Day 94 (First Haircut in Japan & Camp Trip) - Saturday, June 21, 2008

Day 94 - First Haircut in Japan & Camp Trip

So Today was one of the most, if not the most eventful Saturdays for me in Japan thus far, it was absolutely great (sugoi) :)...

So today I drove to my Thursday school to meet this Japanese lady that come to our Wednesday English conversation thing... She owns a family salon and she wanted to trim my hair (remember from Day 84 ?) . So I drove behind her for about 15 minutes from my Thursday school to get to her house (which is a salon) in a place name Tojo which is in Hiroshima... I was supposed to meet her at 2:00 pm but I was running a little late and met her at about 2:20 pm... But I was in so much of a hurry because I was going to the city at a JET AlT get-together. Me and my friend from near me, were supposed to meet at 4:40 pm for the train... So the story continues... 

I got to her house at about 2:40 pm and I wanted to leave by 3:45 pm to drive back home and then to the train station to catch the 4:50 pm train... She made sure to tell me from early that nobody in her house except her speaks English... When I got there, her husband, her mom and her father were all trimming someone. She then asked me to sit in the salon chair... After examining my hair for a while, which they found quite interesting, they started attempting to trim my hair... WOYYYY , the shear could not even budge. 

So eventually, 3 of them had to be in my hair all at once, trying all manner of things to get my hair cut how I would like it... Her husband, her mom and herself had to be combing, brushing, shearing and them tings to make an attempt at trimming my hair. OOh boy and remember seh that me need fi catch the train... So as soon as they completed their attempt, I asked her how much is the cost. She in return asked me how much I paid in Jamaica to trim. So I told her about 1000 yen which is actually more than in Jamaica. 

I was still not fully satisfied with my hair cut though...As a matter of fact, I don't really like how it looks, but I give them props for their first attempt at trimming a black man's hair. The trimming process ended at about 4:00 pm and I was like "darn", the train leaves at 4:50 pm and I have to stop at home first... I started feeling stupid because what I should have done, was to carry my "going out" clothes and everything else that I would need, with me to the Barber. Then I could just stop at the station and jump on the train..

She then drove in front of me to a point where I remembered, but she was driving a bit too slow so I had to overtake her and do some serious speeding to my apartment, woooy if any police did ever see mi, it would not be pretty at all. I actually got to my apartment at 4:43 pm there about and the guy was already at the station. So I grabbed my camera and dashed off again in the car and sped to the hotel to park my car there and ran to the station. Guess what??? Yes I missed the train :( :( :( and the next train would be at 6:38 pm... I was again very disappointed in myself because I could have tried to get to to the hair salon by 2:00 pm instead of 2:20 pm and/or as I said earlier; just carry everything with me... I was saying to myself that I am not going to bother go to this JET ALT link up because, I didn't want to be alone on the train again. 

So Iwalked out of the sation very sad, but then I said "NOOOO MAN mi still ago" because I love them get-together tings here.... Anyway, I went back home and as soon as mi turn on the computer and started chatting to my friend in Hiroshima, both online and on the phone, it was pretty much 6:20 pm ... She seh mi hair cut nuh look too bad still :) ... you guys can make your own judgement calls...

So again I rushed off to the station and parked at the hotel and ran to the train... This train was very slow and sometimes it even had to go slower because of some tree limbs in the path of the train. Every now and then the train would also rock from left to right, which was quite an uncomfortable feeling, because when I look through the window, it would be a very far fall... The good thing however is that this train was empty, so I didn't get any stares. I eventually had to get off this train then get on to another one.

This one now had more people, but them never stare pon mi too much. When I got off the train, someone from the link up drove up the same time as I got off the train. She was from Canada and when she dropped me to the place, the others who were at the entrance (except for one ALT who live near to me) seemed quite shocked to see me. Needless to say again that I was the lone black person out of about 30 - 40 persons. It felt a little bit uncomfortable at first, but then I simply started to chat with everybody and then it slowly turned into fun :) :)... 

I met quite a few of the JET ALTS and we were eating, chatting, playing video games and just making a whole lot of noise in the middle of nowhere :) There were only 3 ALTs from my company though, inclusive of me... I was chatting for a good while with the other ALT from my company, and she said this year will be her final one, then she will go back to England... It seem like everybody from our company has the very same experience in that we love the job, but dislike the company to a point because of their disorganization...

After all the eating and chatting, I was watching football (Holland vs Russia) with some of the guys, until about 4am in the morning, then I went to sleep. It was a pretty good experience overall...