Derek’s Haircut – Sept 26th

Another early rise, I got to the elective registration punctually. We heard another short explanation of what we should do, and made a handful of marks on a page before turning it in. The room was so crowded with students that I decided to just wait in the middle of the room until the crowd (and the line) died down. A couple of the other students had the same notion, and we gossiped about this and that.

We all strolled down to a local Matsuya for a quick bite to eat. For 350 yen, a relatively filling beef bowl is a tempting prospect. With places like this around, I just might be able to afford lunch on a daily basis. Another group from CSU was already there, so we intermingled for a while. I ended up eating rather quickly, so I went outside and chatted with the other students who had already finished. Derek, a student from Chico (but originally from Hong Kong) was talking about going to play pool near ‘baba station, so we jumped on the subway to get to ‘baba. He got a phone call while we were waiting for the subway, and said that Ayaka was going to meet us at the station. We got to ‘baba and waited a while for Ayaka. After she showed up, it became apparent that we weren’t going to play pool, but that Derek wanted to play pool while waiting for Ayaka; she had promised to take him to get his hair cut after work, but her work ended a bit earlier than expected. Intrigued by this story of magic and wonder about a real hair salon where I can get “styled” for only 2,000 yen, I decided to tag along.

We went to the salon and were told it would be a 30 minute wait. We walked down the road to a Mister Donuts, and had a bite to eat whilst we waited. We went back to the salon and started flipping through the “style books,” which were basically magazines of guy’s hairstyles, all with stats for the face shape they go with, thickness and curliness of the hair, etc. There are some pretty bizarre styles out there.

Derek selected a style and a color, and they got to work. It would be a couple hours for the whole process, but Okabe-kun said that he would be at the lab a bit later than anticipated, so I had time to spare. I messaged Josh to see what was going on, and we organized a group dinner at an izakaya near ‘baba. Flipping through the books, I found a couple styles that might suit me, and promised to come back after my hair had grown out a bit. After seeing what they’re capable of, I’m convinced that this Supercuts shit just isn’t cutting it.

Derek finished and we headed back to ‘baba to meet up with everyone. Okabe-kun was running behind, so we went to the izakaya ahead of him and started to eat (we were all pretty hungry at that point). After Josh and I polished off a pitcher, Okabe-kun showed up and we had another round. He was funny as ever, intermittently switching to Japanese to give some brusque orders to the waiters. I think that being an assistant to a professor must make one eager to be in a position of some kind of power or authority. In Japan, there’s probably no better place to order people around than a restaurant. He (Okabe-kun) had won some kind of Marlboro contest, and was going to be in the pit crew of their upcoming F1 championship. The process of meeting the rest of the team and getting to know his responsibilities would start the next day, so he wasn’t able to hang around too long or drink too much (this time). Even neater, he’s flying to Thailand in two weeks for some school research project. Yeah right, nice excuse. I’m sure he’ll have a blast though, when he’s not being studious. I gave him a bag of beef jerky and a sudoku rubiks cube puzzle as omiyage and as thanks for the Super-Mario All Stars game he gave me last year. I’m looking forward to seeing him again once he gets back from the land of sensual massage.

When we finished at the izakaya we headed over to the Hub for a nightcap. I wanted to try the dynamite kid, one of the strongest drinks on the menu. What I got was essentially a triple shot of fruity-flavored fortified vodka--way disappointing. The tarantuala is definately my drink of choice; it might be half as strong, but it tastes twice as good and you get four times as much of it.