrifying about walking in heels was trying to walk down a slope.

He learned this when he stopped by a local pharmacy to pick up a few things. It was a nice little shop, the kind which has lots of wares lined up outside, indicating a good selection of products. What he didn’t notice was that the interior of the store was at the top of a slope leading up from the product showings outside, a fact which he wished he’d known before he went in, since he was absolutely terrified as he tried to climb down it on his way out.

▼ The slope as remembered in Ahiru Neko’s mind

He felt like he was trekking down a mountain in stilts. It was just an ordinary little slope, perhaps a couple of feet long and not so deep, but Ahiru Neko could not help but think that at any moment he would fall down it and tumble to his death. He gave it a go with a few tentative steps, but he decided that jumping down was the safer option, and made a little leap from the store entrance down to the street. Thankfully there were no bicycles or pedestrians coming, or he would have certainly crashed into someone. He had truly believed he was going to die walking down the slope anyway, so he considered it worth the risk.

Afterwards Ahiru Neko went back to the office and worked as usual (being very tight-lipped about his secret job), but he reflected on his experience all day, so he wasn’t too traumatized. But based on the sheer terror that he felt on that dreaded slope, Ahiru Neko has but one question he wants to ask the ladies: “Why do you wear these kinds of shoes?!”

At the same time, however, he also learned something important: that he should stop getting irritated when women in front of him are walking slowly. He also gained a lot of respect for women, because they can actually walk in heels down a slope without dying, or at least without falling down.

▼ He also learned that having to fix your makeup all the time is a pain in the butt.

So was this second experience informative enough to encourage him to dress up as a woman again? Possibly. But more importantly, will he tell us about the mysterious job that required him to cross-dress? We sincerely hope so.

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