Chopping it all off

So I had my first hair salon experience in Tokyo today. It was a really nice change from the typical American salons, even the high end ones. I decided to just go to a salon I passed by in Harajuku, on a whim. I spotted it while doing some shopping and the name was catchy so I decided to go on my way back to the train. It was called Hair Oasis, cant go wrong with that I suppose. So I walked in and immediately they started to speak to me in Japanese and I told them I only spoke English. They looked confused and asked around and we were able to come to an agreement on price after telling them I wanted a cut and color. They took my jacket, bags and all and sat me down for a consult. First we went over hair color and then my stylist brought over a few hair style mags. After many attempts to explain what I wanted, we finally found a picture of it. I told him I wanted something shoulder length, something simple and layered from the inside because I have a lot of hair. Somehow that translated to him as layered only in the back and no layers on the right or left side... derr ya... so we went on and on for about 20-30 minutes trying to work it out. After that was taken care of, it was time for a wash. They meticulously put 3-4 layers of towels and what not around me so my clothes wouldn't get wet. Not to mention, they also put this tissue water resistant tissue on my face which I thought was great! You don't have the awkwardness of smelling someones breath as they wash your hair. Most of the guys in the salon were males, except for one stylist. The rest of the experience is pretty self explanatory but halfway through the cut, one of the assistant stylists came over to ask what I wanted to drink. He was 22 and apparently today was his birthday, hah. His English was horrible but I still give him credit for trying to make conversation. As he was helping color my hair, he started to talk more along with my stylist. You can find out a lot in a little time ya know... but what I found most interesting was that he said, "I love you! I want you!" At first i was like uhh but then realized that he probably just really wants to learn English and hasn't had too many encounters with foreigners. When I told them I was from New York, they were all excited to ask about NY and things like that... I guess in retrospect, we're pretty lucky that we're from such an awesome city. Anyway, heres the result of the miscommunication and all the stuff that is lost in translation...

Things are getting to be a lot better now. I'm starting to figure out my weekly routine. Now that I have Japanese lessons weekly, I feel more motivated to wake up earlier and head to a nearby Starbucks to study before work. Once I start waking up earlier, I will have more time to run errands and even go for a jog in the AM. What I find funny is that all of us teachers are so sucked into these drama series and we're more addicted now than we were back home. Everyone is watching Heroes and 24. I still haven't gotten into it yet but I know I'm watching a lot more TV now than when I was home. I blame the slingbox.

Tomorrow, a bunch of us teachers are going to a live sumo match, will update more about that in a few days probably.