Hi, this is Rei Sandy, and I’m an intern at FindJPN. For a while now, I’ve been tagging along a couple of FindJPN activities to report back how these activities turned out.
So early morning on a day in April, I went to go see a FindJPN customer become a geisha along with another colleague. The transformation that unfolded was amazing, and I want to share this with you all.
FindJPN’s customer arrived at around 10:15. Her long blond hair waving as she crossed the traffic light under drizzling rain in Tokyo. Her name is Alison – a woman with a wide smile that breaks out at times when she talks. But Alison seemed anxious as she found and slowly approached us.
There was a short silence between us– a moment of “wait, this is who I’m meeting right?”
But soon this awkwardness left us as she talked to us about how she could not wait to transform into a Geisha. Feeling honored by how enthusiastic she was with traditional Japanese culture our anxious feeling turned into anticipation and excitement.
A short five-minute walk later we got to the elevator that took us up to the fourth floor of an office building. The doors of the elevator opened to a splash of kimonos, wedding gowns and all sorts of other colorful dresses.
Two ladies in suits greeted us – promptly leading us to a room in the back where Alison was going to begin her geisha transformation.
First was the make-up. One of the ladies – a makeup artist -gently massaged Alison’s face with “binzuke abura”, a type of oil, before applying white powder on her entire face.
We were told that this whole process, which includes putting red eye shadow and lipstick on, was going to take over an hour to complete.
By the time she had a lot of her make up on, she was asked not to smile anymore – which was weird but made sense. Smiling or laughing puts cracks into the dried white makeup.
“Ok” Alison said with a smile.
After the makeup it became time to choose a kimono to wear out of over 50 different designs. Alison was astounded and a bit perplexed by the sheer number of kimonos in front of her but after careful consideration she chose a red kimono with embroidered gold and white flowers.
The dress up itself took about 30 minutes, and two separate people – one behind and one in front of Alison. After a few chugs to tighten the kimono, the transformation was almost over. All was left was the wig.
Out of a tightly shut Star Wars-esque box, came out a traditional Japanese style wig that was fitted on Alison’s head. She then walked from the makeup room into the photo studio in her “getas” (Japanese-style sandals), carefully, not to tip over in her “getas” that forced her to shift her weight backwards as she walked.
20 pictures later by a professional cameraman, the experience came to an end.
The preparation to become a geisha took an hour and a half, taking off the makeup/ kimono only took 20 minutes. Everything fun comes to an end fast.
“I think I have a inner Japanese in me” Alison said as she left the studio with a grin.
I think it’s pretty safe to say that the geisha transformation happened from the inside out.
After the geisha experience, Alison gave us a wonderful review of her experience…
Alison: I found the whole process to be very enjoyable and the people to be very professional. Thank you FindJPN for organizing such a memorable day in Tokyo!
Read more of her review here:
(Click and jump to FindJPN site)
This is the activity she experienced this time:
(Click and jump to FindJPN site)
Written by admin
Topics: FindJPN Contents