These Are The Experiences I Seek

Being so tall, I think I've developed this sort of sixth sense for when people are looking at me or talking about me. I can walk down the street and just sort of feel the glances, stares, and double-takes; as well as the whispers to friends that often accompany them. So when a Japanese man that I would eventually come to know as Takeda approached me on the streets of Harajuku in Tokyo, I wasn't that surprised -- my sixth sense had already put him on my radar.

I had been told before visiting Japan that something like this would happen and that the locals might try to solicit me for a selfie with them. So when Takeda began talking to me w in very broken English with his phone out, I simply assumed that this was what was happening. Through the confusion of a very significant language barrier, I agreed to a selfie he wasn't trying to get and, after five minutes of going back and forth and getting nowhere, we eventually said sayonara to each other.

Shit like this eats at me. I hate the mystery of it all. I needed to know what he wanted, what it was I might be missing out on. Armed with Google Translate on my phone, I returned to the street corner where he had found me. I got him to write Kanji characters into Google Translate and we proceeded to have a very stuttered conversation. He was a hair stylist -- okay. He wanted to know if I was a model -- that's adorable (at 31, this type of shit really makes my day). He wants to cut my hair and do a photoshoot -- ah, now we're getting somewhere. And because momma din't raise no fool, I ask him some questions of my own: when, where, why, and how much. Fortunately, everything seemed above board and, after showing me his salon that was around the corner, we made plans to meet back up later that night.

k, but seriously, wtf do i do with my hands?!

The experience itself was... awesome and challenging. Awesome because, holy shit, I am getting my hair cut in a swanky salon in Harajuku by a random Japanese guy that wants to take pictures of me for his portfolio. That is not a sentence I ever thought I'd say. But challenging because I actually hate having my picture taken. I mean, even posting pictures of myself on Instagram is a fairly recent thing for me -- I'm too skinny, I'm too tall, I'm too pale, I'm too gaunt -- I'm too fuckin' sensitive to judgment is what it is. I shouldn't give a shit, and I kind of don't, but I also kind of do. So this... this was tough. I don't want to oversell it, it wasn't the end of the world, but it was definitely a conscious effort to just go with it and have fun. It didn't come naturally. And I didn't know what to do with my hands.

Takeda was dope. He's good people. I brought Yavar and Robinson along for support and translation skills (Robinson is gaijin that has lived in Japan for 6-7 months) and Takeda actually went to the convenient store to get us all snacks and drinks. This is pretty typical Japanese behaviour, but the friendliness still amazes me. Not only that, dude got me some chop sticks! No joke, I was just thinking to myself the other day, I should really get some chopsticks while I'm in Tokyo. Boom, chopsticks.