Geezus cover that up!

We started walking back shortly after my plea to leave, the girls chatted away and I walked in silence, seeing flashing images of the man and his cut off finger. As soon as I got home, I lied down on my futon, looked up at the ceiling and started daydreaming about my encounter with the Yakuza man.  I was fascinated by it all. I hypothesized that he wasn't threatening me, but wanted to introduce the weird, computer-nerd, Gaijin (foreigner) girl to the Yakuza gang. He appeared and disappeared, as if he had been a ghost. His gang's hidden power and influence to be felt, but not so much as seen (much like many mafia gangs). I feel asleep still mesmerized by the experience.

I woke up early the next day for my last formal day of training. Next to my futon, I had the list of endless no's, that I had thought I had meticulously checked through, but yesterday the trainer looked me right in the eye and mentioned about the utmost importance in covering all tattoos. I have a very small, inoffensive tattoo on the back of my neck, but one of the no's listed was that I needed to have my pulled back and neatly in an up-do. Damn those Yakuza for adding to the taboo of tattoos in Japan! This was a difficult feat to pull off as I didn't want to cover my neck with ten pounds of makeup or wear a turtleneck in the 30+ heat. I found some spare Band-Aids leftover from the past tenants and decided I would have to use a few to cover up my tattoo. I looked in the mirror at the back of my neck and laughed. It was probably one of the most unlikely places to get cut and cause more second takes, than if my little tattoo was to be seen and forgotten. I'm pretty sure it's obvious to most onlookers that a 5'3 blond, young, gaijin woman is not a member of the Yakuza. Sporting these Band-Aids on my neck was something I couldn't pull off without looking like more of a weirdo, if only I of was as cool as Nelly!

Nelly pulling off the, generally
not-so-cool, Band-Aid look

The whole training session, I could feel the Band-Aids pull at my skin and the few straggling hairs that got caught in it and ripped out whenever I moved my head. On the hot walk to the training center,  I could feel the Band-Aids loosening with sweat from the ridiculous humidity factor. Argh this was annoying! And I was supposed to do this for the whole year?! I decided to put my hair down, mid way through the day. As soon as I did, I received a darting glare from my trainer, who made mention of it later to me in private. He talked to me as if I had done something totally offensive-like pull a Janet Jackson-super-bowl-stunt  for just for putting down my hair. Man this guy was intense, he wasn't Japanese he was Australian! I shouldn't have tested the water, it was after-all on the list of "no's," but I didn't think I could elicit such a reaction from someone because of something so innocent. This was going to be a LONG two weeks of training!

My Janet Jackson moment for putting down my hair
at the wrong place and wrong time!