Lingerie

Hi, soon it is my girlfriends birthday and as part of her present I would like to get her some lingerie. Is that an unsual present in Japan. Would it be weird for a guy to go into a lingerie shop and buy things?

You know what that is actually a pretty interesting question. I would like to know myself. I mean, I buy my lady lingerie for every holiday or birthday as a tradition. I think she is very attractive and that she can show it off. Not to say I do not buy her other things she likes on Birthdays and Christmas's but I get a little lingerie every time.

Her first reaction when I got her some was very taken aback and shy about it so I wonder if store clerks would be like that if a guy came in or if they have the attitude of a car sales men just sticking strickly to business, size, shape and color stuff like that.

Sorry I could not answer your question that well but I just wanted to add to it and see what else pops up from other fokes.

I'm not sure about answering your question but I do have to say that I'm an American girl with a Japanese boyfriend so I've had experience with the reverse.

By reverse, I don't mean I've bought lingerie for my boyfriend of course, but I've bought lingerie for me for my boyfriend.

Actually, strangely enough he didn't have the reaction I was expecting. He was actually a bit confused and taken aback. Obviously, now he likes it a lot but it almost seems like the idea of his girlfriend wearing lingerie was weird for him at first.

He's had only Japanese girlfriends before me and he's said that not one of them ever bought lingerie or wore it for him. From what he's said, it sounds like Japanese girls tend to be really shy about stuff like that, even in relationships. Just the fact that the girls tend to be shy about that probably means they don't wear lingerie as often and as openly (for our boyfriends of course) as a lot of us western girls.

This is all me guessing, but my suspicion is that guys usually don't buy their girls lingerie... But, like I said, I really don't know for sure

Well, we do have the phrase "shobu-shitagi" (showdown lingerie). So yes, Japanese girls do have the habit of buying/choosing lingerie for her boyfriend. It's just that she probably wouldn't be so obvious about it in front of him.

But while I keep seeing men sending lingerie in American movies and TV, I've never seen a Japanese man do it either on TV or in real life. And neither have I heard of a real girl having a boyfriend or husband who sent her lingerie, and actually this includes real life men of any nationality. I've also never seen a man shopping women's lingerie, neither here in Japan or while traveling overseas.

But then, I remember watching a scene in the American movie "Working Girl" where a man sends lingerie to his girlfriend and the girlfriend says, "You know, just once I could go for like a sweater or some earrings... something that I could actually wear outside of this apartment?" as to imply that she was fed up about him being all about sex. So I suppose it depends on the context of the presentation.

Among Japanese couples, the guy giving the girl lingerie would feel very "intimate," as it should, of course, but so intimate to the extent maybe it's embarrassing :)

When I walked into the lingerie section in a department store with my husband (non-Japanese), there was a bit of hesitation among the femal store clerks :) though they would not show any reaction like shocked or taken aback. My husband found their reaction somewhat off-putting that we don't go lingerie shopping *together* any more lol.

I have seen some males alone or couples in lingerie shops in Europe, and the store clerks seemed to find that just ordinary. I haven't seen that in Japan.