It's been a year since I started a journal and the old one was getting rather slow to load on my computer, so I thought I'd start a new journal.

Hair
type--1b
circumference--approximately 3.7"
original color--black
starting length--14.5" (chin length bob, mid August 2003)
currently--33" (about hip length, early June 2006)
goal--wherever 39" is on me (just past tailbone maybe)

shampoo--Nature's Gate Organics Tea Tree Oil and Blue Cypress
conditioner--Pure Essentials Hair Repair, Giovanni 50:50 Balanced Remoisturizer
deep conditioning treatment--coconut milk
wash method--CWC
wash schedual--every 4-5 days

color history since 2003
-March 2004: dyed red with Herbal Essances brand dye
-April 30, 2004: bleached once to a dark orange
-May 2004: dyed fuchsia with Punky Color
-August 2004: dyed black with Herbal Essances, color rubbed off because Punky Color was still present
-November? 2004: dyed red with Ferria dye
-June 2006: plan to go back to black using the two step henna-indigo method

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Reached another hair milestone this afternoon: a stranger pointing my hair out to someone else. I went to a parade and when it was over, this little girl looked at me, pointed to my hair which was in pigtail braids that went just past my waist, and said to her dad, "Daddy, that girl has long hair!" Dad glanced at me and nodded before ushering his daughter away. Not having any previous experience with a stanger talking about my hair (even if it was a child), I was more surprised than anything else. I guess I've finally reached a length that is longer than normal, even by Hawaii standards. Yay?

Pan Pacific Festival Parade--So like I said I went to a parade today with Mom. She thought it would start late, but it ended up starting on time and we missed about half of it. Anyway among the things we were able to see were a taiko group, a marching band from Texas, some Korean musicians in taditional garb, a couple of kappore (it's a type of hand-held noise maker that makes a clacking sound) groups, and even Konishiki. He was there with some of the kids in his Konishiki's Kids organization. I wish Mom and I had seen the whole parade, but not much we could do about that. Oh well.

Konishiki is on the back of Aerosmith's "Big Ones." 

Egad, Juri, I've had some horrid colouring disasters too.    Hope the henna works out.

Thanks, Lisabelle and Angel Spun! Sorry to take so long to get back to you, but there were computer problems and I was busy. I didn't know Konishiki was on an Aerosmith album. I guess I should look for it the next time I go to Borders.

Hair--Did the henna-indigo method today and boy it was a pain in the butt. I decided just to color the bottom portion of my hair and even that was more time consuming that I had anticipated. The henna from Mehandi was kick butt. I didn't use hot water and I still got good dye release in three hours. Besides good dye release, the henna from Mehandi was really easy to rinse out.

The indigo, on the other hand... The indigo was ground rather fine, but it was still gritty compared to the henna and took forever to get the majority of the indigo bits out of my hair. Indigo smells bad, unless you like the smell of frozen peas, and my hair still reaks. BUT, my two tone hair is gone! Yay! I'll try to get some pictures up in a few days.

This color job wasn't smooth sailing. When I got my Mehandi order last night, I was rather tired and wasn't paying attention to what I was doing so I put the indigo powder in the freezer and the henna in the fridge, instead of the other way around. When I was going to make the henna mix this morning, instead of using henna, it turned out I was mixing indigo. Ticked off at myself, I had to dump about 120 grams of useless indigo mix. Argh.

Henna mix
100g henna powder
1 part red wine to 2 parts water
1/2 cup "tea" made from clove powder
1tsp ACV
-Mix together, cover with plastic wrap, and leave for 3 hours before applying to hair

Indigo mix
200?g indigo powder
warm water
1tsp sea salt
1/2 tsp CMC powder
-Mix together and use immediately. The mixture should be really soupy

JET Program--Went to a Q&A session yesterday (Saturday) and arrived rather frazzled and 15 minutes late because of traffic. During the self-intros I accidentally knocked over my neighbor's energy drink. While we were taking a break I offered to give her money for a new drink, but she was nice about it and said not to worry about it.

The rest of the session went okay and at the end when I was putting away my things, one of the people responsible for picking who gets into the program told me good luck, and that the committee talked a lot about me. He said that I was really nervous at the interview, but had a nice personality, and after much debate, they decided that I would probably do a good job in the program. He meant it in a nice way and I was grateful that they decided to take a chance on me, but inwardly I was thinking, "ARGH, I almost didn't make it into the program again!!!!"

Had a revelation on how to solve the hula problem. While hula is interesting, I don't have that much interest in seriously learning about it so I decided to learn a silly hula dance. There's this old video by the late Rap Replinger(sp) and in it he does a mock hula that mentions a lot of local locations and foods. I thought I'd learn it and perform it for the students. I'd kill two birds with one stone because they'll get to see hula (sorta) and I'll get to teach them about a few of the things mentioned in the dance.

Hi Juri Chan!

Wow, I can't wait to see your hair!  My computer has been acting crazy too.  I needed a new card reader for my dig camera as the old one went caput!  I got a card reader which works great.  Oh my lord the bugs in Japan sound nasty!  Centipedes?  Oh man now I'm doing the hebe-jibi dance! God, I think I would be armed with a stick or a mallet!  I've been having bug trouble myself and have to do a "bug bomb" on my place. The construction next door has all the critters on the move.  I can't wait for my flat to be finished then maybe I can find my hairtoys I packed!

Love
Lisa One e san

Lisabelle 'nee san--Yeah, I never knew Japan had such gross bugs until I started to go to that JET forum. Oh, and not only do they have big centipedes and spiders, some wasps are also on steroids. One type can grow to be two inches long! Argh, what am I getting myself into?   Read about your bug bite. Ow! Hope your bug problem goes away soon.

Angel Spun--The centipedes are WHAT?! Holy crap, no one told me that before. >_<  Man, I think I'd have a stroke if a centipede started to crawl up my leg. They eat bugs? I've heard of some really weird dishes (eg. live gobi cooked in tofu or chicken cartilage), but I never knew they have buggy dishes.... I think I'll say I'm allergic to them if I'm ever served bugs. Ugh.

Misc.--A new airline had really cheap interisland fares so I will be going to Maui for two days with Mom. Will try to post pics of my hair and maybe some of Maui when I get back. Hope you all have a good Wednesday and Thursday!

Lisabelle 'nee san--Yeah, I never knew Japan had such gross bugs until I started to go to that JET forum. Oh, and not only do they have big centipedes and spiders, some wasps are also on steroids. One type can grow to be two inches long! Argh, what am I getting myself into?   Read about your bug bite. Ow! Hope your bug problem goes away soon.


Juri Chan,

My bug bite is getting better!  I haven't seen the little nasties in a while I hope they have some good bug killer in Japan.  I know they have a really neat incense for mosquitoes called Katori Senko.  I sleep with bug netting on my bed I got from IKEA.  Maybe you can get some, I know it would help!

have fun in Maui!

One e San  

Argh, it's been too long! Just a quick message since I'm at work.

Japan is great! The town I'm in is really small, but everyone is friendly, and the junior high school and three elementary schools I visit are a lot of fun. Went to Hanamaki in Iwate prefecture last weekend to see their fall festival and it was a blast.

I don't have internet connection at my apartment yet, but I'll try to drop a line here when I have time.

Hope everyone is doing well!

Good to hear from you again, Juri!