The Glamorous Life of a Model...

When we arrived at Narita Airport, we had a few errands to run, including getting my phone a data-only SIM and grabbing food for Ashlynn in case she had to go straight to work. While wandering the airport, a television crew interviewed us for a show about traveling to Japan. No idea if the footage will ever air, but hope it's a good sign of things to come. 

We were instructed to take a bus to the Tokyo City Air Terminal where someone from IMAGE Models, Ashlynn's Japanese modeling agency, would meet us and drive us to the agency. It was much nicer than we'd expected after watching a documentary on the shady side of modeling in Japan. Imagine how thrilled I was when we were greeted by Ashlynn's picture on the wall (here's her portfolio).

After filling out some paperwork, we were dropped off at our apartment so Ashlynn could take a shower. She was picked up at 3:30 p.m. (which was just a first day courtesy as all other days she'll need to walk about 10 minutes to the agency) and didn't get back to the office until 9:30 p.m. Turns out that was actually a short day! Yesterday, she was at the agency at 2 p.m. and didn't get back until nearly 11 p.m. At least she got to sleep in.

Basically a typical day consists of sitting in a van with around six other models (all the other girls are either Scandinavian or Russian) and going to possible jobs--anywhere from eight to ten "castings" per day. Most are for catalogs or websites, but yesterday she went to two magazines. This morning was like something out of America's Next Top Model. She had an audition for a TV commercial for coffee. She was supposed to act like a Bond Girl, throwing her arm around James Bond, who was "at least 30," and act sexy while handing him a cup of coffee. She said it was hilarious as she managed to choke him and spill on him (luckily the cup was filled with water). Can't imagine that she'll be getting that job! In fact, no idea if she'll be getting any jobs as apparently there are too many models and not enough jobs--we'll just have to wait and see.