A Room with a Japanese View :: Haircuts Culture Personal Narrative Papers

A Room with a Japanese ViewIts the wee hours of Saturday morning time in a quiet all female low-rise dorm room at NDSU. Residents are either sleeping soundly or discover having a good time some place off campus. But in one dorm room a social gathering is in full swing. Im non talking about a swing dance either. As I walk down my motel-looking dorm hallway, I hear a males voice with a sharp and harsh intonation. I get out in front of the door for a second, my curiosity piqued. There is silence for a irregular and so I hear the voice again and I realize its not English, but Japanese. I proceed down the hall, shuffling in my slippers, not wanting to be an eavesdropper. On my return I hear a loud electric razor coming from the same room. Again I pause in front of the wooden door, brightly decorated with two nametags, Yoko and Michelle, made by the creative RAs of our dorm (All names are pseudonyms). Whats going on in there, I wonder. I regard Yoko weekly at the Internat ional Student Association meeting, but only know that shes from Japan and is here to fix English. I knock at the door, still hearing the razor and voices in the tooshieground. The door pops open and Im greeted by a petite Japanese girl with discolor brown hair. Its Yoko. She invites me in and I see the pile of different sized shoes near the door. My Hong Kong etiquette that I learned when I lived overseas with my family comes back to me and I promptly take off my shoes. To my left I see Kiyo, a tall Japanese guy with spiky hair, standing behind Watashi, who is softly sitting down with a black garbage bag covering his upper body. There are garbage bags covering the floor around them and curt pieces of black hair decorate the dark plastic. The haircutter and haircutee dont say much to me. Watashi just says hi when I come in the door and then looks down to prevent getting freshly clipped hair in his brown eyes. Yoko walks towards them and checks out the progress. Cutt ing hair in the dorms is something one doesnt see often. I dont think most guys cut their hair in the dorms like this.