This past weekend I got my first ever haircut in Japan. I'd been putting it off because I've never formally learned any haircut vocab in Japanese and I didn't want to accidentally mess up my hair by making a mistake at the salon. In the end, I ended up going to a salon in Tokyo to get my haircut. There are a number of salons in Tokyo that speak English, as well as Japanese, so I opted to make an appointment at one of them. I'd heard good things about Sin Den, in Harajuku, so I decided to try it out. It was really nice! My stylist was a younger Japanese woman, who spoke English and Japanese. I was able to tell her what kind of haircut I wanted and she gave me some of her own suggestions. Then, they shampooed my hair and gave me a head massage (which is typical of Japanese salons). The stylist cut my hair and I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out. My hair feels so much lighter and healthier now. It's been layered and textured and all my split-ends are gone. I'll definitely consider going back to the salon the next time I need a haircut.

After my haircut, my friend Leslie met up with me in Harajuku. We decided to eat lunch at Hideaway, a cool cafe we recently stumbled upon in Harajuku. Hideaway is a cafe that looks like a treehouse. It's on the second floor of a small building, so it has more of a treehouse feel. One of the coolest things about the cafe is that there's a tree growing in through the floor and up, out of the roof. The inside of the cafe reminded me of being inside a treehouse. Everything was woodsy and natural. The cafe was playing reggae music and everything had a very laid back feeling. The food at the cafe was very good, too. There were lunch sets for 1,000 yen (a pretty decent price for a good lunch in Tokyo), which included a drink and a salad along with the main dish. I ordered the pork stew bowl. It was really yummy and it was filling. I'd like to go eat at Hideaway again sometime!

Here's a few pictures from the weekend.