Keisuke was honoured to be invited as the official hairdresser for this years Miss Chinese European finalists recently held in London. Spending the whole day at the  Hilton London Metropole Hotel Keisuke and his team created styles for 11 finalists for both swim wear and evening wear.

The European finalists were chosen on the 9th August and will be competing for the world title next month. See more about Miss Chinese 2010 on their website as well as pictures of the contestants.

We have just introduced our pre-pay hair cut card which allows you to freeze the price of your hair cuts at today prices before the new price tariff takes effect in April.

Each card covers the cost of your next 3 hair cuts at the old price. As a special bonus, when paying for your 4th & 5th cut, we’ll charge you our old rates too. That’s 5 hair cuts at current prices – a saving of £5 over the new prices.

Ladies cards cost £81 (3 x £27) & gents cards cost £66 (3 x £22) and are available now from reception until 30th June 2010.

The new prices take effect from 6th April and can be found on our site.

We are pleased to announce our new loyalty scheme has gone live. To say thanks to you all we’ve introduced our new reward card which allows you to collect points and exchange them for rewards. There are 6 rewards available on every card and you can claim all 6 of them.

Ranging from free gifts, discounts, gift vouchers and BOGOF offers it’s our way of giving you something back.See all the info and points rate on the website and claim your reward card today!

After more than 12 years of use our original blue chairs and shampoo booths have been taken out of service and replaced with some brand new additions.

In keeping with our transition to a new calmer colour scheme we now have brown & cream chairs and shampoo booths. They are quite a bit more roomy than our previous chairs and we hope you’ll notice how much more comfy they are. Some of you will have already seen our new privacy blinds covering the windows which are also cream & beige colours. Matched with the new chairs it makes for a more pleasing relaxing atmosphere while you’re getting that great hair cut – the next best thing to business class….only you get the great massage from us too!

We’ve also made a little adjustment in the reception area which we think makes the whole salon look a little more pleasing. Taking less room than before it makes the salon feel a bit more spacious.

We hope you all like the changes! Let us know what you think.

Earn yourself and your friends a loyalty discount with our recommend a friend scheme. We asked for your ideas & feedback and you told us to bring it back – so here it is.

Collect a card from reception, hand out 3 coupons to your friends and start earning your discounts. Each of your 3 friends will receive a 10% discount from your introduction. When all 3 have visited the salon we’ll give you 15% discount on your next service.

We’ll keep a track of your progress on your record card so there is nothing you need to worry about. Just make sure your friends hand in your voucher when they visit us for the first time.

Reward Card coming soon….

Even more discounts for your loyalty we will soon be introducing the Keisuke Reward Card. Earn yourself points with every visit to Keisuke to be rewarded with discounts, vouchers & products. More details soon – watch this space!

There is an ancient Japanese tradition called taimou fude where a babies first hair cut is saved and expertley crafted into a calligraphy brush for prosperity and this has recently arrived here in the UK.

Koubundo have established their “Aka-Chan Fude” craft over here and have asked Keisuke Hair Artists to act as agents as well as our expertise when cutting a babies hair for the first time. The tradition means that only the babies first scissor cut be used for the brush which is usually around 6-12 months of age.This first fetal hair “invokes the good fortune and blessings of happiness, health, intelligence and a prayer of everlasting and unchanging love to be visited upon their child.”

Once cut, the babies hair is sent to Japan where highly skilled artisans take it through various processes in order to produce the hand crafted brush. It is then returned after completion which is usually around 2 months and presented in a wooden box made from the Paulownia tree.

More details are available in the salon as well as our site – look out for the Aka-Chan Fude page.

After many weeks of designing and tweaking behind the scenes we have just launched our new look website. With a new colour scheme and navigation system we think it will be much easier to use and get the information you are looking for. Both English and fully Japanese versions are available for all our customers to see.

There’s lots of new information on there too with dedicated sections for our hair straightening system and our wedding day bridal service. You can get some insight into all the staff at the salon using our team section and we’ve also introduced a service specifically for stylists to help improve their hairdressing skills – perfect for new/student stylists.

One of the most popular sections from the old site was the gallery pages so these have had a major redesign too. We’ll be introducing many more hair pictures in the future and welcome some of our existing or new clients to become models for us. We’ll be publishing the pictures on our site as well as videos of hair up-do techniques to include on a new site we are working on at the moment. If you are interested in appearing either in our gallery or our videos, for inclusion on YouTube let us know through our contact form. All models used will receive vouchers to use either on their hair service or to purchase some of our Keisuke branded professional hair products.

Another valuable addition is our review page where you can read and leave your own reviews of the service you received at Keisuke Japanese salon. The vast majority of our new clients have been recommended by existing customers but it’s always nice to see reviews if you’re deciding for the first time to try a new hairdresser.

Let us know what you think of the new site using the comments section. If there’s something you’d like us to include which we haven’t thought of we’d love to hear it.

We’d just like to remind our regulars the salon will be closing for 6 days between 16th & 21st August while we all take our summer vacations. As usual this is a regular yearly pattern and we always choose the quietest week to close the salon. Never the less we’d like to apologise for any inconvenience and look forward to returning to normal on the 22nd!

ついこの間のニュースではどうやらモリソンズがダントツの売り上げとプロフィットをあげている中、その他お手頃価 格のスーパーが立派な伸びと売り上げを記録していると,,,,,,, マークス、ウェイトローズ等の高級スーパーは売り上げ降下が確認され、セインズバリーズは新しく自社低価格ブランドの打ち出し．．．と、大きな変動が見ら れます。

ここに来てますますの物価上昇が感じられます。光熱費をはじめガソリン代など燃料費の上 昇そしてECO対策もますます活発になりあの手この手での出費削減対策が一般家庭でも必要不可欠になってきました。例年の２％前後のインフレーション上昇 に比べ、今年の４％以上の厳しさは誰もが手に取るように実感されていると思います。

さて皆さんは どのスーパーマッケットを普段利用されていますか？以前ある方に尋ねられました、”啓介さんのように、社長さんはハロッズフードストアーとかセルフリッジ フードストアーでお買い物されるんでしょう？”と。”いやいやとんでもない自分はもっぱらアスダとかモリソンズ、直接体に触れないようなクリーニング剤等 は99pショップを利用しますよ。”と言ったらびっくりされました。実際（恥ずかしくはないのだけれど）ウェイトローズはこの国に来て１７年のうちでおそ らく両手で数えるくらいしか行った事もなく、ましてやハロッズフードストアー？一度チーズを買っただけ。セルフリッジフードストアー？一度もありません！ 別に貧乏な訳ではないんですよ（笑）。この国に住み、一般庶民的に（別に階級分けしてる訳では決してない）その商品と用途に応じて、買い物先を分けていま す。日本にいてもおそらく近所のスーパーのチラシを見て出向くはず。これだけあからさまな物価上昇を目のあたりにすると、上手にお買い物しなければ無駄な お金を全く同じ製品に費やしてしまうことも多々ある訳なのです。

もちろん価値観は人それぞれ、一 人一人それでハッピーであれば何の問題はないだろう。自分は物に掛けるお金にメリハリを付けるように心がけています。贅沢をする時はする（その贅沢が本当 に価値のある物かを確認した上で）セーブするところはすると、、、ホリデーもその内の一つ、日々忙しい中、リラックス出来る一時がどんなに待ちどうしくそ して次の仕事の為の充電期間として必要な事か、ちょっぴり贅沢するためにもその一時に重点を置いてセービングしています。食べ物、素材にこだわるのも同じ くセインズバリーズのオーガニックセール野菜（売れ残り？）を購入するより、フレッシュで入荷したばかりのオーガニック野菜をモリソンズで同じ金額を出し て買った方が良いと、自分なりに計算しながら買い物しています。去年、一昨年あたりの統計だと、モリソンズの野菜が一番新鮮で、品質が良いと。又、セイン ズバリーズの野菜がその年では最低ランクだったというニュースも耳にしました。高いから良い訳でもなくなって来ています、安くても良品質の物が今後増えて 来てくれる事を願っています。

しかしながら、昔と比べると食品は何でも手に入れるようになりまし た。日本食品にしろ、自分が来た当時は醤油、インスタントヌードル、みそ、ちょっとしたふりかけ程度が店頭に並んでいたくらいでした。”おー”　と思える 珍しい食品を見つけても高くて高くて買うのをためらっていました。醤油は１本£4.50 だったでしょうか？その当時は１ポンドが３００円弱だったから１２００円位したわけですよね。ほぼすべての物は中国系のお店で購入し代用せざるおえなかっ たですね。そういった意味では今日本食材はほぼ何でも手に入り、以前から比べればずいぶんお手頃になって来たと思います。

自分はよくアクトン北にある２４時間営業のアスダを利用します、そこではエノキ、しめじが手に入ります、たしか£1.80程だったと思います、(残念ながら今は見かけません”涙”）この間とある日本食材店を訪れました、そこで全く同じ製造元のしめじが£5以上の金額で販売されていました（大きさによって値段が違っていました）、たかが£３の違い? いえ、されど£３!!

今後低価格が売り物のスーパーが伸びを見せるだろうと、ただし品質の改善も重視すると、、、良い物が低価格で購入出来れば嬉しいですね。色んなスーパーを覗いてみて下さい、結構掘り出し物、珍しい物も見つけられますよ！

We are sorry for any inconvenience that was caused to all our customers who had an appointment on these days.

It was wednesday the 10th of September…. my boiler packed up after solid running all day everyday for 10 years!!! Yes, we had noticed that the hot water temperature had kept changing for while until this happened but who else would just buy a new boiler because of this and it is quite expensive to replace, but it may have been bit too long to hang on to it I suppose…

After the shop shut, one of staff was using the hot water when I heard some strange noises that made me turn around to see the boiler indication light was off…I pressed the reset button, no luck…changed the fuse that wasn’t the case, well, no sign of re-starting then “Oh my god!! customers customers!!!” I told my staff to call all the clients who booked their hair cut for next day to let them know there was an issue with our boiler so are they happy without a shampoo.

This is one of the occasions you don’t want to be without hot water and heating. Nobody would want to have this situation I am sure about that. So, I am sure anyone can guess what we were doing that night… calling, calling, calling all through the night to find any available plumber or boiler company to come round to have a look at my boiler. Even when they advertise “24/7 emergency call out” “within 90mins” “same day service” well, well, well, that wasn’t the case for us. What an emergency service!!!

If it was a home boiler then I could probably wait for few days but not for the salon, we have a business to run. It is everyones worry to find a genuine professional plumber and I am sure that lots of people have had a bad experience at one time or another by being over charged, and we all know there are some cowboys out there. What we tend to do is phone friends who know any plumbers they can trust but this time I had no luck because the plumber who I know had retired and my back-up one wasn’t available this time.

A few phone calls after, I found a plumber that replied to me immediately and sounded very good. His name is Darek, from Poland, and we all know they are hard workers and willing to do any jobs. He gave me a reasonable quote for this job and more importantly he could come the next day to install it for me. Because of the emergency I suggested to him if I buy a boiler by myself could it speed things up a bit and he was happy with my suggestion.

He arranged it for 7:30 am, and he was here on time. He had one cup of coffee and no lunch, by him saying “you have a business to run, let me finish it soon as possible for you” and he had finished everything by 1:30pm and hot water was back in the afternoon! I thought it would take whole day at least or possibly 2 days in the worst case ( most likely with some cowboys ) but not with this man, I am so happy with his work, attitude, friendly service, smile and price!

Thank you very much Darek! He will be our man from now on and I hope he will be with us for long time.

If you had any problems with any plumbing jobs, this is the man to call. Just tell him “ recommended by K “.

His phone number is 07921 643 705 e-mail : darekblueplumbing@yahoo.com website : www.darekblueplumbing.co.uk

K ( keisuke )