Inking Osaka...How I Spent My Summer Vacation

By Dave Waugh

7/08/02 Brady and I finish packing our stuff at the apartment and Chopstick Tattoo. We give a hardy thanks to Sato for all his help. Yasuo made him stay an extra 10 days...but he's now on his way back to his hometown to open up his own private tattoo studio and get his apartment together. We go walking around to get last minute souvenirs and sweat our balls off...still damn hot over here. We finish off the night by seeing a movie, MIB 2. Hmmmm....the Japanese don't seem to get the American humor. Didn't help I guess that it wasn't that funny. Hands, knee and ankle are still stingy from getting tattooed, as we get our last looks at downtown Osaka. Been here 2 weeks, but I think...I know...I could stay longer. I feel like I've only scratched the surface of this incredible country. So much yet to do and see...can't wait to come back! 12-hour flight ahead of us tomorrow. Great. But as we are about to leave I can't help but think back about "HOW I SPENT MY SUMMER VACATION".

6/25/02 Up at 7 am on the 24th. Packed like crazy. All day spent doing stuff...Get to Brady Duncan's house at 11 pm. Very anxious all day, so I'm not tired. Stayed up till about 4 am or so then dozed off...up again by 5 am, awakened by our ride to the airport, Tony. Breeze through check-in, but now there's a major problem. Our flight was supposed to leave by 9:25 am, cancelled. No plane, no connecting flight. We're screwed...our Japanese contact is supposed to meet us at a certain time in Japan, if the flight is changed...? Now I'm really anxious on 1 hour sleep! But "My Sharona" saves us slightly...as others are freaking out, our NW Airlines chick named Sharona books us new itinerary. Leave BWI at 12:50 pm, arrive Detroit 2:24 pm, leave Detroit for different airport in Tokyo Japan (instead of Osaka) where we have to find our bags, grab them, catch shuttle across town to another airport to fly into Osaka...so we arrive at 10:15 pm instead of 3:05 pm. We'll see...we call Phil at Super 88 Tattoo and he hopefully straightens things out.

6/25/02 (Japan time) Flight to Tokyo was long, managed to get some sleep. There was a blind man sitting behind me, bumping my head constantly and even felt me up once by mistake trying to find his seat. Heh heh. We finally get to Osaka at 10:15 pm, but no one is there to greet us! Before we fully panic, 2 tattooed guys walk up to us. Gen, a tattooer from Tokyo, and our best new friend Sato! Sato is a friend of Yasuo's, the owner of Chopstick Tattoo where we will be working. Apparently, Yasuo's car broke down on the way to get us, so we take the train to Osaka. Yasuo greets us at the shop, first thing he does is take us to a bar and gets us fed and drunk. I like Japan already. Sato is the only one here who speaks English in our group, so we will be sticking pretty close to him.

6/26/02 3:00 am we go to our new home for the next 2 weeks, a small apartment supplied by Yasuo for visiting guest artists. 2 beds, small shower and kitchen...did I mention it's small? Also comes equipped with a TV and VCR, complete with some blurred out Japanese porn. Seems they aren't allowed to show that stuff over here. Chopstick Tattoo is a great looking place, and Yasuo is very cool. About 6 individual booths, small lobby area, no flash, though. Allot of original artwork hangs on all the available wall space. We are at Chopstick 1; there are 2 more Chopstick Tattoos across town. We get issued cell phones for the duration; I think everyone in Japan has one. In the back lounge area are TONS of reference books, and for some reason a bunch of pictures of Freddie Mercury? Also, the back office has an electronic drum kit, guitars and basses! Me and Brady play music for like an hour until they are all completely annoyed...I think they think we're a bit nuts.

6/27/02 On route to Nara to visit a temple, we stop at a national park. The park is great and we can feed deer there that are roaming free everywhere. Yasuo holds the wafer out, and bows in front of the deer, and the deer bows back, then gets fed. Now the deer follow us everywhere till we run outta wafers…they do the same to all the school kids there too. We see allot of Coi ponds with the largest and most beautiful fish I've ever seen. The second stop in the Todaiji Temple of Nara. We first enter what we think is the temple, but is actually the entranceway. The real temple is straight on through. Before entering, you light a small stick of incense (after a small monetary donation) for good luck. "Good head" Sato calls it. On either side of the actual entrance stand 2 enormous wooden statues! These are the 2 guardians of the temple, "Kongorikishi". Incredible to look at, 25 ft. tall and very imposing! But that's just the teaser to what is actually inside… Carvings and engravings on everything are spectacularly detailed. So much to look at- we are already regretting not bringing a video camera- we enter the main temple and are blown away. Inside sits the largest Buddha I have ever seen. He's like over 50 ft. tall??? I might be as tall as one of his hands…simply stunning. He's sitting on a huge lotus with petals that have images engraved on them. He's flanked by 2 smaller (but still huge) Bodhisattva. Statues all over the place. Almost too much to take in. Beautiful. Third stop is the Nara National Museum. Allot like the Smithsonian, but the works here are dated from the 8th century…statues, Buddhas, scrolls, monks, tablets, masks, silks…words can't describe. Nice first day out!

6/28/02 awake at 5:30 am…jetlag sucks. Get to the shop at noon, and Brady's first appointment is already there. Brady's first tattoo in Japan? A half-sleeve/chest panel Japanese dragon. My first appt. cancelled; so Yasuo takes me toy shopping! Whoo hoo! This is what I have been waiting for…! We hit a bunch of small shops, and a Toys-R-Us. (TRU's suck in Japan, too) score some decent finds. Back at 6 pm for my first tattoo in a week. Big mermaid. Comes out nice, the yen is allot stronger than the dollar here. Yasuo treats us to dinner, again, and we meet the whole Chopstick crew. Chopstick 1's tattooers are: Nissaco, Ton and Gotch. Chopstick 2: Samon and Gakkin, and Chopstick 3: Kozuru and Wataru. Some of these guys speak English (I even tattooed Kozuru at a US convention once) and are pretty funny. Should be an entertaining 2 weeks…Brady and I agree on getting "Osaka" tattoos this trip.

6/29/02 continued (evening)- We drive around Dotonbori (main street) section of Osaka, awesome building structures, kinda reminiscent of Times Square in NYC, but more of a random building placement. Crazy neon, lots of animals on buildings. Big crabs, octopus, and even dragons weaving in and out of the walls. (they think it's cheesy and laugh) We snap allot of photos-Osaka at night ROCKS! We end the night by making a wish at a small temple. We throw coins into the Buddha's lap, take a ladle and toss water on his moss-covered body, bow head and make a wish. These guys all have respect for the ancient religious stuff here. Always rubbing Buddha for luck whenever we encounter one. Everybody seems to be that way here…not a bad way to be I guess.

6/30/02 We are getting a little more sleep each night, adjusting. Walking allot, watching Japanese TV in the morning. See a show where contestants are wearing soccer ball hats with spikes on top. They run, jump off a trampoline and try to pop a hanging balloon, all to the music of Van Halen's "Jump". Uhh….kinda weird. Weirder even, go to a "7-11" type store, and you can buy dried squid and octopus packs, Sake in a juice box and crackers that have shrimp flavor. Not weird to them, though. Tattoo in the day, dinner again at night. Brady and I buy this time, but it was a fight to make them let us! Adjusting to the food too…on the menu tonight: barbequed chicken skin, beef tongue, mini eggs, goat hoof, and about 15 different plates of stuff like veggies, peas, cabbage, hotdogs, beef, chicken, on and on…topped off by a strange little thing on a skewer. Looked a little odd, but the motto here is "don't ask…just eat". Can't make it out…then Brady points out the split open rib cage, the curled over neck and head. Then Gotch points and says, "Eyeball." It's a little crispy fried sparrow. Head and all. Nice. Down it goes, followed by a cold swig of beer.

7/02/02 Off today to go to Kyoto to see more temples. We stop off first at the shop and Ton says "1000 Buddhas." Didn't know what he meant till we arrived…(Yasuo's Chopstick van breaks down en route…2 vehicles bite the dust in 1 week!) Hit the Toji Temple first, and see Japans largest Pagoda, 5 stories tall. Then cab it over to Sanjusangen-do Temple and now we know what Ton meant. Unbelievable…the hall of 1000 Buddhas. Each Buddha is full size, almost 6ft. tall. They all have like 40 arms, and each hand is holding a different object. 10 rows deep, 100 across. Breathtaking! Each is covered in a shiny gold leaf, and in front of them stands the 28 Guards. Each a wooden statue, highly detailed, and flanked by the Thunder and Wind God statues. In the center of the whole shebang is the main guy: Kannon. This Buddha is shiny gold and over 20 feet high; his body is like 11 ft. tall. Seeing this stuff in person is just mind-boggling…a never-ending journey through reference material! Each temple has it's own unique feel and flavor, not to mention individuality.

7/04/02 Happy Independence Day! This is the first day the "novelty" has worn off, I think. We are a little homesick. An "American" taco stand down the road from Chopstick is saving our stomachs. Tattooing today, doing some regular old walk-in style stuff. Hoping this trip jump-starts some drawing urges, definitely inspiring to say the least. Learn today that Nissaco is Ton's apprentice. Or, Ton is his "master" as they call it. Same kind of rules apply to the student/teacher deal as in the US, except it's a little more personal over here. Nissaco orders Ton's lunch, calls to wake him in the morning, gets all artwork approved by Ton, make needles, etc. No house cleaning, though…

7/05/02 Woke up early with a cough and congestion, and Sato takes me to get medicine. Man, what would we do without this guy? He so desperately wants to go home, but Yasuo wants him to stay. So he stays out of friendship. I ask him if he's having fun, and he replies "sort of" with a smile. I tattoo Kozuru today, and Brady trades tattoos with Gotch. I do a great Japanese toy theme tattoo on his inner thigh, and it goes in like buttah! Brady gets a Japanese ghost from Gotch on his upper thigh, and he tattoos 2 bugs ("Gotch roaches") on Gotchies shins/ankles. Japanese pizza for dinner- instead of pepperoni, it's covered in mini hot dogs. Brady digs into what he thinks is a chicken pot pie/lasagna thing, but it's all chicken fat, gristle and bones. Yummy. He makes the funny observation that they like to eat all the parts of the chicken we throw away. I make my own observations too…the language barrier isn't really that big of a deal here like I thought it would be. Stuff is the same no matter where you go. Example: I had my first pass-out victim today…I didn't need to speak Japanese to see that he was fading out while getting tattooed. That "vacant eyes" look is universal. Also, the other night we were cruising around in the new van and got gas. As we try to pull out, the attendant starts chatting it up with Yasuo. Another friend, we think? Yap yap yap (the attendant wont stop talking) until he finally pulls up his sleeve…ok. Got it now. Even though they are speaking Japanese and there's the language barrier, Brady and I figure out what's going on…"how much for a tattoo this size…?" Funny to see no matter where you go, things still remain the same!

7/06/02 Dinner tonight was another adventure. Got the black tooth grin going on during one course- squid with noodles. The noodles were black from the squid ink, everyone eating and grinning with their teeth and tongue all black. Drank plenty of beers to wash it down, then (being as we are drunk now) head back down to Chopstick and convince Yasuo and Sato to tattoo us! Yasuo is a little nervous, since he runs 3 tattoo shops, he hasn't really tattooed in 3 years. He makes a few jokes and laughs nervously, but breezes right through it. Brady and I both get the kanji for "Osaka" from him. Now it's Sato's turn. To say he's a little nervous is an understatement! He's a little shaky, but it's all good. He's scared cuz all the Chopstick guys are hovering over him cracking jokes and watching, but eventually the "Japan" kanji is also applied to our skins. Do drinking and tattooing make good company…? In Japan they do!

7/07/02 Do 2 tattoos today and then we are done for this trip except for getting tattooed ourselves one more time. Brady and I want Ton to tattoo us with the Sumi ink. It's the ink that the old masters use, and still do. It comes in a block, and it's very expensive. Ton prepares it: 2 small caps of H20 into the mixing tray, then approx. 15 minutes of rubbing the block into it to mix the ink. Ton says it has to be a kind of creamy consistency, so back and forth it goes. Brady goes first, wants a kanji that means something to the effect of "loud reverberating sound" (he plays guitar) and he gets it right on the breadbasket. Ouch. He wants it tattooed like brushstrokes, so Ton dips a brush right into the sumi (now poured into an ink cap) and paints it onto his chest. Ton goes to work, starting with a shader, and it goes in smooth. Relatively painless says Brady, Ton has the magic touch. Good thing considering where I want mine… My idea is almost the same, 2 bonge (similar to kanji) on the web of my hands, with 2 Buddha eyes on my thumbs. I've been inspired by all the beautiful sites, so I may as well take home a permanent reminder. I'm a little nervous about finally getting my hands tattooed, but might as well go for it. You only go around once, may as well look good on the trip. Ton starts with the bonge symbol on my hand, and I'll be damned if Brady wasn't right. A little stingy, but virtually painless. Onto the thumbs now…yeooow! I take it back. That hurts like a motherf*%ker! But, it's over as quick as it started. On the left is "Ban", (pronounced bon- the god when he's happy) "Dainchi Niyorai", and on the right "Can", (pronounced con- the god when he's angry) "Fudomeyo". They look great, and a fantastic reminder on one of the best trips I've ever taken. Our last dinner out with all the Chopstick crew, and a few more friends, and we hit a great restaurant that has a karaoke machine in our room! What a better way to end the trip…again drunk as skunks, Brady and I fire up the machine and begin to sing… now these guys know we're crazy. We start changing all the lyrics around and eventually the others join in. I think they're all gonna remember us as much as we will them. "When can we come back??" we ask…