Japan: Hiroshima 36 - Girlie stuff

Eyebrows:
I am in dire need to get my eyebrows done! It's driving me crazy. The Japanese (at least in Hiroshima) do not do waxing or threading for eyebrows. Instead a few salons will shave strays with a straight razor. Now tell me how that's effective when hair grows back the very next day? They also sucked at shaping. Arrgh!

Fashion Magazines:
I succumbed and bought an American fashion magazine for $17 today. I found Allure in English at a random bookstore. The things you do when you take life's littlest luxuries for granted...

Hair Salons:
There are a TON of hair salons here. I'm not exaggerating when I say there is one on every corner. I still have yet to go because it seems rather daunting to get my hair cut by someone whom I can't tell what I want. The trend here is really thinned out hair that is razor-cut, then curled with a half perm.

Contraceptive pills:
Birth control pills are only available from a doctor's office. They cannot even be obtained from a pharmacy. They are also alot more expensive. Interestingly the US has been prescribing contraceptive pills for over 40 yrs. now. And only recently has Japan made it available. I have been told it is because they were afraid Japanese women would be too promiscuous.

Japan: Hiroshima 35 - Golf Range & Hole in Ones

Hiroden Golf Range is a 3 level golf range that sits up on a mountain. The views are spectacular. You will notice nobody has a bucket of balls, yet they are all playing continously... until you realize the balls are coming up from the ground. They are fed thru tubes into an area below each tee. And everytime after you hit the ball, the tee drops down, a new ball rolls out and it resurfaces giving you a perfect teed up ball. The tee is also automatic. Next to each tee box there is a control box stand, and you can tell it whether to tee your ball flush w/the mat, tee it up, or tee up high. It's awesome! You never have to bend over again.

The Japanese are notoriously bonkers about golf, paying stratospheric greens and club membership fees. Lance even bought hole-in-one insurance. Like me, you are probably either wondering why, or think he is lying. I chose the latter until he emailed me this clip he found on the internet to prove it:

"Ironically, for a nation where gifts are an instant storage problem, the Japanese give at an incredible rate. Gifts are required for every event right up to and including a hole-in-one. No, you don't give something to the golfer who scored a hole-in-one, rather, he gives something to you. And your friend. And your ex-brother-in-law. And the elevator girls at the office. And on and on and on.

The average cost of achieving a hole-in-one is $15,000. Really. The prudent golfer, of course, does the only reasonable thing: He purchases hole-in-one insurance. Score a hole-in-one and the gifts will be bought for you."