New Accomplishment: Glasses!

So, on Saturday night as I was taking off my glasses before going to bed, one of the arms snapped off. This particular type of glasses would be very difficult to repair; they're basically frameless, with only the nose bridge and arms made of wire. The arms are very thin and are drilled right into the lenses. The frame used to be very flexible, but it's several years old, so I suppose it has gotten brittle.

In any case, it became apparent that I would need a new pair of glasses. I asked a few people for suggestions, and was directed to stores at Aeon Mall and Obiyamachi. At first I planned on asking my supervisor for help, but from what I heard from other ALTs, it sounded like I should be able to do it on my own. So I decided to attempt it.

I started with Obiyamachi because it is much closer than Aeon Mall. I had never noticed before, but there are actually several glasses shops in Obiyamachi. I went into the first one I saw and started looking at frames. After looking at all of the glasses and trying on a few pairs, I narrowed it down to two frames. One was fairly standard, with a thin frame and oval-shaped lenses. It looked a little bookish on me. The other pair had a frame that only attached at the top and sides; there's no metal along the bottom of the lenses. It also had a bit of a cat-eye shape. After comparing the two, I decided on the second pair. I liked the fact that there wasn't a lower edge of the frame in my field of vision, and it looked a little less plain.

About the time I had made my decision, one of the shop attendants came over to talk to me. He was asking what color of frames I liked. I explained that I liked the frames I was holding, and then we got into the complicated part: getting lenses and buying them. I had brought my contact lens boxes to show them the prescription. He took a look at it and explained that the prescriptions are sort of different. So we went on to the vision tests.

It turns out that Japanese vision tests are basically the same as the ones in America. First there was the machine that auto-focuses to your eyes. It's the one where you look straight ahead and a picture comes in and out of focus. Usually it's a hot air balloon or lightning, in my experience. After that was the one where you identify letters, except that instead of letters, it was hiragana. This was sort of an on-the-spot test of how well I know how to read. Fortunately, I've had enough experience with hiragana that it didn't take long to identify the ones that weren't too small. The syllables I remember seeing the most were へ、と、く、and け.

After that, he used the giant multi-lens machine to fine tune my prescription. The methods for this were a little different. Instead of showing me a bunch of letters and asking whether lens one or two were better, he showed me a screen where half was red and half was green. Each side had a letter and a number written on it, and he asked which was better, red or green. There was also one where there were two rings of dots, one in the upper right corner and one in the lower left. Although I didn't understand all of the verbal instructions, it was pretty clear what I was supposed to be doing.

Once we were done with the giant lens thing, he had me try on some industrial-looking glasses that he could slide lenses in and out of. He was asking about the balance in vision between my left eye and my right eye. I'm not entirely sure I understood his questions, but I sort of guessed and he worked out my prescription.

Then I was faced with options. This is always the hard part for me. He described two types of lenses, regular lenses and a special type. I didn't get what he was saying until he added in a few words of English, saying that the special type were "long life" lenses. The special type were more expensive, but generally when it comes to glasses, the upgrades are worth the cost. So that choice wasn't too hard. But then, he started talking about something else. I think it was a different type of coating that could be added which improved color, or prevented the curving of images around the edges. Maybe they were several different types of coating. But somehow, it sounded like the coating couldn't be combined with the long life lenses. Since I don't wear my glasses that often but want to use them for a long time, I opted for the long life lenses. Not an entirely educated decision given that I understood maybe 25% of the sales pitch, but I felt reasonably confident in my choice. Side note: from the beginning of the vision tests up to this point, I was not wearing my contacts. So I couldn't see much of anything. It was kind of entertaining trying to look at the chart with the various lens types and prices, given that I had to put my face just a few inches away to read it.

Now that we had decided on the frame and lenses, it was time to actually purchase them. I had to fill out my name, address, phone number and email on a little piece of paper. It's a fairly simple task, but it takes a while since I have to write some of it in kanji. After that, he checked the price again on a calculator and showed it to me. For a frame and special lenses: about $120 dollars. I had been told that glasses were cheaper here, but I wasn't expecting that much of a difference. The frame I chose wasn't even one of the cheapest types.

I paid for the glasses, and the clerk explained that it would be about 30 minutes. I went off to wander around and discovered that there was yet another Yosakoi performance. Though the actual festival takes place in August, it seems that there are performances throughout the year. In this case, there were a few medium to large teams dancing down a small section of Obiyamachi. I still don't know why, but sometimes hearing the Yosakoi song makes me feel like crying. In a... good way? I don't know. It's strange.

After about a half hour, I returned to the glasses shop. I waited a few minutes longer and then another shop assistant brought my glasses out. She checked the fit, adjusted them a little, and checked them again. After that, she told me some things that I didn't entirely understand. I think the main idea was that I can bring the glasses back in during the next month if the prescription isn't right. I'm considering wearing them during the daytime for a day or two to see how the prescription is. If I just wear them like I normally do (at night, right before going to bed) I might not notice if something is wrong.

All in all, I think the glasses-buying process took about an hour or an hour and a half. There was plenty of confusion, but because procedures were so similar to what I've experienced back home, I was able to guess at what was being asked. It isn't really necessary to understand each word if you can predict what should happen next. It was actually kind of fun, in a way. The people at the shop were very nice to me and would repeat or simplify things when I didn't understand. They didn't seem to mind putting in extra effort to make themselves understood. It was really satisfying to accomplish this without someone translating for me. And now I've got a new pair of glasses!