Raamenchan

Ever since I started writing this blog, it feels like there hasn’t been a day that has passed without something significant happening. I wonder if something significant actually happens to all of us every day, except that we don’t always have a background purpose or vision to give meaning to it. After all, I’m sure we’ve all had a moment of sudden inspiration, but dismiss it as something “that has nothing really to do with me.” For example, years before I decided I wanted to be a stylist, I may have seen someone wear an outfit that really struck me as interesting. Back then, I probably thought “cool” and walked along. If it was now, I would probably take a mental note of it and use it as inspiration for new outfits. An interesting thought =D

In any case, yesterday I had the opportunity to finally meet with Takuma, the freelance stylist I mentioned before. Koutoku, Takuma, and I all met up at Omotesando at 10pm (Koutoku’s work doesn’t end until 9:30pm) and then headed to a nearby restaurant to eat and talk. Koutoku and Takuma met around three years ago during a collaboration project where they were the hair and fashion stylists.

I learned a lot about the styling industry last night thanks to Takuma. To recap, he spent three years at the most well known fashion school in Japan, followed by three years as an assistant stylist. Afterwards, he began working on his own as a freelance stylist. This is the general path stylists take to begin their careers, although the path is anything but easy. He estimated that around 70% of people who strive to become stylists quit before they make it. In fact, it’s somewhat similar for hairstylists as well. The reason for this is that the period of time as an assistant is, as he and Koutoku put it, “living hell.” The description more or less matched the one that Sugimoto-san (Thane’s stylist) gave me before.

Takuma said that every day he told himself that the next day, he was going to quit. Koutoku said that every day before entering the salon, he fought with himself about whether go inside or just leave. For assistants who have an unforgiving master (and that seems to be the majority), it’s rough. But fortunately, it lead both Takuma and Koutoku to swear to never become like their masters.

Unfortunately, the assistant stage cannot be avoided in general. In terms of being a stylist, Takuma said that he probably would have been just as well off not having gone to fashion school at all. Everything important the he needed, he picked up as an assistant. And through the work as an assistant, he was able to make connections in the industry that would become his own when he finally turned freelance.

In general, he works with artists, magazines, clothing lines, etc. Sometimes he gets jobs through the connections he has already established, and other times he’ll go out with his portfolio and present himself to companies to create new opportunities. That’s where the connections made as an assistant come into play. Most of the time, without any background, its difficult to persuade companies to hire you. And even if they do hire you, you need to be able to go to clothing stores and borrow clothing. Again, without connections or a reputation, this can be difficult.

On the flip side, it is possible to start on one’s own as a stylist. It just means that you have to pull your own weight to create connections and a reputation for yourself. Which is good, because that is exactly what I’m going to do!

I also found something shocking about Japan’s styling industry, though. Apparently, in the fashion industry, males stylists can only work in men’s fashion and females can only work in women’s fashion. The only exception to this rule is if a man is gay, in which case he is assumed to understand a woman’s heart so he can work with women’s fashion as well. I could hardly believe it when I heard it. It was a bit sad, too, because if Takuma had the choice, he would want to work with women’s fashion.

This particular photo is a favorite from Takuma’s work. I’m unclear of the purpose for the photo, but it wasn’t for women’s fashion because the model is female. The theme of the photo is “kaleidoscope,” and it was decided after Takuma had chosen the dress. So if it wasn’t for his intuition to choose the dress, this photo would never have come into existence. Unfortunately, I can’t copy the photo, so you’ll have to just go to the page directly to see it:

http://tinyurl.com/cgf26r

Unfortunately, though, I actually had quite a rough night. I made another mistake last night, and it truly vexes me, because in the process I pissed off Koutoku.

Here’s what happened. After all three of us sat down for dinner and ordered our food, we chatted for a bit and Koutoku thoughtfully set the stage for me to ask Takuma the questions that were on my mind. This was, after all, the purpose of our meeting. Koutoku had been unable to answer my questions about the stylist world during our last meeting, so he had looked to find a way to help answer them.

So I began asking Takuma some questions. Unfortunately, my Japanese can really lack in more specialized subject matters, and I wasn’t really able to communicate what I meant when I asked those questions. This isn’t new to me, and in these cases, I usually try to give examples of what I’m talking about to better communicate my point. But this time, I still couldn’t really get my ideas across to Takuma. Yet when I stopped talking, I felt there was an awkward silence. And so unconsciously, I began talking about myself. After this continued for some time, that’s when Koutoku motioned to me and pulled me aside.

“What the hell are you doing?! Quit messing around! Takuma came all the way out here for you. He lugged his heavy portfolio out here so you could see his work and help you learn what you wanted to know. I put this meeting together for that purpose, and we’re not here to listen to you talk about yourself and America! I’m busy too you know? It’s not like I have all the time in the world. I don’t know how things work in America but here you need to show some respect. Usually you put the focus on him and when he teaches you something then you take memos and write it down. Get your act together!”

That’s not an exact translation what he said, but that’s the gist of it. I was scared. I thought that I might have just ruined our relationship forever. So all I could do was apologize several times until he turned around and headed back to the dinner table.

But in all honesty, he was right. As an outsider looking at what I was doing, I probably would have thought the same thing. Asking seemingly meaningless questions, not really getting to the point, and then rambling about myself. I’ve done my share of effective human communication, and I even I knew that I wasn’t doing the right thing.

If I had directed the conversation the way I had wanted to, I would have asked Takuma some questions about himself, his motivations, and dreams. Then I would have asked to see his portfolio, asked him about different ones, and then ask some more questions about being a stylist. But… I just wasn’t able to do it. My Japanese ability wasn’t good enough to do it. And with perhaps only a 80-90% comprehension level for the specialized subject matter, I wasn’t always able to correctly read the flow of the conversation.

So for the first time in my life, I felt ashamed about my Japanese. I felt ashamed and frustrated to the point that I wanted to cry. Up until now, I knew my Japanese always had a lot of room for improvement, but I prided myself in the fact that I could pretty much get by no matter what the situation. But for the first time my lack of mastery actually caused a problem for someone else, and I felt that was unforgivable.

But the night wasn’t about to end at that moment, so I returned to the dinner table with Koutoku and we continued our conversation with Takuma. Despite his sudden outburst, Koutoku actually seemed to realize I was having problems communicating what I wanted. And so, from that point on, Koutoku more or less led the conversation. He actually asked pretty much all of the questions that I wanted to ask, while giving me some space to ask some simpler ones on my own. Thanks to his guidance, I was able to learn everything that I wrote about earlier.

Towards the end of our meeting I pulled Koutoku aside myself. There was a pause in the conversation directly following something that I didn’t understand, so I wanted to ask in private just in case I might say something rude again. I also wanted to apologize for earlier. Surprisingly, Koutoku was no longer angry, and he told me not to worry about it at all. He remembered many times in the past his master had reprimanded him in the same way. He told me that he realized that we all make mistakes and that he was trying to treat me more as someone he had known for a long period of time, and so told me those things to keep me in the right direction. He explained how he felt the best thing to do in meetings like this would be to try to first bond everyone together.

I was somewhat relieved, although still fairly vexed about myself. Shortly afterwards, we ended the dinner because I had to get back home and the other two had work the next day. We headed out around midnight. Although I noted that as we left, Koutoku also suggested to Takuma that perhaps I might be able to help at some point as a interpreter. Takuma agreed to look into it, and told me that if there was anything that he could do to help, to let him know.

I can only thank the both of them from the bottom of my heart for all their support. I’m not particularly religious, but on my way home I also stopped by a nearby Shinto shrine to also give my thanks to the gods for giving me the opportunity to meet with all these wonderful people. I made a commitments improve my Japanese, be more careful when dealing with others, and never again cause trouble to others because of a language issue.

After I got home, I talked to Mami about the entire situation and then helped make onigiri for the “flower viewing” picnic (花見 or “hanami”） the next day. By that time it was 3am. Mami took a shower and went to sleep then, but I proceeded to write an email to Koutoku with an explanation for my actions and an apology. It wasn’t easy, but I finally finished around 5:15am. I sent it off and reflected a bit.

Although I had already come to the conclusion that I would become a stylist in my own way after talking to Sugimoto-san, I realized more than ever that I needed to walk that path.

As a stylist in the Japanese respect, I have almost nothing to offer to this world. I don’t have the same level of discipline that Takuma and Koutoku have in order to make it through three years of that type of apprenticeship. And knowing myself, I will probably become restricted by the environment and lose my creativity.

Yet as a stylist in my own regard, I believe I have a lot to offer. I believe that I can offer a new approach to an old tradition, and offer a new focus of helping everyone that I can reach out to: male, female, young, and old. 

And most importantly, by being the stylist of my own definition, I can be true to myself.

With that thought, I went to sleep around 6am. 

(I suppose I would usually end the post here, but I want to get caught up on today as well!)

And then I woke up like, 3 hours later, lol.

Mami and I had scheduled to meet with Sally Kikuchi and Lika at 11pm at the south exit of Shinjuku station, as the hanami was over at Shinjuku park. 

On the way to the station my heart was still a bit heavy from the events of last night and a lack of sleep, but I was determined not to let one mistake ruin everything else. Before we arrived at the meeting location, I took a deep breath and focused on being positive, having fun, and being excited. And it worked! 

We met with Sally, who was actually here because she had come to Tokyo for one day from Yamanashi to see Cirque du Soleil’s Corteo. But since we wanted to hang out, we had invited her to come with us before the show started.

Hanami was fun. It was actually a gathering event for a California universities, so there we people from UCs everywhere, as well as some from USC and Stanford among others. Thank you Makoto for bringing a feast worth of food! Thank you also to the Stanford mariachi band for giving a performance despite bending the rules of no music in the park!  I have to say that those things plus a nice interval of sunny weather really helped make my day. And that wasn’t even the end of it!

Around this time I got an email response from Koutoku that lightened the burden on my heart a bit. He said that he was the one who should be saying thank you, not to worry about anything at all, and to let him know if there was anything else he could do to help. What a guy.

I also had the chance to meet Ron, today, who is the special projects coordinator at Phoenix Associates, where I applied for a job! He’s a great guy, who’s working his way through his third year in Japan after having moved here with his wife. And even better, he’s another UC Berkeley Alum! He said he would try to put in a good word for me at work, for which I am truly grateful. I thought at that time what a small world it is.

I’m glad I came out to hanami despite how tired I was. Being with friends and all the positive energy really helped me recharge and refocus. It’s just as Hiroaki (Mami’s brother) said to me: “friends are a luxury.” And I’m glad to have the luxury.

Today, I also re-realized the importance of networking, and also the power of the UC connection.

Depending on tomorrow, I might be able to network some more and see Ron again as well! There’s a UC Berkeley alumni meeting at a Mexican restaurant called Zest.

But although I’m pumped to go, Junko Morimoto is back in Tokyo as of today! I’ll have to decide what I need to do tomorrow, but I’m sure it will be great no matter what happens.

Before I close my entry for the day, I also want to say thanks again to Mami, Lika, Emi, Sally, and Russell for a fun couple of hours after hanabi talking about and eating food (and that being after an entire hanami mostly involving eating food). Good luck to you Lika in choosing a good blender / food processor.

 

You know… this blog program has a word count at the bottom of it. This post hit about 2650 words. I sure wish I could have churned out content like this for essays back in school!

Categorized as Storyline