Every now and then i come across something in Japan that makes me appreciate this country for it’s uniqueness and the new emerging trend of ear cleaning parlours is just that.
While mooching about the internet last week i came across an article Hector had written and i decided to look into it a little further, i may even try and locate one of these parlours in the near future and see what it’s all about first hand.
At the Yamamoto Mimikakiten you can get the girl of your choice to clean out your ears and give you a massage for about $45, pretty cheap for an hours pampering. No hanky panky is tolerated on the premises so it’s all above board.
The girls working there are all dressed in traditional Japanese clothing which i think adds a nice touch to the service.
After selecting the girl of your choice you can go and read a little bit more about her from her personal blog.
The process seems pretty straight forward. After brief introductions and a green tea it’s straight down to business.
Put your head on the girls lap and let her go to work starting with a lobe massage, this may or may not be designed to loosen the ear wax.I’m sure it feels nice either way.
After the massage she will then go to work and clean out your ears with a variety of cleaning tools.
Lastly, to finish off, you’re treated with a shoulders and hand massage.
Check out Koji here, he’s a regular customer who loves Megumi-chans ear cleaning service.
Video pulled from here if the youtube link gets removed.
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I wonder what they say when someone asks them what their job is??
“I’m in the client care business”??
I hope those girls don’t drink coffee at work!!! shaky hands make for pierced ear drums
An Australian friend of mine went with his Japanese buddy to one of these places. He got refused and his Japanese friend went apesh@t, but still the clerk would not allow a foreigner. Too bad.
By the way, a lot of Japanese girls will gladly do this for their boyfriends.
Interesting Billy …. i wonder why the no foreigners rule for this service.
It was only one place; I’m sure there’s at least one place in Akiba that wouldn’t turn foreigners away.
Racism in Japan?? WTF!! No Way!!! This place is utopia!! Just go ask any number of manga reading “fan boys”!! They will tell ya!! JAPAN SUGOI!!!!
If anyone out there gets refused…just visit me with a six pack in hand and I’ll stick pointy things in your ear till it bleeds, or you tell me to stop. Eardrum smeardrum!!! bring that nasty ear over here for some “tough love”
Looks really fancy…..too bad what they do is actually bad for your ears!
ooooooooo preeeeeeettttyyyy gggiiiirrrrrlllllllllzzzzzz *_*
I never think to ask anyone help cleaning my ears
… Let me be the one who see the dirt 
. But I must admit that they over interesting service.
Ooops…I mean they offer interesting service
I’m a little late to the party on this post, but I was actually refused service once at one of these places a few years ago, and on the grounds of race – but not in the way you might think. The manager very politely (and with the aid of a pamphlet he’d prepared) explained the difference between wet-type earwax (prevalent in caucasians/africans) and dry-type earwax (prevalent in asians). His concern was that, from what he had read, wet-type earwax needs to be softened before removal and he was worried that both the tools they used and the technique might run the risk of compacting the earwax into the ear canal, leading to infection.
Of course, this may simply have been BS – I’ve had no trouble in the few times I’ve been since to other places – but at least the guy was trying, and I found out something about earwax along the way that I didn’t already know (this was in the pre-Wikipedia days).
BTW, I found your blog via Japan Blogger – very interesting, I’ll be suscribing to your feed.
Hey Chris, great comment mate, thanks for the info! Glad you stopped by.
Very interesting article I noticed then when writing my own but missed your comment Chris on the different types of earwax. I’m not sure if that’s true, since it sounds like a typical technique Japanese ’salons’ use to make gaijin go away, it’s kind of like in the old days when gaijin were refused from hair salons on the grounds of having “a different type of hair that wouldn’t look good when cut by a Japanese barber.” Now we know that’s crap but I still get turned away from country-side Barbers with the typical ‘Gaijin Dame’.
Anyway if it’s true that’s freaky…I’ll need to look at that more.
Surely earwax is earwax – sounds like BS
Actually, earwax isn’t earwax. Evidently, whites tend to have oily earwax, as opposed to asians that tend to have powdery earwax. I know, I didn’t believe it either, but evidently its true.