Sanpatsu

I finally broke down and got a haircut in Japan today. I went to this small, family owned barber shop on my street just because I walk by it almost every day. "Toyoda" and his family live above the barber shop, and I managed to see everyone in the family today while I was there. First, grandma preps me in the chair and powders my neck and gives me some coffee, all without even asking me anything. After that, Dad (labeled on his business card as "artistic designer") cut my hair after I showed him some photos of how it used to look. I tried describing to him that I wanted it shorter in certain areas and longer in others, but I think he kind of had his own idea of how I was going to look because he didn't really pay much attention to it. He was really funny, though, and tried to make small talk with me about the Nadeshiko soccer team's game against the USA, or how different areas of Japan pronounce things differently.

The introduction continued when the junior high daughter and her friends came in to ask Dad for money, which he obliged. He introduced me to them, and they giggled and laughed as they second-guessed their English pronunciation skills. After the haircut, Mom came over to give me my shampooing and straight-razor touch-ups. First, she massaged my entire face, neck, and head for about five minutes, then surrounded my head in a hot towel to open up my pores. I was amazed at how artistically everything was done during both the haircut and the grooming; after the shampooing and rinsing, she used 4 separate clean-white towels to gently blot all the water from my hair and face. Then, Toyoda came over to give me a 10 minute hair-brushing  and blow-drying so much that every follicle of hair managed to lay in the right place for his design.

I felt bad only spending $25 on such a stellar, 80-minute haircut, so I decided to show them the American practice of tipping and gave them an extra 500 yen. In the end, I feel I look a little like Yu Yu Hakusho, an Anime character with extremely symmetrical hair, but it was a cool experience nonetheless.

I promise you, each hair is equidistant from every adjacent hair.  Thank you, Japanese Perfectionism.