Raamenchan

So first things first. Here’s a big update on what I’ve been doing so far here in Japan!

Yesterday, Sako-san’s wife and dog came from Kobe for the weekend, so Mami and I decided to stay at Nakayoshi-san’s place in Noukendai, Yokohama until Monday. After all, four people and a dog don’t quite have enough space in a small 1LDK apartment in Japan.

We got here last night, talked a bit with Nakayoshi-san, and went to sleep (relatively) early. Early being around 12:30pm. Ever since Mami started working at the pub in Yokohama, I think I’ve been sleeping on average at 3 or 4am, which doesn’t really work for me because my body functions best on a morning schedule. But I like waiting for Mami to get home, so that guarantees that I’m awake until at least 1am. Then we talk about her work, get ready to go to bed, and by the time we end up getting to bed it’s laaate.

So sleeping early was definitely refreshing. I still feel kind of tired because of the sudden shift in schedule, but I should be fine if I keep this up. I probably won’t see Mami after she gets back from work anymore, but it’s better than being out of spirits the next day =D

But yes, if you didn’t already know, Mami found a part time job in Kannai, Yokohama. She works there Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights. It’s a small place that fits about 10 people, and she’s there singing mostly English oldies that older Japanese people can relate to.

I’m glad that she’s finally started working at a place that’s related to her career. She might not have noticed, but she’s changed. She’s happier in general and it shows. I hear her sing a lot more from day to day whether it’s for practice or for fun. She even recently got a keyboard to get started with it again. She was telling me how it’s going to make a big difference in her career if she can play an instrument. Not to mention it’s a lot harder to compose your own music if you can’t play one, as well. As a bonus, her improved mood motivates her to help with daily chores more as well!

As for me, I still haven’t found a job, but I’m almost there. So far, it’s been pretty hard to find any jobs stylist or fashion related. Since I don’t really have any Japanese work experience, most of the jobs I have to look at are entry level. But for an entry level job in the fashion industry like retail sales, companies aren’t generally looking to hire foreigners who need to have their visas sponsored.

On the flip side, though, one of my recruiters, Cecil, is helping me make some headway. Both he and Mark (my other recruiter) suggested that probably the easiest way to get started is to work teaching either English or Chinese and get sponsored through those companies. And of those two, Chinese will definitely give me a lot more opportunities.

Cecil happens to have direct connections to a couple companies. The first is Phoenix associates, which is a corporate training business. The other is a place called English OK! Both are considering me as an applicant at the moment. I haven’t heard anything from English OK! yet, but I recently got an email from the general manager at Phoenix associates asking me to answer a couple of questions like what motivates me, how do I see my future, etc. Basically an interview over email. I was about to send my answers, but sent it to Cecil to review first. I’m glad I did. Cecil has worked for Phoenix Associates in the past, and he suggested to me that they may not be looking so much at my content, but my grammar and vocabulary usage. It makes sense. They are, after all, language trainers. So, I rewrote all my answers in more of a college essay format on a word document and sent it out. I haven’t heard back yet, so they’re probably in the process of reviewing it. I have high expectations and will probably hear from them at the beginning of next week.

I’ll probably talk to Nelson and apply to Berlitz as well, which is another corporate level language training company. Nelson got into Berlitz when he first came, so I can probably get advice from him on that.

On the fashion side, though, I have some good prospects as well. Earlier this week Nelson introduced me to Thane Camus’s stylist, Sugimoto-san. She was really nice and had lots of advice to give me about getting started as a stylist. She advised me that it might be rough starting out, though, because of how in the Japanese system you start as someone’s apprentice and work your way up.

But I think that she really felt my enthusiasm is choosing to become a stylist for my career, and suggested ways to help me out. She said I could definitely follow her around as she worked to get a feel for the industry. The first day for that will be Monday. I’m really looking forward to it!

Sugimoto-san also said she knows a stylist called Hide who’s a great guy and has a show on television. She suggested that maybe I could become his apprentice and is going to ask for me. I’m not sure if that can get me a visa, but if it can, that will be perfect. I have a lot to look forwards to.

At this point, I definitely need to say thank you again to Nelson for all of his help. Not only did he help me meet with Sugimoto-san, but he really pushed for me to become her assistant and asked her if she could find ways to get me started. I’m really glad to have him as a friend =D

On the same note, I’m going to be styling Nelson’s band! Right now, I have Jean Paul Gaultier’s Men’s Spring 2009 collection in mind as I do it. It’s been pretty tough to find a lot of the clothing, but I think I can do it on the cheap! I’m looking to keep it around the range of 15,000 to 20,000 yen per person. If it works out, I might be able to start building my own reputation as a stylist independently as well!

Not only that, but Nelson is also looking to really promote himself through his own company based on Sugimoto-san’s advice. Step one is to create some business cards for himself, and he offered to make some for me under his company’s name as well. That will also definitely provide a good boost for me to get started!

That’s not all the good news, either. With Erina’s introduction (thank you so much), I’ve been able to meet with Koutoku Sato, who is one of the top hairstylists in the Aoyama area. He’s recently become very popular because he started sharing all the secret tricks of the trade that hairstylists use to work with people’s hair. He started this because as a hairstylist, he felt that however beautiful a hairstyle might be, it couldn’t truly be considered a good style if the customer had to take hours on their own or revisit the hair salon in order to recreate it. Recently, he’s published a book on the same topic!

The most exciting part of it is that he basically shares the same dream as I do. While he’s looking to make the skills of hairstyling easily available to the average person, I’m looking to do that with style and fashion.

He was just as friendly and helpful as Sugimoto-san. While he didn’t have much insight into the fashion stylist industry, he shared with me the path he took to get to where he is now, along with other advice he thought might be helpful for me to get started. He also said he would look into introducing me to a fashion stylist that he personally knows. So that’s a another lead! That particular stylist focuses more on the photography side of the industry, but I don’t mind because that’s definitely a skill that will be useful if I had it.

On top of this all, he told me this over dinner, and treated me to the meal as well. As someone who has made it to the top but makes sure to spend the time to help others, he really gained my respect. I was just speaking idea off the top of my mind, but I suggested the idea of possibly translating his book and working with him to get it published overseas. If I can manage that, that will definitely be a very rewarding project.

On top of this all, I definitely want to also thank Jon, Alex, Sako-san, Stephen, and Sally for entrusting me with projects to style them. You guys give me the reason to do what I love to do!

Categorized as Storyline