punch perm

my new favorite word is "punch perm." i learned it during my eel feast on thursday. i had never heard of it before and it's a common thing here. it is a hair style adopted by the yakuza (japanese mafia) where they wear their hair in a tight curl perm. i haven't seen it live yet, but when we visited asakusa, we saw the actual "do" on buddha! then we saw old yakuza tattoo posters for sale that we were forbidden to photograph, and there it was again-punch perm!

i am having so much fun here, although the work is very hard. i have never taught so many students for that many hours before, so i have to get used to it. my body is not as strong since i took 6 weeks to train in australia, almost turned into a veal over there cause there's not much to do. i ended up watching 40 movies & sleeping a lot.

yesterday we went to a very old part of shinjuku, where i am staying, to a ramen house. they have salt ramen, veggie ramen, miso ramen wonton (that's what i chose). i really like how most of the restaurants have one item only, so if your in the mood for soba, you go to a soba house, or udon to an udon house, or eel, has it's own house as well. the ramen was giant, cheap-around 800yen-about 7 bucks, which is considered "high end" ramen, but was so good & filling, i did not require another meal.

when we went to asakusa, before we entered the temple in front of the giant famous red lantern ball, we got approached by a national television station called N.H.K. they were doing a special about mt. fuji & what foreigners think of when they think of japan. of course me being horribly shy completely froze & could not think of anything japanese except for rock and roll, food & movies. they were very confused by my answers, since the normal answers are usually geisha, sumo & samurai, but none of the obvious came to mind. i had actually always dreamed of touring japan when i played in bands, so that's why i have the rock and roll connection. i always go see japanese rock, pop, and noise bands when they blow through town because it is guaranteed a great show (electric eel shock, jackie & the cedrics, melt banana, cornelius, the 5,6.7,8s-in the "kill bill" movie) and i watch japanese film. it was very strange, but fun anyhow. they made me draw a picture of mount fuji with fat markers i couldn't figure out how to use. and i am NOT an artist at all. mt fuji ended up looking more like a flat cupcake. the shape was all wrong. but it wasn't fair cause i haven't see it yet!

i am off teaching on fridays & saturdays, so i will practice at the studio today, saturday, anyhow cause i have to teach 5 hours on sunday, so i don't have time to practice. afterwards, we are going to visit the tokyo lululemon store-hugely popular here and harajuku, where all the funky shops are and young people dress in very interesting ways. the weather has been mild (cold to the japanese), so it's nice to walk around.

i sure hope i see a punch perm!