Always a ceremony

I got my hair straightened on Saturday and not just with a flattening iron that washes out when I wash my hair. I mean I got it "permanently" straightened so it will last six months to a year. One of my friend's at work does it and convinced me it was a good idea though I was still a little nervous. She kept telling me that I have to say goodbye to having any volume in my hair so I thought I might come out looking like Wednesday from the Adam's Family. Luckily though I think it looks pretty cute. My Japanese students at school this morning kept saying, "Kris sensei preeeeetttiiii". At morning exercises when we were all singing they kept turning around to stare because I guess to them I look really different. It was so cute.

Anyway the reason I'm writing is because while I was getting this whole process done I noticed that even getting your hair straightened in Japan feels ceremonious. The Japanese are famous for their tea ceremony and for those of you who don't know, it's a very long ceremony with very strict rules to be followed. While I'm pretty sure there were no strict rules being followed on Saturday, it still felt different from being in the States. First of all they offered coffee or tea to all of the customers upon arrival. Next they went through the standard application of the cape so no hair gets on you, but rather than one cape I got a towel followed by another towel then the cape and finally another towel. Needless to say, I didn't have any hair on me when I left. Then as each process was happening, any employee who wasn't working on someone else's hair came over to help with mine so I had two people applying the straightening chemicals and three people blow drying my hair the first time and two people (but one lady was holding two blow dryers) the second time. So pretty much I felt like a princess all day (well at least for the four hours I was there - that's right FOUR hours)!

The Japanese also love to say things to their customers. When you walk into a restaurant or store they always say something - and it's not just one person, it's usually close to the whole staff - then they say something when you leave too. We're not really sure what they are saying but it doesn't sound like hello and goodbye. I think someone said when you leave they say thank you, but in the past tense - like thank you for having eaten/shopped here I guess. Anyway the staff at the salon also all said something every time someone got up to get their hair washed and every time someone got back from getting their hair washed. I got my hair washed three times during my time there so this happened a lot but I have no idea what they were saying. I found it very amusing none the less.

I also found it interesting that they draped a cloth over my lap and removed it every time I got up. When I got my hair washed they put a different cloth over my lap and also placed a light cloth over my face. At first I was unsure how I felt about this but I think the purpose of it is to help you relax because all three times I almost fell asleep. It was awesome! The last time they washed my hair they placed a warm wash cloth on the back of my neck at the end. Again - awesome.

I know this picture isn't very good but it's just to give you an idea of how my hair looks. Take note that I just got out of the shower and blow dried my hair for about 5 minutes - without a brush! For those of you who know me, you know that it used to take me about 40 minutes to blow dry my hair and if I didn't use a brush I would look like a hairy wildebeest.

Speaking of washcloths makes me think of a few massages I've had here. The gyms here offer massages for $30-$35 for an hour so it's hard to pass them up. I had a few on base here at Kadena but then Audrey told me that she had an even better one at one of the Marine bases so I went there and fell in love with it. I told the masseuse that I'm training for a marathon and that my legs and body were just really sore. She started the massage by walking - that's right walking - on my legs. It hurt a little bit but mostly felt amazing. It hurt in a good way though because I know she was getting the knots out. She also applied hot stones to my muscles when she wasn't working on them and must have put icy hot on me because whatever cream she was using felt really warm when she first applied it. She did an excellent job of getting my knots and I just loved it so I went back for a second time. The second time she did all of the same things but pulled out yet another treat from her bag of tricks - hot towels. She placed really hot towels on my muscles and it was delightful. All for $30! Can you believe that? You can't be that price!

So I know all of this posting was about me and I'm sorry to those of you (Justin) who read our blog to find out what Giff is up to in Okinawa but that'll be the day I get him to write something on here. Until then I'll try to think of some more stories that include him :)

We hope you're all doing well! We miss you all very much and hope the economy starts picking up again soon so you can buy plane tickets to come visit us :)

My New Approach

Thanks to my tech savvy cousin Kate and good friend Abril Mayo, I have recently become obsessed with Google Reader. Becoming obsessed with other people's blogs has made me feel guilty for not updating ours more often - that and the fact that many people have emailed to make sure we're still alive since I haven't written in forever. Rather than letting the guilt get to me I have become more motivated to update our blog more often. Although my obsession with google reader is only about a week old, I have learned that it's better to have short postings more often than 100 page essays every two months. So here starts my new approach to blogging.

I'm sick. I work at two preschools and so I get germs coming at me from all angles. As our friend Mike always tells me, kid germs are the ones you have to watch out for. If an adult friend is sick you feel sorry for them but most likely you can fight whatever they have. But kid germs are super powerful and there is no fighting back. So even though I've had the flu shot here I am at home on the couch on a Friday evening, waiting for Grey's Anatomy to upload so I can catch up with some good old American TV, while Giff is out with our friends. I'm not full-blown sick yet which is why I'm able to write but we went to our favorite Turkish restaurant and I took two bites of my food and stopped eating. When I stop eating you know something is wrong.

Speaking of eating, did you know Giff and I are training for a marathon? I know that might seem like a strange connection but ever since we started running so much I am sooooo hungry! I feel like I could eat all day and never be full. Some of you might think that we're getting so skinny running so much but boy is that far from the truth. I haven't lost any weight since we started this training because my appetite has increased so much. It is pretty amazing how much food I can eat though and not gain weight. I feel like this is the only time I can eat whatever I want and not worry about it. And that's another reason I know I'm sick. I look forward to meal time now more than ever because I can eat and eat but tonight I didn't want anything. Not even chocolate sounds appetizing to me right now.

The marathon is on December 7th so please keep us in mind and pray that we don't get injured. This training is really tough on the body and both of us have had nagging aches and pains that we hope won't get any worse before the big day. This weekend we have a 20-miler and then we start tapering until the marathon. I read online that this is the biggest marathon in ALL of Japan and has close to 20,000 runners! Hopefully that means I won't be last....

I think Grey's is almost ready for me to watch so I'll end this with a funny story from work. One of my Japanese students LOVES I mean LOVES Hawaiian outfits (matching shirt and shorts). He has about four that he rotates between and wears one to school at least twice a week. One day he came in to school wearing the exact same Hawaiian outfit he wore the day before. His hair was all disheveled and his shorts were hiked up so high that it looked like he wasn't even wearing any. I think his mom might not have dropped him off that morning because he's always late for school and that morning he was early so it seemed like something was up.

In the mornings before class starts, the whole school (only about 25 kids) gets together to sing songs. In between songs I went up to Ray and tried to pull his shorts down so they weren't hiked up so high. He got really embarrassed because he thought I was going to pull them all the way down. I told him I was just trying to fix them but when I went to pull them down I noticed that he had on another pair of shorts from a different Hawaiian outfit underneath! I started laughing and asked why he had on two pairs of shorts. He started laughing too and just kept saying, "I don't know Kris sensei. I don't know."

It was really funny. I wish you could hear my impression of his voice and see what his facial expression was. It was priceless.