Samuri Barbers

Some of you may know that when I was 10 years old I had a very terrible accident at the barber shop. The lady was Chinese and didn't speak English well. And I wasn't my outspoken person that I am now...needless to say, my head was buzzed.

This was my second adventure in Japan (the first being getting lost for an hour looking for a gym that was a few blocks away). We had just had lunch at the BX, I decided to go and get a haircut while my siblings played on the park.

As I approached the barber shop and didn't see a single American, flash backs from the time when I was 10 went through my head. But the show must go on, so I went in. I thought, "surely if he is working in a American barber shop, he speaks English." The guy got up and spoke. Nope...he barely spoke English, and I barely speak Japanese. Not a very good combination.

I sat down in the chair and said, "I would like 3 inches off the top, and two off the side, please." He had a look of confusion. "Three on the top," I showed him three fingers and rubbed the top of my head, "and two on the side." He spoke, I picked out three and two. I said, "Hi." (Japanese for 'yes'.)

He pulls out the buzzer and starts getting it set. I'm starting to think something may be wrong...everywhere I've ever gone they have used clippers on the top. "Maybe he's going to do the sides first." I thought. The man grabs a handful of the hair on top, puts the buzzer against my forehead and says, "this good, hi?" It was at that point that I connected the dots...he was going to buzz my head with a number 3 and 2. "No, no, no!" He steps back.

It took five minutes to try and communicate what I wanted. He went to work. I just didn't even care after that and figured let him do what he wanted..needless to say, I have very little hair right now!

But it gets better. I started to stand up. He pushes me back in the seat, grabbed a towel and starts hitting me in the face with it. I guess he was brushing away the loose hair. Then he starts to do chopping motions to my neck. "Whoa, this is unusual!" After doing that to my neck, he starts to tap my head...this was the strangest hair cut I've ever had!

When it came time to pay, I wasn't sure if I payed in yen (I have about 1500 of that) or in dollars. I asked, he didn't understand, so he got American, whether he wanted it or not!

Pictures are coming, it'll could be a little while though. We don't have intenret in our room, but there is a base computer room that I'm using. Can't load photos on the base computer.