Haircut in Japan (Marc)

Marc here.

My second story to tell you this 27th of September (which may not be your 27th of September) deals with getting my haircut. What you probably don't realize is that Japan is a notorious country for having butchered hair jobs that cost upwards of ¥4000 (about $36 American). Here's my experience:

I briskly walked out of the doctor's clinic, content for the time being with what I had received. Kim and I walked home, and on the way, she suggested I get a haircut. I was a little reluctant, since I didn't want a butcher to chop my hair to pieces. I changed my mind, deciding that I can only put it off for so long. We decided to visit a place that I saw by the train station.

So we walked the way there, taking about 7 minutes. We entered the store next to the sign, and I asked for confirmation that the cut was ¥1900 ($16 American). They paused, then told me that sign was for the place around the corner. Feeling a little embarassed, I asked what their price was. They responded with ¥3000, which was too much for me. I asked if it included a hair wash, and they told me it did not. I apologized and left.

We went around the corner, and I entered the shop. I looked a little confused, I'm sure, because there appeared to be slightly older woman and man both standing by the chair where you get your hair cut. A Japanese man was paying as we entered the store, and promptly left. The man ushered me quickly to the chair, and I sat down. He began spraying my hair with water, and then asked me what I wanted. I told him I wanted it shorter, but kind of the style I had at the time, just much shorter. He immediately began chopping my hair off. And make no mistake, he virtually was chopping it off! He was taking off nearly an inch in one cut at a time. I immediately began to worry, hearing all the stories about 5 minute cheapie haircuts that leave people's heads lopsided. After chopping for a couple minutes, he ruffled my hair a little and began to snip a little more. My hair still looked lopsided as he reached for the mirror. I panicked! 'Oh no, he's going to leave my hair this way!' He shows me the back of my head and asked if it was ok. He hadn't even touched the hair beneath my hair line! You know, all that scraggly stuff that needs to be buzzed. I told him if that got buzzed it would be ok (but it wasn't really ok). He nodded, then put the mirror away.

He reached for the brush and the lather, the old style of shaving. I promptly told him I wanted to keep my goatee, and he grunted out a 'yes' (this is all in Japanese, of course). He than begans to lather up the back of my head! He's going to use a blade and shave the hair in the back, not a trimmer! Interesting, I thought to myself. He then began to snip some more from my hair and perfect a few spots, taking care of my last worries. He grabbed the lather again and began lathering up my face. After that, he grabs a hot towel and puts it over my face, making me look like I was getting ready to rob a train. He then proceeded to ask Kim a question in Japanese, and I was unable to mention that she couldn't speak Japanese because my mouth was covered!

He removed the towel and began shaving my face, and I then told him that Kim doesn't understand Japanese because she isn't Japanese. He acknowledged that he figured that out. He then asked us about another foreigner, asking if we knew him. After a little bit of back-and-forth, we confirmed that he was indeed talking about Rob, the Canadian man who lives directly across from our house, about a 10 second walk away. Apparently, Rob goes to this guy as well. That was the highlight of the conversation, especially considering that the first 5 minutes were dead silence.

I then was instructed to bend over into the sink, and the lady washed my hair. She put several things in it, probably shampoo and conditioner. She then had me wash my face as well. The guy blow-dried my hair, put in some hair tonic, and then spiked the front of my hair a little. After that, it was all over.

When it was all said and done, I received a haircut, shave on the back of my neck, a regular shave, a hair washing, and hair tonic/gel stuff. The whole thing set me back only ¥1900, just as advertised. This guy is definitely a winner, and I plan to keep going back!

My first experience with a haircut in Japan was incredibly, dare I say it was the best haircut I've ever had. Try it sometime, if you get a chance!

Trip to the clinic (Marc)

Marc here. Well, I've got a story to tell for this blog. My trip to the doctor! It's an exciting story that I have to share with all of you.

I spoke to some of the teachers at the school, and they suggested I visit a clinic very close by. Mind you, I'm visiting only to get some medication for my acid reflux. So, I get all of the fancy words prepared to talk about my diseases, and I type them into my cellphone. So, I went to the clinic, and they were very kind to me. The nurses gave me the sheet of paper to fill out, and took my insurance card. I then began to fill it out, answering each question as I could. I pulled out my electronic dictionary, and apologized that I was taking so long. After clarifying that I didn't have any major illnesses and was not pregnant, I handed in the paper.

I was promptly handed a cup. The cup was a usual paper cup, with no top. She told me what to do with it, but I didn't fully understand. I could figure I knew what she wanted, since she pointed towards the toilet as she handed it to me. I clarified through the dictionary that she indeed wanted me to urinate in the cup; after all, I wasn't about to use gestures to clarify THIS request. She led me to the bathroom, and it went just fine.

Next I returned to the desk, where I was promptly whisked away into the room where they took my blood pressure. There were two hospital beds and 4 stools in front of them. People were sitting on two of the four stools, right next to where I was having my blood pressure taken. The lady responded that it was very good, and spoke in Japanese to Kim, who had no idea what she was saying. She told me to sit down on a little stool. I looked around, and noticed that everyone could see everyone else, even the guy who was lying on the bed next to us. It felt a bit uncomfortable, to be honest. The nurse spoke to Kim again, and I felt obliged to tell her that Kim is not Japanese and doesn't speak the language. She apologized, and we all laughed briefly. Kim returned to the main waiting room, and I waited on the little stool.

The doctor called people one by one, and all you had to do was walk around a small partition to see the doctor. Everything you said was easily heard by everyone else in the room, so hopefully what you have is not embarassing! The doctor was a little discouraged that my Japanese wasn't fluent, and he seemed confused by the request I gave him for the medication (the name was written in Japanese). I told him I wrote all of the information on my cellphone, but he promptly told me that it is not acceptable to have a cellphone on in a clinic. OOPS! That made things difficult. After a brief period of going back and forth trying to talk about my problem, he finally understood what I had told him all along: it's acid reflux! He asked me about a few procedures, and I told him I had all of those things done, and that the diagnosis was GERD (gastro-esophigal reflux disease, though I might have spelled it wrong). He gave me some medicine, and told me to use it for 14 days, and see if that solves the problem. I told him it would not solve the problem because I've had it for over 5 years and I need medicine daily. He seemed confused, and told me there is no medicine to treat GERD. I think he meant that there is no cure, which is true. I requested pills daily, but he refused and said I can contact him again in 14 days if I need more; I'm going to contact him, for sure, so why didn't he just give me the pills!?

Anyway, they told me it was finished and I quickly left. I noticed he had been looking at his watch during our discussion, and so I felt a little less than totally cared for. I went to the front desk, and they told me to sit down and wait. I was then called back up about 3 minutes later. She asked if I understood the directions for the medicine, and I said that I did. She then told me the price for this entire visit, including the medicine I was taking home: ¥1610. That's a little less than $14 American. Without my insurance, it would have cost me about $45 American. I was pleasantly surprised at how cheap the whole event was.

Did I mention that there was no appointment necessary? I made the decision to visit the doctor at about 3:30 PM, went to the doctor's office at about 5:00, was seen and got out by about 5:45. Other than the language confusion and the lack of privacy, it seemed to be a great experience. Try it sometime, if you get a chance.

Developments...

Life in Japan is changing. Fall is here, and the weather is cool. The infamous spiders are coming out in full bloom (that's a bad thing, by the way), and the students are changing into their winter uniforms (all the students here have to wear uniforms). Kim and I are getting more and more used to things. Kim is picking up additional work, tutoring a young girl in the residences near us, in addition to her classes on Thursdays. She's also doing informal tutoring with a Japanese woman every Friday morning. I'm keeping busy working on lessons and trying to improve my Japanese, which so far has consisted of studying over 200 Kanji characters in two weeks (not such a big thing when you realize I have previously studied most of them). This is Marc writing, if you haven't noticed!

We are getting more friendly with the people at KBF (Kobe Bible Fellowship). I also recently RSVP'ed for a luncheon at the Osaka American consulate. Maybe mingling with the people there will lead me in a new direction for a job later on in life (who knows, maybe I'll work at the consulate). Kim and I also plan on getting connected with a local church here in Kakogawa, especially me since they are predominately a Japanese congregation (KBF is international, with many Japanese, middle eastern, Indian, Australian, American, Canadian, and other kinds of people).

Kim's latest craze is trying to find little presents to give people for various occasions. Meanwhile, being cheap as usual, I am trying to persuade her to buy less, but she makes her own money so it's her choice!

We'll write again soon. I'm prodding Kim to write a few articles, so look for them soon!

Our new blog site, again...

Ok, I know. We've changed our blog website three times. Please don't give up! We're going to stick with this one, Lord willing. The other two were frustrating in terms of the amount of advertising they put on their pages, and even made it hard to tell what we wrote versus what was an advertisement.

Regardless, here we are! Please bookmark this site! In fact, if I could, I would include a little link here to click and bookmark the site. But I don't know how. Remember, we're located here: This Blog It doesn't matter if you capitalize it or not, but make sure you can get back here easily!

We'll try to port over the messages from the other blog so that everyone can see our old posts. We're include pictures as much as we can. I'll try to get ahold of a photo-hosting website so that we can create a convenient, extensive photo library for people to browse at their leisure, so you can see the glory of our new home and surrounding area.

If you're wondering, YES, we are experiencing culture shock. Although I have been here before, I didn't truly 'live' here the way I do now. Kim is taking it especially hard. It's a good experience for both of us no doubt, but it's a little difficult for us because we have to relate in very unusual ways to each other, and are put in situations we had never anticipated.

It's getting easier, though, over time. We are getting a rythym going, so that is helpful. Please e-mail us or post comments on this blog with your questions and thoughts, we'd really appreciate it! It means so much to have friends and family keep in touch with us and be actively interested in what is going on over here.

Talk to you soon!

Marc