Hi I’m Amina! When I was 18-20, I performed as an idol in Japan. Later in my career, I joined a group slated for a major-label debut. However, when I first arrived in Japan, I did events in Akihabara. Here are a few anecdotes about events that happened to me or occurred as I was an idol in Akihabara!
CRASHING OUT IN AKIHABARA
Ten years ago, a young Japanese otaku guy made it his personal mission to ruin my idol performances. He’d show up at our shows in a small street gang of other Japanese otaku. Most of them had Japanese nettouyo or chigyuu physiognomy.
These smaller shows are one-coin shows, because they typically cost about 500 JPY(around $3 in today’s money, but closer to $6 then). Because the shows were so cheap and informal, any 22-year-old schmuck who had a bad day could come in and heckle girls for fun.
Akihabara, throw spitballs, and yell cruel chants while I was singing. I almost CRASHED OUT in Akihabara. I wanted to box this man so badly.
Last week, he slid into my Instagram DMs in Japanese: “Long time no see! You’re so beautiful!” We chatted a bit before he sent a photo, and I realized—it was the heckler. “When are you coming back to Japan? I’d love to catch up ^^”
I confronted him directly: “Why are you messaging me? You bullied me lol.”
His response? “Was I bullying? I was trying to get to know you.”
THE SHORTEST JOB I EVER HAD
I GOT FIRED 1 DAY AFTER WORKING AS A TOUR GUIDE IN AKIHABARA.
There’s a famous maid tour guide company in Akihabara that I fantasized about working at since I was in high school in Michigan. Although I got past the initial auditions for an actual Japanese maid cafe, at Home, it felt intimidating to me. Albeit I’d probably also be horrible at the job. As a fan of Akihabara subculture, something about sharing that passion for the district with others appealed to me.
After university, I met with the woman who owned this small maid tour guide company. She was a middle-aged, toothless battleaxe of a woman who immediately complained that my selfie game was mid. “If you work for me, you’ll need to start taking your selfies from a proper angle.” She was right. I had horrible selfies. I was also pretty shocked by her directness, which I found considerably rare with Tokyoites.
During this meeting, Satou, my hipster manager, attended as well to understand how this partnership could impact my idol work. When it was time to clink their beer glasses together and kanpai, she looked Satou sternly in the eye and held her glass up high. This was remarkable to me at the time because only a week prior, I saw another person, an idol event producer, hold his glass pretty low in deference to Satou. Japan has some weird social rules, like seating arrangements in a professional environment and holding your glass lower to defer to someone. We love a woman who doesn’t budge.
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