If you’re walking through

Tim Roxborogh on the joys of moaning about your holiday

the CupNoodles Museum of Yokohama, and you chance upon an old hairdresser from home that you’d long since abandoned it can be a tad awkward.

Awkward encounters with old hairdressers in noodle-themed museums

Breaking up is hard to do, especially when it comes to hairdressers.

You might have a borderline actual friendship going on, but what if the cuts aren’t cutting it anymore? Telling your hairdresser why you’re breaking up would devastate them: “You’re an amazing person, but I’m a 32-year-old male and my wife thinks you make me look like one of the Golden Girls.” And yet the other option of simply stopping going must be almost as gut-wrenching.

I’m sure most people pick the latter of those get-out strategies, hoping like anything they’ll never bump into their dear old hairdresser again. But what if it wasn’t just a case of awkwardly passing them on the street in the city where you both live, but of seeing them on holiday? Even worse, in another country?

Well, for this we don’t have to imagine as a regular reader of Travel Bugs has informed me of such a conundrum. The fact it involved a spectacularly underwhelming-sounding museum in the Japanese city of Yokohama only makes it better.

Yes indeed, so the story goes, the young man in question had become dissatisfied with the quality of the cuts he was getting. He was chummy with his barber, but he felt his scalp was crying out for a change. So change he did.

He said nothing, stopped going and found a new place to get his hair done. For two years, he didn’t see his former barber chum. That is, of course, until that fateful day at the tourist mecca that is the CupNoodles Museum of Yokohama, Japan.

Now you’d think of all the places you’d be worried about bumping into your former hairdresser, the CupNoodles museum of Yokohama would be fairly low on the list. And yet, there the two of them were, at a museum some 8800km away, learning all about the revolution that came with bunging dried ramen noodles into a container capable of handling boiling water.

They locked eyes as bone-tingling zaps of “surely it’s not him!” shot through their bodies. “You betrayed me!” “It’s not you, it’s me!” Funnily enough, I’m not certain of the exact conversation that took place that day at the CupNoodles Museum of Yokohama, but I know it was initially extremely awkward. There you are, trying to go about your day as you learn about cups, noodles and the marrying of the two, and you bloody bump into Bill the Barber from Blockhouse Bay. (Not his real name.)

This would be a nightmare for most of us and so it was for the two gentlemen in Yokohama. That is, until it wasn’t. They fumbled through an awkward handshake, made small talk about Japan, hairstyles and ramen, and then next thing you know, boom! They’re throwing back sakes at a nearby bar laughing about the good ol’ days. The turnaround was as dramatic as it was unexpected.

So yes, ultimately it was a ripping night out with the barber mate and all was seemingly forgiven.

Despite my misgivings, I’ve also been assured that the CupNoodles Museum doesn’t merely reunite wayward souls, but also provides genuinely a fun and informative experience for the whole family. Let’s hope the All Blacks make time for it during this World Cup.

Tim Roxborogh hosts Newstalk ZB’s Weekend Collective and blogs at RoxboroghReport.com.