Yesterday, Joseph and Christian (and I tagged along) went for a haircut at a local Japanese place right near our apartment. This husband and wife team have been cutting hair in this neighborhood for about 40 years. Their shop seems to be popular with the ex-pats. Anyway, Joseph hasn't really started to enjoy getting pampered by barbers, so I knew this would be difficult. The only way he would sit in the barber's chair was if he sat on my lap. The husband was the one who cut his hair, and the wife sat and entertained him with toys. As I've mentioned in previous blogs, the Japanese are very much into kids. This haircut experience was no exception. The wife brought out all her toys and then rotated them when Joseph started to lose interest. The barbers' English was very minimal, but some of their phrases were really funny and cute (in a "they are really trying hard" kind of way). When the wife would rotate a toy, she would run off and say "Toy Change-ee." And then, with Joseph's limited English, all of them could communicate really well. So the end result is that Joseph got a nice haircut, and I was covered in hair. Christian got his haircut afterwards; and let me say that at this shop, he gets the full treatment...head massage, shave, hot towels, etc. At some point, Joseph started to freak out when Christian's head was getting rinsed off. I think we have an overly-protective kid.
