I need a haircut, you need 'em all cut!

This has been the first weekend in at least two months that I did not have any plans. It was so nice being able to relax and SLEEP as much as I wanted. Don't worry though, the weekend was not a complete waste. During one of my Saturday classes a student mentioned that there was a firefly exhibition that was being held in Shintakashimadaira, the neighborhood I live in. It seems that Japan used to be inhabited by a large number of fireflies, but for some unknown reason they have started dying off and now they are far less common. The Japanese are quite fond of fireflies and for the slightly older members of the population the bugs represent a sort of nostalgia. I thought it would be fun to see the fireflies, so I asked my student for the specific location and last night I took the 5 minute walk from my apartment to the firefly sanctuary. Normally this breeding facility is only open to the public during the day, but for the last 3 days they have opened it up at night. First we walked down a little path and then we entered a big green house inhabited by hundreds of fireflies. It was really cool, but I felt quite lucky because back home in CT I've laid in fields that are out in the open with just as many of the little glowing bugs flying around me. Fireflies, yet another of many things I've always taken fore granted.

Today I went and got my first haircut in Japan. I know I waited a bit longer than I should have, but I had been putting it off for as long as possible because of all the Japanese haircut horror stories I'd heard about. It's not exactly that Japanese hair stylists are bad, it's just that they're good at what they know, and they do NOT know foreign hair. Unfortunately, my hair is the epitome of "foreign". Unlike all the lovely Japanese girls with thin, stick straight hair, my hair is freakishly thick and ridiculously curly. Add the summer humidity and there's also the infamous frizz that all curly haired people know and dread. Never the less, I felt that I could not put it off any longer. Of course, in addition to the dramatic hair differences, there's also the ever present language barrier. While I have been going to my Japanese lessons weekly for the last few months, my lessons have not yet included necessary haircutting vocabulary, so of course I headed for my number one cultural resource: Google. I looked up "just a trim" and found what I was looking for on japanforum.com in addition to instructions on how to indicate "this much" while showing with your thumb and index finger the amount of hair you want cut off. I wrote down the key phrases and then headed toward the several hair salons conveniently located directly behind the school I work at. I scanned the prices posted on the windows outside the shops and chose the one that looked like it might have the lowest prices (I couldn't be sure since I wasn't able to read all the Japanese next to the prices). Upon entering the shop I did my best to explain what I wanted via the phrases I'd jotted down and the universal hand scissor motion. The girl seemed to get the general gist of what I was saying and replied "cut-to cut-to?" so I nodded. She gave me a form to fill out, which I was miraculously able to complete with little difficulty, despite it being in all Japanese. The only thing I wasn't sure of was whether the section with the date kanji was asking for today's date or my birthday, and I was so pleased because I actually knew how to ask that question (Kore wa tanjobi ka kyo desuka? - Is this birthday or today?). Granted, my grammar was probably way off, but I got an answer (tanjobi - birthday) so that's all that really mattered. After waiting for just a minute or two, a guy came and brought me to have my hair washed. Not only did he put the drapey thing over me to keep my clothes from getting wet, but he also covered my legs with a nice blanket and put this soft cloth over my face to keep the glare of the light out of my eyes (at least I think that's what the cloth was for). After washing my hair and leading me over to the chair, a new guy arrived to do the actual cutting. I showed him with my fingers how much I wanted cut and he seemed to understand. While cutting my hair he asked, actually more like he insisted, that I would have my hair blow dried and straightened. I wasn't wild about this idea because it takes ages to straighten my hair, but since it was included in the cost and he seemed rather adamant about having it done, I agreed. As soon as he finished cutting, two new people came over and started blow drying my hair. Using the two person method was definitely a wise choice, because my hair does not dry quickly. They continued the two person routine as they started to straighten my hair and they would alternate, so all in all I think I had at least six different people work on my hair today. As I predicted, the straightening took forever, I'm surprised none of the stylists "accidentally" burned me for making them work with such terrible hair. In the end though, it came out looking very nice, and while the straightness won't last more than maybe half a day due to the humidity, now that it's trimmed my hair will curl better once I wash it. Overall, it was a far less overwhelming experience than I had expected and I feel that I definitely got my money's worth.