MJ: I love Japan. I have loved Japan since the first time I came here when I was 15 on a 3 week school trip. Japan is everything weird and wonderful. It is super conservative sitting right next to ultra liberal and modern. Japan has crazy things like vending machines that talk to you, and urban legend says there are even vending machines selling used schoolgirls' underwear. Japan has bullet trains, and towns with only one train track. 

But one of the things I love most about Japan is the kindness of the Japanese people, and their thoughtfulness. Some crazy traditions and practices exist in Japan, and they all started thinking of other people.

On Friday night I got my hair cut for the second time in Japan. The first time I was incredibly nervous about a) telling someone how I wanted my haircut in another language especially as I haven't told my hairdresser at home anything more than short/shorter/long since I was eleven, b) making small talk is not my greatest skill, especially in Japanese and c) I've seen those Japanese schoolgirl haircuts! so I didn't really notice what was happening.  But my hairdresser did such a wonderful job I went back to him.

And this time, when he was washing my hair I realised!!! He put a gauze mask over my face! And when Nico was having her hair washed next to me she had one too! I was really relieved - I always find it really awkward when you can see up each others nostrils while having small conversations.

Talking about it with Nico later, she told me they were mainly for protecting a woman's makeup, so no water splashed would wash anything off. With the added bonus of not having to look up your hairdresser's nostrils.

Yesterday afternoon, while shopping for clothes Nico says 'Hey!! Look! These are like the masks at the hairdressers!' She is in the changerooms of the store, pointing at what looks to be an oversized tissue box.

No, not large tissues.

But a large thin gauze thing. Put over the head.

There is nothing quite as gross as trying on clothes in the store, and seeing the makeup grime of the previous shopper left on the collar. And the Japanese have found a way to solve this problem.

Kooky as it may be, Japan has really thought about how to make customers feel more comfortable. I love Japan!