Free Day! Time To Cut My Hair And Shop!

Finally we're free! Free to explore around Osaka or Kyoto on our own. Bev, Rei, Yoko, and I go to Namba to get our hair cut. For the past few days me and Bev have been buying magazines, trying to find a haircut we would want.

The time has finally come. Time to get a Japanese haircut! Last year we talked about it but never got a chance to do it. This year, Yoko made appointments for me, Bev, and Rei at the Three Choice hair salon. I am so nervous. I don't know why. I just cut my hair 3 weeks ago, so it shouldn't be so bad, right?

My stylist is Miki Masui. She doesn't speak or understand much English so Yoko helps our communication. I can understand what she asks but I don't know how to really explain what I want. It's a good thing that I took a picture of what I wanted. She takes one long look at the picture and it's off to wash my hair. It's different from home. All you have to do is sit down and the chair automatically reclines, making it more comfortable when they wash your hair.

It's very quiet. I don't know what really to say. I'm usually like that. I rarely cut my hair, so it's not like I really know the person cutting my hair. Plus, I think she thinks I don't understand Japanese. She looks busy trying to get my hair exactly like the picture so I don't want to bother her. Almost an hour has past and she still is trimming certain areas. They are not that precise at home. Usually they take about 30 to 45 minutes to cut my hair back at home. When she is done, I see a lot of hair on the ground. My hair feels lighter and looks just like the picture I showed her. I'm so happy (^_^)! She gives me her business card (how nice). Now I want to cut my hair every year in Japan.

After we are done, we head off to go shopping. Finally we have the free time to shop till we drop (and we will take that literally). We head off to find Namba Walk. With Yoko's directions we head off to where we started, the subway station. There we find Namba City. We browse through some stores but it's very expensive. In the end, we try to find our way to Namba Walk. It's so hard to find. It's very confusing when shopping places are all connected by the subway. We had to ask 3 different people for directions in getting to Namba Walk. Each time I would ask, the answer was always keep going straight and you will eventually get there.

Yay! We found Namba Walk. This place is much more in our price ranges. So many people are around. It must be because of the holiday. People have nothing better to do than shop on a holiday? Plus, Japanese merchants are very smart. Since they know that the summer time is hot, and that people will go to shopping areas to get out of the heat, they have summer sales to entice the customer to buy more. I'm glad that we came during the summer so we can take advantage of these sales.

All the shopping makes us hungry. We have to find a place to eat. There doesn't seem to be a lot of restaurants around where we are. We passed by a few while we were shopping but don't want to walk all the way back there just to eat. Instead we find a Curry House at the entrance of Namba Walk. I haven't eaten curry in a while, so I'm glad that we found the place. Me and Rei order omu-rice curry (オムライス カレー) and Bev orders spicy chicken. I think I would rather have Bev's lunch, it was spicier than my curry.



~Hello Kitty Ebisutai. The workers even where Hello Kitty hats. I should have taken pictures with the workers.



It's time to leave Namba and find our way to Dotonbori. Yoko said that we can walk to get there. So we try to find our way there. I'm glad that there are maps outside each subway station. On the map it says that Dotonbori isn't that far from where we are.

On our way, we see policemen running on the road. How odd. Maybe they are chasing someone. In the distance, we hear a woman's voice on a loud speaker. We look down the road and see a vehicle with lots of blue banners and a crowd of people carrying similar banners. Bev and Rei ask me if I can understand what is being said. All I could hear was, "We will never forgive them for what they have done." I don't know who and what they were referring to. That's when we realized that it was a protest. We don't want to get mixed up in that crowd and quickly cross the street.

We finally make it to Dotonbori. That wasn't so hard. It's so crowded. It seems like there are more people here today than that Friday night. The place isn't the same without all its lights. We pass right through and go through the street of shops.

I think we took a wrong turn somewhere. This place does not look familiar to me. We head into a convenience store and ask for directions to Sankaku Kouen (Triangle Park). It's a good thing that I remembered that landmark. The cashier points in the direction we came from and says, "Straight down for a while."

We've made it to America-Mura! Finally Body Line! I am a maniac in the store. It's not as spacious as the Harajuku location. It's hard to maneuver around. Also, there is one girl that isn't courteous to anyone else in the store. She thinks she's the most important person in the store. She bumps into people as she moves around the store. She goes in front of you and doesn't say "excuse me." What really gets me frustrated is that she didn't buy anything after all of that.

In the middle of shopping in Body Line, Yoko calls Rei about going to a sentou (public bath). This is what I've been waiting for. After all that walking around in Kyoto and Osaka, going to a sentou will relieve my aches. So I call Yoko and tell her "YES, I want to go." We have to figure out how to get back to the hotel from America-Mura. First, we need to get to the station.

We decide that we should just take a taxi to the station. We try to get a taxi. The first few that pass by have customers already. The first empty one, did not stop for us. That's odd. We walk a little more until we see another one. This one stops for us. Bev tells him that we want to get to Shisaibashi station. Maybe he didn't hear the location, so I repeated it. He looks puzzled. Then he tells us, it's down the street behind us. I told him that I understood, but we were tired from all the walking around. I notice that the screen with the fare isn't turned on. I thought nothing of it. In about a little over a minute, he stops and points to the station. I ask how much. He says "Tadade." I thought I was hearing things. Then he makes a zero with his hand. I wasn't hearing things. He gave the ride free of charge. How nice! I think it would have been different if the guys tried to do that.

Time to meet with Yoko and Jayson. Sentou time! There are only four of us this time (Yoko, Jayson, Rei, and me). Too bad Bev couldn't make it. That bee is lucky it died after it stung Bev. If it didn't, I would have killed it myself. It's weird that we haven't seen a bee since that day at the Gion parade. This time, there are many more families. Yoko said that the place we went last year was more a locally known place. This place is more known by anyone around the area local or visiting.

This year I tried something different. Instead of the sauna, we went into a room that is like a sauna, but we lay down on heated stone. This is much better than the sauna. The heat doesn't feel as dry (I don't feel like I'm in an oven). The stones in the room are supposed to help detoxify your body. There must have been a lot of toxins in my body because I perspired a lot during those 40 minutes. I felt much better after that. We still had time to soak in the bath. I wish we had a sentou in Hawaii. I don't think it would be the same though.

Rei, Bev, Amanda, Jayson, Yoko and I all meet up for dinner. We have a mini-closing ceremony since tomorrow we head home. I am so relaxed from the sentou. I am even more happy when the food comes. I was so hungry when we were at the sentou that when we were in that room my stomach started growling. All the food and all the events we shared about the day was a great way to end such a long day.

Tomorrow, we head home. I don't want to go yet! There is so much more we didn't get to see.