Winter break time. As the saying goes, when the cat is away, the mouse is alone. That’s the current state of me and these three pals of mine as we sit at Ryu’s place having lunch.
We didn’t have any plans on what we’ll do during this break, and obviously we’re bored off our butts. The restaurant is empty, and the food we’re having is pretty made on the fly.
“Does any of you know if anything’s worth happening?” Akashi starts the brainstorm.
All of us scramble on our phones for an answer, and I’m not getting a lot.
“There’s going to be a match for the Ryuo title betw-”
“Come on, Ryu! We are not going to go out on our way to watch a couple of guys play shogi all day. Two days.” Akashi almost stood from his seat. “The only other person who’ll join you is Jun.”
For one, he might be right. “Do you have any suggestion, Mister Can’t Stay Still?” I ask.
“Let’s go downtown!”
“Downtown? Do you know how much work it will take if those scenes get animated?”
“Who cares about that, when was the last time we went downtown?”
“Okay, okay. What are we going to do there?”
“We’re going to those cool places with the shops and all, what else?”
“Anything else gonna happen?”
“Maybe some cosplay?”
“Somewhere in those parts of Tokyo there’s always a bunch of guys in a costume.” Yu comments. “And with Jun carrying his head we’ll fit right in!”
“
“You do want to give the animators a hard time. Here’s a question, though, we’re going to spend quite a bit there.”
“Don’t worry your removable head about that, Jun.” Yusei intervenes. “We’ll be fine.”
“Alright, are we going after this?”
“You betcha. Get your car ready.”
“Where am I gonna park?”
“That’s your problem.”
—–
And after an impromptu walk to my place and impromptu drive, search and park, we’re officially downtown. You’d know it’s downtown from the people walking around and the other people taking pictures of people walking around. The sun hasn’t even set.
“Where do we go first?” I ask them.
“Let’s check the shops here and there, that’s a good waste of time.” Yu suggests, we all agree and start looking for somewhere to buy.
First up is a toy store, full of figurines and anime memorabilia from floor to ceiling. We didn’t spend too much time on any one item or else we’ll be here all day.
“Have you decided on what to buy yet?” I ask my pals.
“Nah, these things are too steep for me.” Yu answers me first.
“Those are the figurines, obviously they’ll cost a fortune.”
“Are you buying anything?”
“Just these keychains. One for me and one of Kasumi.”
“Not a figurine?”
“I’m buying something for my girlfriend, not a girlfriend.”
“That’s a bit harsh, man.”
“Fine, I just don’t get the obsession over those things.” I shrug. “Will you buy anything?”
“I dunno, man, there’s a lot of stuff I want.”
“Whatever works for you, maybe the cheapest.”
“But the cheapest is not to buy anything.”
“You’re getting some tips from me, huh?”
“I’ll get this cool cutlery set. It’s got my favorite characters on it.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Yu looks at some figurines again, then back to me. “Speaking of plan…”
We walk to the cashier once we finally decided on what to buy. After all the purchases Yu gets a bit clever.
“Do you have anything to recommend for this guy?” He points to me.
The cashier looks at me from head to toe. “I haven’t seen this guy before, why do you ask?”
“I’m wondering you have spare parts for him.”
“Spare… parts?”
I’m going to have to ride along. “Yeah, I do want to get something new for me here.” I yank my head off. The cashier’s surprise is obvious.
“And he wants a new set of arms…” Yu takes out my forearm for emphasis.
“Wh- wait, what?” The cashier recovers a bit. “That’s pretty cool, but we don’t have any here, try the shop over there.”
—–
We leave that store laughing, after a ton of explaining. That was fun. Next up is that store mentioned earlier.
No wonder, it’s a robotics shop. Unlike the previous store, we can’t find anything we fancy or afford, not even Akashi. Like the previous store, we can do the same gag as before.
In a moment of forgetting we are professionals we ask the guy for parts for me, and after I pop my head off, the guy by the counter is astounded.
“Wow, that’s amazing! Can I check that out?”
I reluctantly hand my head over, and after a bit of prodding, the gig is up, in the connecting end of my head is flesh covered with skin.
“No, that can’t be…” He gives my head back. “We don’t have anything for him, he’s human, that’s way more awesome!”
“Thanks, I appreciate it.” I smile while reattaching my head.
“Actually, you can show that off at a cosplay, people love special effects in real life.”
“I’ll note that, thanks.”
“He doesn’t need any reminding,” Akashi interrupts. “he carries his head whenever he feels like it. It’s a miracle he’s with us mind, body and soul.”
“I don’t get pulled apart that often, now.” I turn to the cashier. “Are there any cons nearby?”
“None today, but this is the part of Tokyo tourists expect Tokyo to be, I bet that corner over there has a bunch of people in costume.”
“What are we waiting for?!” Akashi’s eyes are burning more red than usual. “Let’s go!”
—–
So Akashi bolted out of the store, and I had to take the calling card the storeowner handed out before following the rest of my gang who’re stopping in the middle of a square.
The sun is hidden by a lot of clouds, there are people taking pictures here and there. And if there are simple people doing a photoshoot, there are also the outliers.
There are just a few of them right now, probably store promoters. We head to another street of stores and into a restaurant with igo and shogi sets set up. Just in time for dinner.
We’ve played some games over kastudon among other stuff we ordered. We’re not trying to outdo each other, so the games are here and there, and my amateur is showing in these games.
“They say if you play chess you’ll get some idea on shogi play.” Ryu comments. “Looks like that isn’t always the case.”
“Give me a break.” I laugh. “Like you’re the one to talk. We’re no pros in these games.”
“How the heck did you get an interest in chess but not these two?”
“I played chess first, and back there, shogi was unheard of.” We reset the board as I speak. “I think my parents had to search thrift stores to buy me a set, by then I was playing chess games with strangers on the street.”
“I see.” Ryu asks for more tea, and over at the other table, Yu and Akashi argue over igo legalities.
“That doesn’t count!” Yu contends over a patch of territory. “Hey, you two, what do you think?”
We check the position, and with his adjudication Ryu decided it’s Akashi’s points. Knowing his authority, Yu accepts it and Akashi wins by a narrow margin.
Meals and games finished, we go out and finally the scene looks more like what the tourists want.
—–
So more people are hanging out at the park now that the lights on the trees are flickering and it the city looks more like Tokyo. The tourists seem to enjoy themselves from what I can see, depends on the animation.
I wait for people not to notice before I take my head off, with the three pretty much surrounding me as we walk. I’m already getting some attention before I get to the park. It’s nice that I’m still an unusual sight after all these years of being that guy with the removable head in my corner of the city.
“I’m seeing something, I think it’s anime.” Yu points to flickering lights at ground level similar to those on the trees. It’s the flash of cameras pointing at a cosplayer.
We slowly walk to a nearby bench and bit by bit the cameras start facing us. We’re not even in anything flashy, I’m just carrying my own head. I know I sound like I have no idea why this is happening, but I expected some attention. 
What I don’t expect is the next thing I’ll hear. Amid the buzz generated by my unusual posture, I hear a shout toward my direction, “Sensei!”
We all turn at the same time, who the heck was that? “Kyota?” is all we squeak out, Ryu trailing the last “-ro” on his name. In these situations we expect Keisuke getting these pictures, but Kyotaro?
“You’re here, too? You sure know how to steal the spotlight, Kakuji-sensei.” He walks to us while I quietly reattach my head.
“Can’t we have some fun from time to time?” Yu replies. “Are the other two with you?”
“Yeah, but they’re not here.” The flashes have petered out and muffled conversation replaces it.
“Are they dressed up like you are?”
“No, I’m the only one in this, Keisuke got sick and lent me this thing he’s supposed to wear.”
“Wait, you’re taking his place here?” I ask, connecting the obvious dots.
Conveniently, someone shouted from behind us. “What’s the hold up?! Hey, can’t you see we’re in the middle of something here?” The stranger gets close to us. “Yamaguchi, you should be on your spot, who are these people?”
“Sir,” I speak up. “We’re Yamaguchi’s teachers, I understand he’s taking the place of Keisuke Sato?” The stranger looks a couple of years older than me, wearing a black shirt and carrying a clipboard.
“Yes, we’re filming a promotional video for our client. We’re about to start soon, then you came.” He raises his arms. “Gosh! Now we have to do the whole thing again. You three stay on that side, and you keep your head on.”
We march on to  the side close to the director’s chair. Everyone gets into place and the shoot begins. After the first few takes Kyotaro approaches the director and whispers something to him. The director looks at us and signals that we approach him.
“Yamaguchi asked me if I could put you three in an ad. I don’t want to say no to him, I owe Sato a favor by taking him for these shoots.” He tells us, scribbling like mad on his clipboard.
“I understand.” is my response. “He is my student, well, our student, we’ll give it to him.”
“Will we get paid-” Akashi gets an elbow to the stomach for that.
“What do you want us to do?” I continue.
“I’ll tell the team, come.” We are lead to a nearby cafe, where the film crew are making a rations tent out of the place.
“Team, we’re going to tape another commercial, and we’ll have to do it on the spot.” Every eye in the cafe looks at us. “These are Yamaguchi’s teachers, and he wants them to be part of it.”
“Really?” Someone blurts out. “We’ll write something for these three relative nobodies?”
“And this one in green has something weird with his head.”
Now I’m an intriguing figure, perfect. “Me?”
“Yeah, you. What’s your name?”
“Jun Kakuji.”
“Show them that head thing.”
“Okay.” Here goes. I put my hands on my head and take it off, holding it around my arm to prove the point.
That does it, I get the surprise of everyone who hasn’t seen me do that over a hundred times.
After putting my head back on I try to snap them out of it. “Hey, have you thought of anything yet?”
A guy behind a laptop quips, “This happened in such short notice, give us some time to think, and recover.” Everyone is pretty much trying to get an idea going.
“I got it!” Someone from the same table cries out. She points at a store window. “We’ll do it there!”
“That clothing store?” Yu turns around. “Is that one of your branches?”
“No. We’re selling electronics with this ad, but hear me out. What if…”
Everyone likes the idea, which while cliche, is perfectly doable with me. Things get moving, from cameras changing place to makeup getting to my face, and my neck for good measure.
There’s no dialogue so after a few stumbles we get the hang of what we should do. Here’s how it goes:
——
The ad starts with Kyotaro approaching a storefront window, looking at a mannequin’s outfit. He takes a photo with his cellphone and magically with the help of camera angles it comes alive and is played by me.
I wave to him and he points at his head. I look around to find it and the camera shows an empty corner. Kyota sees someone leaving the store with a pile of boxes (Yu), and we chase him. Yu turns around to see this kid and a headless guy chasing him, he bolts faster.
The scene gathers attention, with people taking out their phones to snap a scene. Eventually we get to stop Yu and retrieve my head in the top box. Kyota looks at me with wonder and we rush back to the store where the storekeeper and the one customer there look at us then at the spot where a mannequin used to be. The ad concludes with the two of us waving at the storefront now buy our stuff.
—–
That’s the gist of what we did, the rest is in post. In the warm interior of the cafe we watch what is practically the finished product. Everyone applauds afterward, the crew congratulating everyone involved. What started out as three guys wasting time in the city is now an unexpected opportunity to be on screen. Our dinner’s similar for the crew’s, pasta and coffee from the cafe.
“That’s a lot of spaghetti,” One cameraman points at my plate. “Uh, do you get that sort of question a lot?”
“Which one? I always get questions about me.”
“Can you still eat, even with your…?”
“Yeah. I still eat fine.”
“Do you have to put your head on?”
“Much easier that way.” I smile as I return to my friends. They’re talking to another crew member about their respective jobs.
“…he sounds like a fun guy. Oh, there he is.” Yu says as I sit down on a chair.
“What are you guys talking about?”
“Some people they’ve worked with, that’s always fun.”
“Gossiping, huh?”
“They know things we don’t know, Jun, they’re fun things to listen to.”
“I’m sure I can get by without hearing them, yet.”
“But none of these match someone like you.” The crew member butts in. ”It’s not common seeing someone with a removable head.”
“I know.”
“Did you do anything before being a teacher?”
“Yeah, I did some odd jobs, but I did street magic during college.”
“That’s cool. I just can’t imagine someone with that ability just be a teacher, unless that’s what you really wanted.”
“True, but I don’t want to go round town showing off all the time.”
“You’re doing that by your own, Jun.” Yu retorts. “Carrying your head like it’s a ball, losing a limb for some reason, it’s a miracle you’re not yet viral.”
“I guess it is.”
“Don’t knock it off,” The crewmate says. “I haven’t even heard of you until now, that’s a feat.”
—–
The rest of the conversation goes back to what had happened during our work. Kyotaro’s snapping picture after picture of us and everyone involved. We do get something out of it, a decent amount of cash and vouchers. It’s been a great day, as all unplanned days go.
Next day we four are back again at Ryu’s place, this time less bored than yesterday. My phone rings and it’s a message from Keisuke.
“Is that Keisuke?” Akashi tries to get a look at the screen. “How is he?”
“He’s doing better now, look at this picture of him with Kyota.”
“Hey, matching outfits! Wait a minute, I think there’s more to the message.”
We read the whole thing. “Wait…” I mumble. 
“We must’ve done a great job, eh? Seriously, what’s the matter?”
“What? A bit role?”
-END