Rumiko, the 29-year-old president of her own computer-graphics company, says she has decided to become an achiragawa no ningen (person who has crossed over to the other side) by having a baby.

Far from being aglow with happiness, she's rather grim about the whole thing. Rumiko's refrain these days is "jinsei owatta (my life is over)," and to prove it she's going to hold a garage sale of her wardrobe, which consists of Earl Jean low-rises and what the girls downtown call pita-tee. The name has no connection with pita bread, it's just an abbreviation of "pita-pita T-shirt," a teensy T-shirt that barely covers the rib cage.

What triggered her depression was a trip to the hospital for a four-month checkup. She and several other expectant mothers were herded into a small waiting room by a prissy nurse who kept calling them Ninpu-san (Ms. Pregnant Woman).