Two posts in two days?! Say it ain't so!

Yes, that's right, I had ANOTHER cultural experience worthy of mentioning here, and I'm ready to share it with you all. This time it's about food, specifically, "how the hell did i eat all this stuff without throwing up all over the table?" No, actually it was all delicious, but, tonight for dinner we went to the same restaurant we went to for my birthday (which makes me think I may have eaten this all before and just not known what it was) but I ate the following in this order:

1. Chicken heart
2. Chicken esophagus
3. Chicken cartilage
4. Ostrich
5. BEAR MEAT, RWARRRRR!
6. Frog
7. Horse. No, just kidding, my host family ate it but I refused, mostly for Pam's sake

I have to say, eating bear meet made me feel like a man. It wasn't that great though, for future reference, too chewy.

I don't know what else to say about that, it all kind of speaks for itself. I've often been surprised at what I can eat, though. Spinach, for example, has grown on me quite a bit. Never thought that would happen.

I should clarify this whole thing, too.

I have a host brother, of course, but I also have another, older host brother who does not live at home but in Hokaido, the northernmost island of Japan. He came here for the weekend (my first time meeting him) and so there's been festivities since saturday. He's really cool, he's an artist, and very interesting, and has treated me like a family member since the moment he arrived. His wife is here as well, and while I haven't talked to her as much, she seems every bit as out there and with it as he does. Quite a cool couple.

I guess this post is kind of short, but I don't feel that bad since I posted yesterday as well. Hope you're all doing well! Sorry to those I missed on skype this week, the weekend has been very busy.

Getting my hair cut.

So I've sort of been waiting for one of those cultural experiences that would really make a great story, and today it came. I got my hair cut.

Whenever I'm about to do something in Japanese that might actually require some explanation (such as how long to cut my hair, what style I want, etc.) I always worry a little bit. And then there's the problem that I never talk while getting my hair cut, I just think it's kind of weird. So I was worried I'd get a chatterbox for a barber and then have to think the whole way through.

We'll get to that in a little bit.

First thing when I walk in, two gorgeous women, perhaps the two most attractive women I've seen in this whole country, greet me with smiles and seem quite adamant that I understand just how attractive they are and that I should not go to any other hair salon because of this point alone. Well done, ladies, it worked. They asked me if I wanted a stylist, a pro stylist, or a super stylist. What? I went with stylist and was told I would have to wait a half an hour. I didn't have that much time so I asked who I could get now, and 2 minutes later I was sitting in the chair with my own super-stylist asking me what I needed done.

I said something to the effect of, "I want my hair shorter," knowing there was no way I was getting out of here without some trendy Japanese hair cut. I was brought to get my hair shampooed and was wrapped in like 8 layers of towels and a heated blanket. They even put a towel over my face, which added to the surprise when my not my super-stylist but a woman I couldn't see began talking to me. Thankfully, when the towel came off my eyes, she was, of course, beautiful. I was then brought back to my seat and told to wait.

A third person walked up and combed my hair a little bit and I wondered, "if my super-stylist is so super, couldn't he have done this himself?" but before I knew it I was getting a massage. A really good massage. Japan 1, America 0.

After 10 minutes of relaxation, my superstylist came back and started cutting. Only, instead of scissors, he used a razor blade. He did talk to me a little bit, but when he heard I was from America, he excitedly called over his super-model friend to talk to me, as she had just been to los angeles about a week ago. Yes.

When I was finished, it didn't look as horrible as I had feared. I definitely got a Japanese interpretation of the word "haircut" but it turned out all right. I thanked super-stylist and the attractive women at the door. Then I thanked them again. Then I stared at them for a few seconds and left.

I'm not sure how long I should wait to book another hair cut for next weekend.

Pictures!

I finally did it! Here are the first 118 pictures of my trip. I have about 70 more, but kodak is making me upload them 1 by 1 (and don't tell me I'm being an idiot and that I can upload 60 at a time, I know for a fact that this is either my computer or kodak's fault, not mine).

So when I regain my patience I will upload the rest, and from here on upload them in smaller batches to make my chore a little easier.

So here it is, the first album:
Japan!