Hope for Japan

I know my purpose is to share the gospel here, but I couldn’t help from sharing my experience today about a simple haircut. Not the most profound topic, yet a memorable adventure for me. As I pick up the language, I was very nervous about how this would work out since most words associated with a haircut are not top priority words to learn in class.

Nevertheless, I had an hour break between my group Japanese lesson and my weekly one on one lesson. Surely that is enough time for a simple cut, so I thought. After a recommendation from my teacher, I went to the salon across the street from the school, especially since I got a 25% discount due to the prof’s referral. I just asked, “Discount shitte kurimasu ka?” (Would you be kind enough to give me a discount?)

It began with an initial shampoo and head massage. Not a bad start 🙂 They then placed several layers of towels and guards under the gown to block hair getting to my shirt or skin. This was the first time I’ve never had an itchy neck after a cut. Before the cut, I asked for some magazines to point out what I was looking for, as my Japanese precision is lacking in giving directions. Surprisingly, through his poor English and my modest efforts in Japanese, we actually had a decent conversation, as I shared about my past, being married to Miho for 5 years, and am a missionary. The cut took much longer than expected, since he didn’t use clippers but several varieties of scissors to really style my hair. No complaints here.

After the cut, he then proceeded to give a second shampoo and massage to get rid of the hair. Genius idea! Even the hair inside my ear was cleaned out. As they tried to have me relax, they placed this warm gel pack on my eyes, then gave a scalp massage, along with a neck massage. As if that wasn’t enough, they spent probably ten minutes blow drying and styling my hair. Needless to say, I was blown away by their service and attention to making the customer feel relaxed. However, what typically takes 15 minutes for me ended up taking nearly 1.5 hours! Though only across the street, I unfortunately was 40 minutes late for my Japanese lesson 😦

Maybe because I am one of the few white people visiting, but the owner took a photo of me and asked if it would be ok if he used it on the homepage of the salon’s website 🙂 Hope you enjoyed my experience, but please don’t be jealous. If you ever come visit us, you can enjoy the same pampering!