Wow, PA, ya got some esp there...
Ok, so I can tell Yoji that you hugged it out of me...
I hope that it will be worth it... thanks for the hugs all
OK, this must have been like 1978 or so. Japan, as you may know, is extremely conservative. What is the saying "The nail that sticks out get banged down" or something like that... it is very true in Japan especially around that time.
Yoji is a brilliant artist with a mind of his own. It really is amazing that such talent came come out of such strong conformity. Yoji was nearly thrown out of school (elementary thru high school) and his mother neared many nervous breakdowns due to the school calling so many times...
I believe that it was one day before the end of school but Yoji couldnt wait one fuc*ing day. He had to dye his hair - or maybe it was bleach it out. Now in 1978 the bleach was pretty intense... So he gets the job done but he cant go to school with blond hair.
These Japanese are serious about conformity. They actually bring out a ruler to measure hair length, pant length, where the collar meets the neck... just insanity. No way they arent gonna notice he has blond hair in a sea of black hair.
What to do??? What to do???
Shoe polish! Brilliant idea :eek: :eek: :eek:
Oh, I forgot to mention that Yoji had shaved off his eyebrows also :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:
So back to the shoe polish. I suppose it was the kind that came in one of those little tins. Really heavy, black, black stuff. Yoji grabs a couple fingers of the crap and just spreads in thru his hair. I imagine his hair was somewhat short. I believe that he also used the shoe polish for his eye brows but it could have been a make-up pencil (eyeliner?).
Now it is summer and SUPER HOT AND HUMID!!! Yoji has to take the train. I dont know if you have ever been on a really really crowded train but in Japan there is no un-crowded train in the mornings or early evenings... full of students, salarymen, office girls. Yoji is in the middle of the train and it hits a bump in the track and everyone gets moved around a bit. Yoji hits his head on the back of this guys white dress shirt. Now the guy just thinks some kid hit the back of his head on his shirt... no big deal... everyone else notices that there is a huge black circle of shoe polish on the guys shirt. Of course in polite society no one said anything - just put their heads down
God, I am sitting here thinking of the way Yoji told me this story and just giggling...
So Yoji gets to school. Again it is just horribly hot and humid. His hair is starting to melt :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: and Yoji has to keep going to the bathroom to clean up his forehead and around his hairline. He also notices that his eyebrow is starting to droop
He goes into a class and the teacher is doing his business and then notices something is really strange about Yoji. The teacher goes over to Yoji and suddenly wipes OFF half of Yojis eyebrow. I dont know how Yoji thought of this but he tells the teacher that he is studying Kabuki
which the teacher believes and he doesnt get in MORE trouble.
Unfortunately poor Yoji had to spend the rest of the day with melting hair and 1.5 eyebrows
p.s. I was limited to 20 smilies???