I was working in Akihabara the other day, and I met up with my manager afterwards and did some "promotion shots" (for what I don't know. She constantly takes pictures of me which sometimes turn up a month or so later on a random leaflet or website related to Akihabara).
I've included one of the better ones here for you. It's not photoshopped, but it was taken under whitening studio light. I'm wearing a wig, which I bought recently, and which I wore to work, but after seeing how these photos turned out, I am considering permanently dyeing my hair this colour.
Even though the wig is very thick and long and therefore eye-catching, it does psychologically make me less self-conscious going out on my own, because from the back at least I don't immediately stand out as a Foreign. I feel much more comfortable with brown hair than blonde hair here, but I don't know if I can face the colour correction process back to brown in terms of the cost, further damage to my hair, and the difficulty/impossibility of going back to blonde if I decide I don't like it after all.
It's also interesting how many more Japanese guys have come up to me on the street to nampa (ie. from 0 in the last three months when I had blonde hair, to a total of 5 on the four days so far I've worn the wig). Obviously I'm not looking to up my popularity with random guys who like to hit on women outside stations and izakayas, but it is nice not to feel totally ignored as a girl for once. (｀_´)ゞ
So after getting changed, I met up with my friend @tokyojazz, a collector of figurines and with whom I can have involved discussions about Kei-On! and Dynasty Warriors without feeling like a total dork. Those friends are important. Anyway, after I got changed out of my maid outfit I met her in front of the station and we went to look at the little shops along the main street in Akihabara, Meiji Dori. I'm a sucker for teacup sets (I know) and I ended up buying a Kei-On! one from one of the places that sell second-hand merchandise (usually unwanted game centre prizes from the grabby machines/UFO catchers that people sell on when they run out of space in their tiny flats. I assume.) as well as a Tsumugi in a maid outfit holding a cake strap (it combined too many things I like - I couldn't resist).
I went home after that and popped info the 100yen shop for some bento goods - those little paper cups for dividing up the contents and so on. And while there, as always, I bought a bunch of other not strictly necessary items, including the below: an ingenious hard-boiled egg slicing device which will do either slices or chunks, and which I have never seen in the UK (but to be fair I wasn't exactly looking), and, continuing the egg theme, a set of moulds which when you put a warm peeled hard-boiled egg in them, IMPRINT AN ANIMAL FACE on said egg. Every time I go to buy things for making bento, it's like a window on to the terrible pressurised world of competitive lunchbox design that is the life of a stay-at-home mother in Tokyo.
I've included one of the better ones here for you. It's not photoshopped, but it was taken under whitening studio light. I'm wearing a wig, which I bought recently, and which I wore to work, but after seeing how these photos turned out, I am considering permanently dyeing my hair this colour.
Even though the wig is very thick and long and therefore eye-catching, it does psychologically make me less self-conscious going out on my own, because from the back at least I don't immediately stand out as a Foreign. I feel much more comfortable with brown hair than blonde hair here, but I don't know if I can face the colour correction process back to brown in terms of the cost, further damage to my hair, and the difficulty/impossibility of going back to blonde if I decide I don't like it after all.
It's also interesting how many more Japanese guys have come up to me on the street to nampa (ie. from 0 in the last three months when I had blonde hair, to a total of 5 on the four days so far I've worn the wig). Obviously I'm not looking to up my popularity with random guys who like to hit on women outside stations and izakayas, but it is nice not to feel totally ignored as a girl for once. (｀_´)ゞ
So after getting changed, I met up with my friend @tokyojazz, a collector of figurines and with whom I can have involved discussions about Kei-On! and Dynasty Warriors without feeling like a total dork. Those friends are important. Anyway, after I got changed out of my maid outfit I met her in front of the station and we went to look at the little shops along the main street in Akihabara, Meiji Dori. I'm a sucker for teacup sets (I know) and I ended up buying a Kei-On! one from one of the places that sell second-hand merchandise (usually unwanted game centre prizes from the grabby machines/UFO catchers that people sell on when they run out of space in their tiny flats. I assume.) as well as a Tsumugi in a maid outfit holding a cake strap (it combined too many things I like - I couldn't resist).
I went home after that and popped info the 100yen shop for some bento goods - those little paper cups for dividing up the contents and so on. And while there, as always, I bought a bunch of other not strictly necessary items, including the below: an ingenious hard-boiled egg slicing device which will do either slices or chunks, and which I have never seen in the UK (but to be fair I wasn't exactly looking), and, continuing the egg theme, a set of moulds which when you put a warm peeled hard-boiled egg in them, IMPRINT AN ANIMAL FACE on said egg. Every time I go to buy things for making bento, it's like a window on to the terrible pressurised world of competitive lunchbox design that is the life of a stay-at-home mother in Tokyo.
