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	honorh 2009-02-21 02:37 am UTC (link)
	I'm a curly-haired white girl living in Japan, and I'm afraid to go to a stylist in my crappy little town (which I love, but it's still crappy). I've heard there's a good one in Morioka, though, so I may have to set aside a Saturday for her. (Reply to this)(Thread)

	caito 2009-02-21 05:39 am UTC (link)
	Wait, are you in Iwate? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	honorh 2009-02-21 09:50 am UTC (link)
	Yeah, Kamaishi. Right on the coast. We're having fairly lousy weather right now. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	caito 2009-02-22 09:29 am UTC (link)
	Ah! I'm in Akita, so it's almost like we're neighbors! (Except I'm on the coast too, so we're actually probably still pretty far away.) Maybe we should hit up Morioka together sometime, I've only been once. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

honorh
2009-02-23 12:51 am UTC (link)

Cool! I've thought about transferring once my contract in Iwate is up, just to visit different parts of Japan. Akita's on my list of possibilities. I've been here in Kamaishi about six months teaching English. You?

Morioka's a pretty nice little city. They have the most fabulous imported-foods shop. I stop in once a month to stock up on cheese, oatmeal and anything else that catches my fancy.

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caito
2009-02-23 12:58 am UTC (link)

Akita's much snowier than Iwate; it's an effect of the Sea of Japan, and mainland China beyond that. But I think it's about the same, temperature-wise.

Just so you know. Having slipped on the ice on my way to school this morning, weather's on the forefront of my mind.

Have you ever had wanko soba in Morioka? It's their local specialty where they serve bowls of noodles super-fast and you have to eat as many as you can, as fast as you can. We went and had that and the guys I was with averaged around 100 bowls (the lowest was 75, the highest 127). They were pretty chuffed until we realized there was a skinny middle-aged housewife who'd already beasted 300+ bowls. Apparently she's a local celebrity who's also a major player on the competitive eating circuit. CRAZYCAKES.

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honorh
2009-02-23 06:29 am UTC (link)

I'm from Alaska, so snowy weather (we've got sleet today, ick) doesn't bother me too much. In fact, I requested northern Japan specifically because I'm a wimpy little flower in hot weather.

No, never had that. I haven't spent nearly as much time in the cities as I'd like. Around here, there's just nothing to do in the evenings if you don't like hanging out at bars or pachinko palaces. For the upcoming break, I'm thinking about hitting Kyoto and maybe a few other cities. Well, Tokyo and Sendai are definitely on the list 'cause they've got the night bus routes I'm thinking of taking, but we'll see how far my money goes.

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	taktuk 2009-02-25 11:31 am UTC (link)
	Where in Alaska? I grew up on the 'Slope myself, and am down in Fairbanks for college. If I could even learn Inupiat decently I figure I'd be good enough at grammar-fu to learn another language... but that's not happened yet. (Reply to this)(Parent)

dragonfangirl
2009-02-21 06:39 am UTC (link)

Ahaha. Ahahahahaha.

I went to get my hair cut in Japan exactly once. I figure, I have pretty straight hair, not much of a challenge, right?

I did take some metrics. By the time my haircut was finished, it had taken three times as long, twice as many stylists, and about 5 times the amount of clips/product to keep it under control while they worked. They really have no idea how to work Western hair.

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	honorh 2009-02-21 09:53 am UTC (link)
	I've been told there's a woman in Morioka who used to work in New York, so she actually knows how to cut and style non-Asian hair. I hope so, because Japanese women with curly hair generally have very thick, coarse hair. Mine's thin and fine. Too many products will turn it into a greasy mess. (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	dragonfangirl 2009-02-23 09:22 am UTC (link)
	Here's hoping you can find her! Sounds like a resource worth having, indeed. (Reply to this)(Parent)

	sudaki 2009-02-22 12:08 am UTC (link)
	I lived in small-town Japan, except it was a small town where every other business was a salon. I have no idea why, and it was a little creepy. I went to the one at the shopping center instead of one of the privately-owned places, because I could get shampoo, cut, mini-manicure, back/shoulder/hand massage, and a free drink for ¥4000. :D (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	honorh 2009-02-22 03:48 am UTC (link)
	My goodness, did you live in Kamaishi? Where every business that's not a salon is either a conbini or a bridal salon (with a pachinko place thrown in here and there)? Because that's where I live. It's weird, isn't it? (Reply to this)(Parent)(Thread)

	sudaki 2009-02-24 11:51 am UTC (link)
	Ha! Nope, I lived way down in Mie-ken. Is there some subset of small Japanese towns that were colonized by hairdressers? I only knew a handful of conbini and one bridal salon, though. I could've used a few damn more conbini. (Reply to this)(Parent)

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