Hideaki Kobayashi, or GrowHair as he is also known, has become a celebrity of sorts due to his love of wearing sailor suit schoolgirl uniforms. A man whose courage to hit the streets on his terms has to be applauded. Plaudits too for the city around him. There’s no judgement. No mean-spirited comments. Just enjoyment at the spectacle of a middle-aged man living life in a manner that suits him, not society.
Having seen photos of him online numerous times, I’d often thought it’d be interesting to get a picture of him doing something more pedestrian than his usual pose. And as luck would have it, the first and only time I’ve ever seen him he was doing just that. Inadvertently creating a scene that’s boringly ordinary, and also wonderfully out of the ordinary.