A head for culture

Ah, Japanese culture: kabuki, karaoke, sumo and sushi. What best sums up the Japanese experience? Why a trip to the barber's of course. My ginger locks were reaching critical mass on Sunday so I thought I'd pop down to the ¥1,000 (five pounds/10 dollars) barber shop across the railroad tracks. It's a functional, high-tech sort of place. You put your ¥1,000 note in a machine and it spits out a credit-card like chitty (stop sniggering at the back there, I said chitty, not... er, never mind). Anyway, you sit on a bench and move along one space until you get to the end and it's your turn. You hand in your token, tell the chap or lady hair technician (it's hard to tell sometimes, they are wearing a surgical mask over their face):  "Ni senchi onegaishimasu!" (Two centimeters off please!) And in 10 minutes flat the haircut is complete, your head is vacuumed (I mean, really...) and you are out on the street. So, as you can imagine, it was with some relief that my wife suggested spending a bit more (¥4,000) and getting a proper haircut. So I went, a little sheepishly, to a new place called Hair Works Yoshiro. Wow, what a difference. Suddenly, you are not a minor cog in the utilitarian machine, but something more traditionally Japanese - an honoured guest. My hair was washed twice, I got a back and head massage (stop sniggering, or you can go home now), my hair was cut with scissors, my eyebrows got a trim, the manager introduced himself and entertained me with card tricks and I was presented with all three employees' business cards, a free jar of hair wax, a plastic thimble used to give shiatsu massages and an envelope with a ¥1,000 note in to take home for some reason I couldn't fathom. The door was held open for me as I sauntered off into the evening amid a chorus of thank-yous from the staff. I looked down at my watch and saw I had been there for two hours. And I learnt two new words from chatting to senior stylist Emiko: "sappari" - neat and tidy, and "jikka" - hometown or parents' homestead.  Oh and here are my trimmed eyebrows, whaddaya think?