Hair Cut Sir

Went out last night and didn't wake up until about 9.30 this morning. Was supposed to meet Fred at 8.30 to go to site so as you can see was running a bit late. From looking at my phone Fred had tried to call me, guess i had slept through it, also thought i had set my alarm for 7.30 but either i didn't or I'd turned it off and gone back to sleep, such is life.

Being late wasn't really a problem we didn't have much to do today except go to site and take some progress photos. Have been feeling a bit rough all day but it's my own doing. I'm going to go to the gym soon and will see how i feel after that, may even partake of a little more liquid refreshment if i feel up to it tonight, after all it is Friday.

Had just popped out for something to eat last night, went to a bar i had found a while ago called the Lions Head to get some fish and chips. It's supposedly based on an English/Irish pub or what everyone thinks that to be here, Fish and chips were pretty good even had vinegar, the chips were more like french fries though but not bad at all.

While i was tucking in to my fish and chips a couple of guys came in, one of them i had met the other day and it turned out to be his birthday. One thing led to another and before i knew it was 2 in the morning and we were up in a club called Birdland, bit of a strange club I'd been there before the music was a bit strange, a cross between Jamaican reggae and rap, actually it's more of a bar that plays music and had a dance floor.

Finally went round to Fred's and off we went to site to take some photos, won't go on about work but just check out the little old lady in the photo. Not sure how old she is but looks to in her mid to late 60's if not older, she's still wearing a hard hat and working on a construction site, wow.

Almost every time i see her she stops and talks not sure what she's saying but she's always real friendly. I took her photo, and she posed with some kind of V for victory sign then off she trotted back to work.

On the way back to town we stopped at some kind of second hand shop which was like going into Aladdin's cave, lots of things from TV's to fridges and Pechinko machine's, which by the way are a really big thing over here. Pechinko is like playing the old machines they used to have at the fair in the UK, you know the ones with the ball bearing that you flick up, a bit like a small vertical pin ball machine but it sure is big here and they have lots of what are called Pechinko Parlours, think you can win money like on a slot machine

Also yesterday went to try and open a bank account as i wasn't at work and had an appointment at 3pm to look at some apartments. Went to the post office as i had heard it was also on of the biggest banks in Japan. Had hoped that someone would be able to speak English but when i went in it soon became clear though that i knew more Japanese, that's not likely though. It's probably more likely that no one wanted to talk English in case thy made a mistake, they think it makes them look bad, anyway need to go back with an interpreter.

After that though i would go and get my hair cut at least i though it was a good idea at the time, found a little hairdressers once again no communication. After a bit of time trying to explain what i wanted, think i had got there but I was still a bit nervous about how short she was going to cut it and by this time i was sweating a lot mainly because it was about 90F in the shop.

Anyway suddenly the lady turns round runs out of the shop and shouts up at the next floor, apparently it's and English school, the teacher comes trotting down and down and hey presto instant communication and i got my hair cut. The lady had to keep wiping the sweat of my head as we went though it made it hard to cut she kept laughing and saying service service, she did know a couple of word of English it seems. In the end she gave me a hand fan. It must have looked a bit stupid for anyone watching to see a westerner having his hair cut fanning himself to keep cool, luckily i was the only one in the shop else i would have felt stupid as well. To her credit she got it done, will go back there again now all the hard work is done I'm sure she will remember me.

After the hair cut it was off to see the apartments, had gone into a estate agents earlier in the morning, not sure what they call them over here but estate agents will do. This time using my very limited Japanese some pointing and gesturing the guy knew some English all this together got me three apartments to see later that afternoon. Went to meet the guy and he took me round to see them, all of them were OK but nothing i think I'll be bothering with. There are hundreds a apartments here most of them are pretty small, took be back to the times of living in a bedsit in my youth which is a long time ago. Did see one the other day which was pretty nice it was a brand new build but it only had one bedroom and was a bit far out it had but it did have TV in the bathroom not sure how anyone can do with out one of those, you could sit in the bath and watch it but it didn't sway me.