Living Doll/Genzon Ningyou
... Exit Harajuku Station. Walk two or three blocks up the left side of the main street. Cross the big street and try not to gawk at the Condomania on the opposite corner. Walk another half a block and turn left down a little nothing street. Continue walking past four block's worth of that awful concrete-and-glass architecture. Turn left again (I promise you're not getting lost) and find KATSURA, the speciality photography studio1.
What do they specialize in, you ask?
Geisha, or geiko as they're called in Tokyo. No, you don't get your photo taken with geiko.
They make you into a geiko. Or a maiko (apprentice). Your choice which. Their English wasn't great (then again, neither's my Japanese) but BOY do they know what they're doing. Step one: chose geiko or maiko. What's the difference? Elaboration. I don't know the reasons behind it, but maiko costumes are the ones with the brilliant colors and the spangley head ornamentation. The geiko costumes are beautiful but it a more subtle, elegant way and there's no spangley head gear. Anyway, I chose maiko.
Step two: choose your kimono. There were several there to choose from, some of which were almost flashier that the Tokyo lights at night. There was one bright purple one I almost went for, but there was also a lot of neon orange. (Japanese concepts of color-coordination differ a bit from Western.) There was also one nice, baby blue one with pink, white and purple patterns of flowers on it but I decided to get something more suited to my coloring. I ended up choosing a black one with red edging and a pattern of large sensu (folding fans). They told me that was the one in their ad, but it was the one I thought would best suit me so I stuck to it.
Step three: slip into something more comfortable. I was led to the third floor and shown to a small (air conditioned- never take that for granted in Japan) room with lockers and a solid wall of mirrors. The girl explained that I was to take off my accessories and leave them in a small dish. She indicated that I could leave my clothes in the locker and take the key with me. She gave me a cotton smock/slip thing and showed me how to put it on, plus a set of tabi. (You know tabi, they're those weird socks with two toes.)
Step four: make up time2! You know, I've done Glamour Shots. I've had make up put on with a putty knife. But I've never had it put on with a paint brush before. I'm not talking about a dainty little lip brush, either. This thing was about three inches long and a quarter of an inch thick. First she put on some foundation, next she took some pink stuff and spread it out from my eyes so that I looked like a butterfly had mistaken my face for a windshield. Then she got out the paint brush and started coating my face, neck and back with the geiko's traditional white face paint. I don't think I want to know just how traditional this particular paint was. I've read "Memoirs of a Geisha" and I'm just as happy not knowing if it had seagull poop in it or not3.
Anyway, this stuff was really slathered on, over my eyebrows, eyelids and lips too. When I looked in the mirror I thought I looked like a ghost. Or like someone had erased all my features. Fortunately, we'd put some kind of net over my hair to keep it out of the way and unharmed. After a further coat of some white powder, plus blush and the inevitable eye-lining and lip-painting (with one side just a bit larger than the other- don't ask me, Japanese like things to be slightly asymmetrical) it was Time.
Step Five: Kimono! Three women descended on me like those guys from "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy". Feeling like a cross between a mummy and a Barbie doll I obediently held still while they wrapped me up. First was the collar, to simulate the under-kimono. (People don't wear the layers and layers of kimono anymore. There's usually a light slip-like kimono plus a thick collar to fake the one that's supposed to be underneath.) Then there was bunch of stuff I don't even know but whose intention and effect was to make me mostly cylindrical. After that was all tied up and secured, I was shrugged into the kimono and then THAT was tied and secured. I was starting to feel like "The Pride of Baltimore4" under all that rope.
Once the kimono was in place, they started putting on the obi. The obi is that big sash you see. I was mildly disappointed to see that they were using a "cheating obi5" but understand why they went the easier route. Anyway, there I stood as they pushed and prodded and tugged and pulled. These women were smaller than me, but one of them about tugged me off of my feet as she fussed the obi into place. Obi and obajime and all finally in place, they showed me how to hold the skirts up as I walked and led me down to the first floor, where the photography room was.
Step six: hair! Ha, bet you thought I'd forgotten. No, before they took my picture they sat me down and settled a wig, done up in the old fashioned style and bedecked with chimey, sparkley things and flowers on my head. THEN I was led to the backdrop and camera. Dave, who was waiting there, was in shock. He said he couldn't recognize me at all.
Now it was time for the photos! They took two shots each of three poses, trying to explain each pose but mostly having to poke me around like a claymation model. It was hard to smile right, too. I've never been very good at smiling naturally for cameras and here I was trying remember to keep my lips closed and to do some kind of inscrutable half-smile.
Part way into the first shoot, they discovered that they'd forgotten to include a skirt to match the collar. They quickly brought it down and kind of got it into place, but it fit oddly. Then, wearing all this, I was asked to step into a pair of wooden geta, the tall, wooden flip-flops they wear. It was interesting, if a little unstable.
We did the standard stuff: posing with a folding fan, posing with an umbrella and sitting quietly with my sleeves completely hiding my hands.
Now comes the absolutely amazingly wonderful part. Once they were done shooting, they let Dave in with me and took a couple of shots of us with our camera. That's just cool. The absolutely amazingly wonderful part is where they allowed us to go out into their garden, which had a pond and a bridge and all that cool stuff, and take pictures ourselves! Just us and our camera. No extra charge or anything. Later, when we payed, they even refused a tip. They got out a regular pair of geta (not tall, more like elegant flip-flops) for me and told us to call if we had any problems.
We got lots of great pictures. I DID try to get on the bridge, but it was little and steep and I slid right out of the geta so I quit before I fell in the pond. That WOULD be my luck, I just know it.
Once we were done there, they led me back up to the third floor. While Dave waited on the second floor (the waiting and kimono room), one girl helped me out of the costume. The work of three girls and about twenty minutes, undone by one girl in five. After that, the make-up girl and I removed my face paint. How? Well, I'll probably never see that much baby-oil again until I'm actually applying it to a baby. When we were done there, she showed me to a sink where there was face-wash (Biore no less) and towels waiting.
That done, I completed my transformation back into my usual self in the locker room and headed downstairs. There they had some cold tea6 and my pictures already printed up and settled into a nice triple (paper) frame. I kind of wish I'd had a choice about which shots to keep, but the shots they chose are nice and we've got all the ones we took in the garden. All in all, this was a Very Good Experience and if any of you ever get over here you should give it a go! :)
1) Or, you can do it like we did, which was to take a taxi from Shinjuku station, (the ad said Shinjuku Jingumae) and give the taxi driver the place's phone number so that he could try to locate it on his GPS system. He got us to the right general area. Then we got directions from a police officer standing outside of his (blessedly) air conditioned box. Sounds easy, huh? Add in walking around all day and several hours the night before in 80 degree heat and humidity with a back-pack containing all your necessities and purchases. Trust me, the grumpy index was high.
2) This was in another room on the same floor as the locker room, but this one wasn't air conditioned. They did however have a floor fan, which they kindly kept trained on me throughout the events.
3) Though I'm not too worried if it did. I washed it off thoroughly, and it didn't hurt generations of geishas.
4) "The Pride of Baltimore" is an old sailing ship that's survived a hundred years or so. They did a restoration on it and kept in in the Baltimore Harbour for a while so people could visit it.
5) A "cheating obi"- that's my name for it and my students think it's hysterical- is basically a much shorter sash that they secure around your waist. They then take a pre-made bow of the same material and pop it on the back. Looks almost as elegant and takes a fraction of the time. I always wear one with my yukata (thin cotton summer kimono).
6) I think it was buckwheat tea, but don't quote me on that. It was brown and cold, which tells me it definitely wasn't the traditional green tea, which is usually served hot. Dave says that while he was waiting for them to finish dolling me up they served him a couple of different kinds of teas including a sweet green tea which he'd never had before. It was cold, sweet and thick- almost opaque.
It has now been nearly two years since I updated this site. Part of that was RL, part of that was losing the provider I had before. But I'm back now and while I no longer live in Japan (*sigh*), I still have many things to share. I hope you enjoy them. *bow*
