It's 8:30 pm here. I think its 4:00a.m. in California right now. We don't have daylight savings in Japan so I always get confused. Instead of counting behind 17 hours to get Cali's time I usually just subtract 4 hours from Japan time and switch the A.M. to P.M. 'cause it's quicker. But during the summer I only subtract 3 hours. I think...see? I'm confused.
Anywho, it's 9:00 p.m. and I'm staying at work late to reload a couple computers. Windoze on one and Solaris 9 w/an Oracle installation on the other. I need to complete the installations by tomorrow morning, or I would like to so I can get on with my life after today's debacle with those POS computers. We recently split our office up and moved all the non-techies down South. We closed off the other half of the office and rented it out to a small day spa company. They shut their doors about a half hour ago and woe came over me as I sat here with stiff legs and a sore back.
It is tradition for the newbies in an office building to come around and say hello to all the other tenants. When they moved in they brought a basket of cookies and a bunch of coupons for their services. They don't seem like a great company. Since I used to work on their side I know how small the space is first of all and It's not all that relaxing in itself. We thought it was really nice of them to bring over coupons....until we saw the prices! The cheapest massage and facial was about \203,000! That equals to about $2,000 and we aren't talking for a full day's worth of pampering either. Just two hours! The prices went up and the most expensive treatment was a full body massage and wrap for \300,000 or a little under $3,000. We were shocked. Apparently they are a chain so they do have some customers but we were wondering if anyone in Okinawa actually has that type of money?? I mean this place doesn't do hair or nails but I think they do makeup but who the f*** cares??
This is a serious phenomenon in Japan. People pay outrageous amounts for imported handbags, makeup and electronics when they don't have to. Take Best Buy and Goodwill (a Japanese computer store...not the hand-me-down place in the States). Down in Naha, these two massive stores are about 2 blocks away from each other. Goodwill sells computers and all their bits, PDAs, iPods, software, games etc. Best sells the same items only for tens of thousands of yen more. People, especially women flock to Best. They sell the same brands but Japanese folks figure, if you take two items that are exactly the same but one is more expensive, that more expensive one must be of better quality otherwise it wouldn't be marked up. I'm so not kidding. So who shops at Goodwill? Corporations. Every time I go there with my work buddies, there are only ever a couple cars in the parking lot and they all have company logos on them.
Less than a block away from my office is a salon that does nails and massages starting at \4,000. I think I will stick with those ladies.
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