Dougy Mak's Blog

Recall, the other day, I said there were vending machines about every 3 or 4 blocks. Well, today on the way to the train station, there were actually a lot more vending machines than what I had said before. There seem to be vending machines on every block. Anyways, today was the day I finally got a haircut since the Spring semester began. Today, we headed to Shinjuku where my girl friend’s stylist resided. We left the house around 10AM and the trains were still pretty full, but we managed to grab a seat anyways. Seeing Shinjuku for the first time, nothing was what I had imagined. A hybrid between Time Square New York and Hong Kong. Like Time Square, Shinjuku had wide intersections and big streets with many stores and restaurants. Like Hong Kong, Shinjuku had a lot of alleys filled with stores and hole in the wall restaurants. The combination of the two was quite neat to see.

While I can distinguish a Chinese person with a Japanese person, walking down the streets of Shinjuku is not much different from walking in Hong Kong. The people are similar in many ways such as style. The people in Shinjuku are actually pretty old. Well, there are young people of course, but there are just more old people. My girl friend told me, I would see more young people in Harajuku or Shibuya though. Our hair stylist was actually pretty young, I think. He looked cool though and I swear he changed his inner t-shirt after he finished cutting my hair to a “I <3 SF” shirt, maybe my girl friend gave it for him in the past. My experience with this salon was pleasant, and it was also impressive. First of all, the place was pretty nice. Simple, and clean. Big mirrors from the floor up and in front of individual white arm rest chairs. A dark area in the back for cleansing hair with light emitting from a row beneath the glass floor next to the wall. Slightly shedding light into the room enough to see while maintaining a dark room enough for the eyes to easily doze off and relax. Well, he cut my hair. He used a pair of expensive scissors and took his time to shape it the way he visioned. This next part was great, and it was different from salons I have visited before. These type of places usually give a nice head massage, but that’s not what I want to share. After he washed and massaged my head, he sat me up and put his hand on my shoulder to instruct me from leaving (we had a language barrier). He handed me a wet towel and said “face towel”. A FACE TOWEL. It was so simple, but so effective. I wiped my face thinking it was supposed to refresh myself after a long sitting session, but as I pulled away the towel from my face and opened my eyes, I saw all this hair on the towel. It was to clean my face of all the little hairs from my hair cutting session. I never experienced that! Well that is not all. We walked back to my chair and I sat down telling my girl friend how I got a face towel. He put his hands on my shoulders and started groping it. He started giving me a massage. “Does this come with all haircuts?”, I said to my girl friend. Well, the stylist finished the session with a little wax and I proceeded to  fall asleep while waiting for my girl friend to finish.

After paying, they led us outside where they thanked us for the business. I was really hungry by this time and we ended up eating at some Italian restaurant. This restaurant had a smoking section. This kind of thing is extinct in American restaurants. Oh, also, Shinjuku (or possibly all of Japan) has smoking areas where people must stay in to smoke otherwise a ticket will be issued- suckers. The Italian restaurant had some small portions, actually Japan has small portions. I ordered 2 dishes while my girl friend ordered 1. The restaurants here have a button at each table which you press for a waiter. I pressed the button and the waitress arrived shortly, I asked her “Can I have some Parmesan cheese?”  At this point, she just looked confused and stood still. My girl friend resumed her by translating. Oh man, speaking of people in the restaurant. I always hear how everyone is skinny in Japan, they are not that skinny. How is it even possible with these small portions? Later we went to walk around at a department store, and I noticed something different about Starbucks. The drinks, the cup size was small. It was smaller than America’s tall size. At the department store, there was a lot to see, but I am going to skip that and move on to the arcade. It was a place with many prize winning machines like the ones where you grab a stuff animal with a claw. My girl friend and I stood there for half an hour observing players. These claw machines were interesting. At first sight, it would natural for anyone to try to grab the prize with the claw. This does not work. These claws are weak and cannot pick up a fly. By the time you figure out how to really use these claws, your pockets would probably be empty. People used these claws to push and knock prizes over into the hole. Sounds easy, but it is tough. We were watching people spend 2000+ yen ($20) to get prizes. I do not think anyone could grab a prize with just one try, because it takes at least a few times to push the prize to the edge. The arcades jobs are also interesting. The employees that monitor these machines are often asked to reposition the prizes to make it more fair or very commonly open the machines to adjust prizes or reorganize them or reposition them. What a neat city.