Tokyo Afro

“Workin’ at the car wash, yeah….“

Well, I’m not really sure that these guys worked at a car wash. I don’t remember actually seeing any place to wash a car while I was in Tokyo. Maybe they were window washers… or office cleaners. Maybe they worked at a parking garage. I guess I’ll never know.

What I do know is that one of the dudes rocked a world class ‘fro and that they both wore matching blue uniforms and stuffed their thigh pockets with mysterious spray bottles and cleaning implements.

I really should have tried to hang out with them.

But, unfortunately, we were only passing by on our way to the sprawling Shinjuku subway station. A place where I nearly got lost on several occasions — thank you Helen and Marina, for saving me. Wikipedia claims it’s the busiest train station in the world; nearly three and a half million people pass through its doors every day.

Tokyo seemed so much bigger than New York.

Getting back to the subject of afros, there is definitely a segment of the Japanese population that is enamored of all things African American. I remember seeing some strange afro-related items while I was there. Things like “the AFRO JAPAN Funky Afro Phone Display Cleaner as Cell Phone Strap” (Legalize it!), and the much-celebrated “Afro Ken” (get it? Afri-can), a cute toy dog sporting a stylish, rainbow-colored ‘fro.

There’s even a manga series called Afro Samurai. It was adapted for television and ran on the Spike network here in the U.S. Samuel Jackson provided the voice for the title character, natch.

I hear there’s a chance it will be made into a live action feature film.

May god have mercy on our nappy-headed souls.