Geta Mk I

I got interested in Geta, and then stumbled over this excellent page. Using it as a rough guide, I produced my first Geta-prototype, the Mark I:

My dainty little feet. Also: geta

A very rough build, the baseboard is not yet finished off (rounding the edges, etc.). But, to my astonishment, they worked right away! Here are some notes, in case you want to build your own, (in which case you have to go to the above-linked geta calculator) and for my Mark II model:

*) Geta are loud. Forget sneaking up on your enemy. Your ninja career is over once you start wearing geta.

*) The straps need to be tight, or else you'll get cramps in your feet because you curl your toes with each step, trying to keep those things stable.

*) Traditional geta don't distinguish between left and right, their toe-hole is right in the middle. This makes them quite broad. I thought slimmer ones would be more elegant which, together with the next point, will eventually kill me.

*) Tapering your ha (the two stilts below the board) may look spiffy, but consider: lateral stability. My geta have less than the usual width, and the tapering reduces the actual footprint (ha!)  to less than five centimetres.

*) Running will kill you. I don't know if you can run in geta. Maybe Japanese people can, having been trained from an early age in the ancient art of geta-do. I lack this training, and even walking faster makes people stop and stare curiously at the coming train-wreck.

*) Nevertheless, when not falling ass over tea-kettle or twisting my ankle, geta are surprisingly comfortable. The set-back of the front-ha (about two-fifths of the board length in my case) means the front of the geta will hit the ground when it is tilted at a twenty degree angle, allowing a naturalish (<- this should be a word) rolling motion. Also, with them I am six centimetres taller. Go me!