I had already tried massage, but my back and shoulders were still hurting from a pinched nerve. So, I tried "hari." Hari is acupuncture. "Hari," also the Japanese word for needle, but with a different kanji, is almost always written in hiragana, perhaps to make it seem less threatening. I had spotted the old, dirty sign while walking in the city and decided to give it try right then. I walked into a tiny room with curtains and a woman who greeted me. She said she could give me treatment right away. No names, no forms to fill out.

"Is this your first time?" she asked me. "Yes," I said, relieved that an explanation would follow. But no explanation followed. "Your first time?" I asked, referring to her treating a "gaijin." "Yes," she said. I offered no explanation.

She told me to lie on my back, and she leaned over me and submerged the first eight needles into my body. Tap-tap with a small hammer, two into each arm: tap-tap, tap-tap. Two into each calf: tap-tap, tap-tap. Then she pointed a heat lamp on my stomach and left me.