sad

Was going to get my hair colored on Friday and as I waited for the mall to open, I checked out the store directory and noticed that the shop's name was gone...

So, when the mall opened I went to the 7th floor where the shop is/was located and noticed that they closed last month...boo!

I hadn't been getting my hair colored monthly like I had pre-pandemic, so I wasn't aware they were closing.

On the way home, I bought this cream type coloring thingy.

Should only take 10 minutes to color and I can do it whenever I want.

Hope it isn't too messy.

I checked online and luckily they do have other franchise shops nearby, but for now I’ll try this.

locks of love

It's been six years since I donated hair to Locks of Love.

It took some time before I could get it to at least the accepted minimum length of 10 inches, so I was finally able to send them a donation.

Hoping it helps someone.

hawaii (hopefully ) helps

I'm not quite sure when I thought about doing this, but it must have been about two or three years ago.

The longest my hair has ever been was before getting married, it was just below my shoulders not past the middle of my back.

Anyway, I just came back from the hair salon because I am giving my hair to someone who needs it.

Locks of Love is an NPO that helps children in the U.S. and Canada with long-term hair loss due to illnesses find some confidence and normalcy by providing hair pieces for them.

One of the reasons I chose Locks of Love was because they accept hair that has been colored. (There was a program that I found in Japan, but they were not accepting hair that had been colored nor was it a year-round thing.)

The "rules" on how to donate to Locks of Love is noted on their website. I hope they'll be able to use the hair that I send in and make a child (or two) happy.

By the way, the hair salon I went to did a fabulous job and I think I lost a couple pounds in the process!

signs

Sometimes walking around Japan, you just have to laugh at some of their signs. I sometimes wonder where they are looking up the meanings to some of the words or phrases that they use. There are also signs with major spelling errors which I can't believe people actually paid someone for!

Like the car dealership that was in our neighborhood called "Risky". They were selling high-end cars like Mercedes & BMW's...When I first laughed at this sign, Satoshi couldn't understand why. He then looked up the meaning and understood...they eventually went out of business..I thought they were a little suspicious, don't you??

While walking around Kyoto last week, I found these signs. SNOB corporation, after googling, I found out that they are a hair salon. With haircuts starting at $60 (the average price here is $30) and coloring touch ups at $80 (the average price for a touch-up here $40) and to have them style your hair after a cut at $15, you too can become a hair snob...where is Fantastic Sam's or Supercuts when you need one?

Another one was Bruce-Pee, I would be a bit cautious about buying clothes from a place that has pee in their name, wouldn't you? Plus, on the second level there is the Ill Store (I googled and found out that ill is the slang for "good")...although you may become ill from the pee clothes...

And as if everything isn't expensive already, the price of some everyday items went up 6-10% on June 1st here in Japan. Here is a list of what they mentioned...TP (toilet paper), tissue (hmm, I wonder if this will put a stop to the free ones?), coffee, dry cleaning and mayonnaise. Part of the reason is the rising fuel costs and also the popularity of biofuels. As of today, they have just added corn and soy beans to the list, soon we won't have anything to eat!

hair cut

Today I went to have my hair cut. 

I dread this because I don't know the right words to get the cut or look that I want.

And I cringe when I want to get a perm (this is why I haven't had one in months!).

Even bringing in a picture of the style that I want has left me with a hairstyle that I don't particularly care for. 

Most of the stylists don't like to be left up to the task of creating a look for you either. 

Most like to be told. 

They do sometimes take things into their own hands and that's when I end up with a cut/perm that I didn't request. 

One technique they do on their own is thinning the hair. 

They put a scissor that cuts only in a couple of areas at a time to "thin" out your hair. 

I don't like when they do this because after a month or two my hair looks like a bush (because it grows back to the volume it was). 

So, I think to remedy this layered hair, I may have to stay away from the salons for a year or two!

Other than that, it was a very nice sunny day (for the morning part anyway). 

I wanted to share with you, our cyclamen plant. 

This plant is very hearty. 

It looks like it's dead during the summer, but come autumn, the leaves start to sprout and gets to be very leafy and bushy. 

I was amazed at this plant. 

I mean, look how many blooms it has! 

I've seen other cyclamen plants around in the area, but they don't have as many flowers as ours does.

Actually, this plant has a little story behind it. 

About 4 years ago, we bought it for Satoshi's grandma, when she was in the hospital. 

We were so happy with it, because it had some blooms and looked very cheery. 

But after Satoshi's mom saw it, she said, "You can't give her that." I asked, "Why?", but didn't get an answer. And we ended up buying her a bouquet of cut flowers.

The reason why you shouldn't give a person in the hospital a potted plant is because it has roots. 

In Japanese, this is called "ne-tsuke". 

It is a play-on words but they believe that if you receive a potted plant, you will "root" yourself in bed. In other words, you'll be in the hospital for a LONG time.

This year, I cut back the leaves a little too much, so it looked bald until the flowers started to bloom. 

The golden crest tree in the background is our Christmas tree (since they don't sell real cut ones here at Christmastime), it is the second one since we've lived here.

The other plants were bought at the dollar store (100 yen shop). I've found that these plants are the most heartiest and if it dies, it was only a dollar, right??

Well, enough rambling. 

I wanted to share with you another food item of Hinamatsuri, it's called Hina-arare (Girl's Day rice crackers). 

They are colored in the pink, white and green, the chocolate ones are arare covered with chocolate. 

The hina-arare and mochi were bought at the following shop:
Matsuyahonpo
Hankyu Ishibashi shopping arcade
Phone: 072-761-8168

I also bought this pastry at a bakery, Taro pan, in our shopping arcade. 

It's name is Caramel almond. 

It is puff pastry with a dollop of cake batter baked in the middle, caramel and almonds cover the bottom. 

They display it upside down with the caramel side up. 

It was really good, and it wasn't really sweet. 

It really went well with green tea.

Hope you have a great weekend.