Saturday, July 5, 2008

human traffic

I am exhausted from going to Tokyo. There is way too many people in one place...That's what I thought.lol I went to activate my JR-railpass in Ikebukuro. I forgot the overwhelming feeling of Tokyo in the summer. I think the huge amount of people wouldn't bother me if it wasn't for the humidness. My sister kindly looked up the railroad directions that I had to take, but I still took the wrong trains..haha. There was one Indian girl that was helping me out- she was gorgeous! Once I got to Ikebukuro, I slid my way through waves of people. First I went to the "Midori no Madoguchi"-which translates to Green Window- it just means customer service for the JR rail line. As I waited for this line that took about 10 min worth, the lady that helped me said that I needed to take a left to the information center for JR. So I trail down to the information center, and I felt releif because I was able to get to my destination. The lady quickly made my JR-rail pass and I was free to go to my next destination, which was Kichi-jyoji.
Kichijyo-ji is my kind of town. I really enjoyed Kichi-jyoji but I didn't enjoy getting lost..;p;
I get to Kichijyo-ji without getting lost, but I needed directions to the Red Bunny(tattoo parlor!) so I asked the "omawarisan"=policeman. There's always a police station near a railroad station, so I always ask them if I'm lost because they know the town:) or as least they have a map. The Omawarisan oppointed for me was a very kind younger man that gently explained and even wrote the way to Red Bunny- He asked me what store I was looking for... and I couldn't answer that because tattoos are still usually affiliated with Yakuzas-or it's still the mentality of it. Regardless, I just tell him Red bunny- I think he thought it was a clothing store of something. So his directions was good, it was just that I didn't understand his directions..:P While looking around for Red Bunny, I came across really neat and hip stores. I liked how everystore seemed unique. Even though I wanted to look around the stores, I just wanted to find where Red Bunny was and actually go in the parlor to see if it was the same as it was on the website.
I finally took the path that lead me to Red Bunny. The direction was sooo easy, but I was just not comprehending the roads of the new environment. I see the Red Bunny sign and I leap in excitment because I was walking around for about 30-35 minutes trying to find this bunny sign. When I go up the tight twirly stairs I see that the steps started to say Red Bunny as I got to the 3rd floor. When I got in the store, I see a man that was wearing those cute frontal hats. I tell him that I was Kawaguchi Wakako, and that I had an appointment with Akatsuki. He asks me what I want and I show Christine's samples. He asked if I drew them, but of course I didn't. In a very enlightened voice he said that they were impressive!!! There was a middle aged woman that I sat next to, and she was looking at tatoo books. She was kind of an odd one. She said that the only tatoo she saw that she liked was a butterfly one, but she said that she didn't even like butterflies! Even though she disliked them, she met with the tatoo artist and confirmed her appointment and dropped her deposit... I was so confused to why she wanted a tattoo from the first place. Tattoos are permanent and usually a thoughtful event to someone... anyways, I finally chose the sakura one because that represented Japan, and I liked the whole twig part as well.
Akatsuki was this petite little cute thing. I imagined her to be alot more bolder since she was a female tattoo artist, but she wasn't. She was really nice, and she asked me if I wanted pink for my sakuras. I told her I wanted blue just because I was going with the whole snowflake idea. She as well told me how well drawn the samples were!!! Anyways, I leave red bunny with my deposit and good feelings. The parlor had decorations of Aztec decor, and rockabilly aura! I'll take pictures the 21st.

Alright, I typed enough for 3 days!!Goodnight!

2 comments:

sujen said...

AUUGGGHH!! YESSSS!! YOU GOT THEM ON TIME~! I'm so unbelievably happy right now--LOL. I'm also THRILLED that you liked the tats (I felt so rushed on them I didn't feel like I put enough of you or enough meaning into them..LOL). BUT ZOMG!! I can't believe you chose the Sakura (I was afraid that it was too girly)! I actually drew that one last--'cause I kept trying to think of how to incorporate either your family or your background into the tattoo--I had looked up "kawaguchi" in kanji and I tried to fit that in there but completely failed. TT0TT Regardless, I'm so glad that you got through, and I can't wait to see the work of Atasuki on you! :D This is WAY too cool mans.

ON A SIDE NOOTTEEE--I'm so glad that you were able to make it through saftely (I KNOW I would have gotten soooo lost..ahaha). I really hope to see some pics of tokyo (:'D if you pass by the harajuku district could you take a sneak a pic for me if you can?--don't do it if you have to pay them though..LOL). It's great to hear all of this news donna--keep on posting! <3 Take care.

Sarah A said...

heya heya, been reading and now i can comment. :D

bleh. hot weather sucks. when we go to japan lets do it in winter, lulz. a train adventure? sounds fun, i love trains, they don't make me motion sick. i think you'd like berlin a lot, its a huge hip city but without people! lol

and give me your addy, i have your stuff. and if you see a used school bag, you know what to do. ;D