A Week with Japanese Fashion Icon Shoushi Ogawa

A few weeks ago, I received the amazing and exciting opportunity to guide around Japanese fashion idol Shoushi Ogawa throughout the great city of Los Angeles!

So he had arrived at noon on a cloudy March 12th at the greatly confusing LAX airport. He was kindly picked up by our voluntary chauffeur of the week, Beari King, and our very generous photographer, John Woo.

We later met at the small Little Tokyo Hotel where I was greeted downstairs by our trusty food guide Jamie Lee. I was ecstatic, nervous, but excited. My heart was racing and I was unsure of what to expect. Would he be kind and talkative? Would my crappy Japanese be enough? Every thought in my head suddenly stopped when I spotted Shoushi's lime-green glitter platforms and pale purple braids. We were quickly introduced as he was taking his bags into the small room. There was a slight language barrier but regardless we were able to comfortably talk and plan out the week. He had a large number of pages bookmark in a small California guide booklet and was adorably excited to start his busy vacation. His priority was flea markets and vintage shops as he planned to open a new online store in April. We made sure to get the job done as well as introduce him to new and exciting locations.

We began our first day, a late afternoon, at our first stop in Hollywood. The look on his face made me feel as excited as he was. The very innocent and gentle vibe he gave off added to the enthusiasm we all carried. He made stops to many stores including The Sweet Shop where he picked up a few Oscar souvenirs for his mother and brother. As nervous as we were we realize that we had forgotten to eat! Our usual cravings or not, it turned out all that Shoushi wanted was big hearty American food.

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After a brief stop at IHOP we made our way back to the hotel using the metro rail. The sun had set and we were growing tired. It was quite fun teaching him how to use a TAP card (used to ride Los Angeles' Metro system), the confused look on his face was adorable. As we reached Union Station, Shoushi continued to talk about how jet lag and absolutely tired he was. He was amazed at how big the city was and wanted to do the most he could fit into his short week here. I said my goodbyes to him as we exited the train. That first hug is always awkward but it was quite funny and sweet. I left John and Jamie to escort him back to the Little Tokyo Hotel and made my way home. I was incredibly sleepy but satisfied.

That was only our first day. Our series of adventures continued as we introduced him to Universal Citywalk and Koreatown two days later. He had found a life-size cardboard cutout of K-pop band EXO and was adorably excited to take a picture with it. That same day, a nice young girl had recognize him and asked to take a picture. It was pretty interesting to witness. Shoushi in general and he was very lovely to talk to. The verbal culture change was amazing as well. He was very jet-lagged, but still managed to have the energy to walk around the entire city (even down to Long Beach!). A few days afterward, we exerienced our most exhausting day yet. It started with a quick trip to the post office. John and I spent hours helping him send items back to Japan. As we filled out paperwork, he would strut back and forth as if the place where a catwalk from time to time. A mini break it seemed. The stares we would get from the others waiting in line made it quite amusing. We later escorted him to a friend's house where he would stay the night. Exhausting as it was it was still worth it to me.

The others escorted him around some remaining days while I was busy with school and work. My last day with him fastly approached as we hit up the Melrose Flea Market on Friday of that same week. John and I walked around Melrose Avenue while Shoushi visited some different stores around the area with a new friend. When we later met up again, we decided to grab some food at Little Tokyo Hot Pot Galaxy where Jamie had also met up with us to eat. After the short uber ride there, we sat down in the restaurant where we talked about what he wanted to do for his last day here. It was about 7 PM so we didn't have much time, but we did our best to make the most of it. He was really excited about LA Fashion Week. Although he didn't receive an invitation, he was still hoping to make it to the after party that night. After we stuffed our faces with ramen I asked, probably for the fifth time, if we could please head over to the mall (The Little Tokyo Galleria) and take some purikura. It was really all I wanted that week, but we were so busy. We quickly rushed over to the mall before it closed and took our cute photographs. The machine was dying but after a few kicks it started working just fine. I was pretty surprised to find out that purikura in Japan were only about $4 compared to the $10 here and that the templates the machines used were at least 10 years old. After a bit of fun at the Galleria, we finally called it a day and called up an uber to head to Jamie's house where we would all stay the night.

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Expecting to go immediately to bed, Shoushi began getting ready for this LA Fashion Week after-party. We were pretty shocked. We didn't actually think that he was actually going. Regardless, I was excited that he was excited and was super glad he had a chance to go out one last time before he left the next morning. He left for the party at around 11 PM, all glammed up and such. I felt like a mother letting her son go out for the first time. The hours passed slowly as Jamie and I decided it would be best to wait until he was back home safe. I mean, we all know how dangerous LA parties can get right? Especially with strangers and all.Though our bodies were half-asleep, we were fully woken up by a call to open the door as Shoushi had finally made it back. It was 4 AM and we were very tired. After making sure everything went alright we finally got some shut eye.

The sun came up and morning had arrived when we quickly woke and realized it was a bit late not to rush through our goodbyes. We had about an hour to help him pack everything up and get him to a friend's house where he would then get a ride to LAX. As saddening as it was, I was relieved the week was over. I was tired from going out almost everyday, morning to night.  I knew I would forever be grateful. I left a bit earlier than him since I had to catch a train home. The last few hugs were anything but awkward and it was lovely to hear him talk about how much fun he had one last time. I was happy that he got to explore this great big city and without a doubt would do it all over again if I could!

-Kaz

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