Haircuts!
We've now been in Japan over a month - for me and the dudes, that meant our hair was getting obnoxiously long and in dire need of trimming. As strange as it sounds, getting a haircut in Japan was always one of my larger fears of the move. I mean, I've had English-speaking hairstylists mess my hair up pretty bad. How can I expect a Japanese hairstylist to cut it well when I can't accurately explain what I want? Turns out, my fears were pretty overblown.
When we first started looking into hair salons in the area, we found a lot of ex-pats talking about places that have English speaking stylists. That is all well and good, but all of those places want the equivalent of 40-60 US dollars for a simple cut. When you need three people to get cut about once a month, that's more than a little steep.
During a previous trip to the Minatomirai area of Yokohama, we happened across a hair salon in one of the large shopping complexes in the area. This place looked exactly like a Great Clips/Supercuts type place that you would find in the U.S. The signs showed the price at $15 for an adult and $10 for kids. They didn't seem to speak English, but to save a lot of money we were ready to eschew that requirement.
So, last week, we headed for the haircutter. When we arrived, we were met with a sign-in sheet in Japanese. Thanks to my studying, I was able to add our names to the queue in Katakana (#humblebrag) and circle the appropriate Kanji detailing what each person needed (Male, Student, Child, etc...). Once this was done, we simply had to wait. The place was busy, but it had a large assortment of kids books the boys enjoyed perusing until it was their turn.
This place takes pride in their haircut times. They literally start a 10-minute timer when they begin a new cut and try their best to be completed when it dings. I LOVE THIS. In the US, you just never knew which Great Clips personality you would get. Would you get the person who rushes through your hair and lets you get out in a reasonable time (but no guarantee on the quality of cut)? Or the woman from Georgia who wants nothing more than to clip your hair over the course of 8 hours and discuss her daughter's dance recital the entire time. With this salon, there is no worry.
When our names were called (Miles was first), I was able to use enough broken Japanese（片言) to explain what I wanted. "Same style", "Please cut about an inch", "Shorter in the front" were some of the things I was able to explain. I also crammed Japanese haircut terminology while waiting for my turn. With some newfound knowledge, I was able to ask for them to use thinning scissors (すきばさみ) on the top and clippers (バリカン) on the sides and back.
The kids were champs. They sat still the whole time and everybody came out happy. I'm glad we can now check off another box on the things we don't need to worry about in Japan list. At least the guys can, Elsa has way more complicated girl hair! But that's for her to worry about!
