Are you looking for a fun activity that you can do to get a little clean? Maybe it’s that you can’t hear your friends when they’re calling for you? Get ready to hear about my ear-cleaning experience in Japan.
I never expected to go to a Japanese ear cleaning service in my life, let alone any ear cleaning of any type. I know what you’re thinking, you’re probably thinking of the video of people going to get their ears cleaned- the kind where you lay your head on an attractive woman’s lap. That’s probably a well-known ear cleaning service offered in Japan that many foreigners and Youtubers share the experience of having. However, the service that I did was completely professional, extremely helpful, and nothing like those videos.
I wanted to get my ears cleaned because I was having difficulty hearing. On top of that, my mother and grandmother have problems with fluid in their ears, so I wanted to get that checked since it might run in the family~
I chose the shop, BONITA BONITO OSAKA, due to the price and location.
The reservation process was easy enough as all I had to do was reserve a time and day, and give my contact information.
The webpage is completely in Japanese, but it’s very easy to use Google Translate to change everything to English (or any other language).
You can see the service that I ordered below.
The shop was very easy to find! I think it’s best to come no more than 5 minutes early. The sign outside the shop says that you should wait outside if you are more than 10 minutes early (I went 15 minutes early!). I only waited outside for about five minutes before the previous customer left and I was let inside. If you don’t mind waiting a bit, it might be good to arrive closer to the scheduled time to give the employees a bit of time to take a breather in between their customers since they might be working back to back all day with clients.
There was only one employee at this time and she kindly welcomed me inside and sat me down in the front area. It was really fun to look around and see all the ear magazines and posters they had in the front.
In the beginning, she gave me a sheet to fill out, in English, with basic information.
From there we started the ear-cleaning experience.
After sitting in the massage chair, she reclined the chair back and immediately started using the camera to show me the current condition of my ear before she started.
Right from the beginning, we noticed that there was a huge block of wax that was pushed extremely far down in my ear (actually in both!). Or at least, it looked huge on the screen with the camera zoomed in x10000 (not a real estimate). She also asked if I had difficulty hearing due to it, which I did. The wax amount wasn’t the problem, it was how far pushed down that was. The employee was a bit concerned at first about whether she could get the wax out and even suggested that I may need to go to a doctor for it, but she said she wanted to try, and I was in desperate need of hearing out of my ear again so I was happy with her eagerness for the challenge.
I definitely got one of the best employees at the shop because she was very attentive and constantly checked in with me to make sure I wasn’t uncomfortable. She said that we could stop at any time and was very kind about making sure I was relaxed the whole way through the process.
I have very small ears, so part of me was a bit worried about how well this would go, but the size wasn’t a problem at all.
First, she started with my right ear (she worked one ear at a time). She went through and trimmed my ear hair. I was surprised to see how much hair that ears have. I had no idea it was so much!
From the hair trimming, she began to scrape the wax out very gently and slowly. She was very careful and gentle throughout the process. Of course, the eardrum and the inner ear are very sensitive, so her precision and patience with getting the wax out were amazing. It was also fun to just sit and watch the entire process on the TV screen. Very mesmerizing! She spent about 10 to 15 minutes on one ear before working on the next. I have to admit there were some parts where it was a little painful as she tried to get the wax that was super deep down in my ear, but as I said, she was very attentive and immediately noticed when I clenched up. I think it’s natural that it was painful just because of the location of the wax. She asked if I wanted to stop, but I said that I wanted to continue and had complete faith that she could make my ears pristine.
Low and behold, she was able to clear out my ear perfectly. After that, she continued to clean my ears and finished with other Q-tips to get my ears all nice and clean. I enjoyed looking at the Q-tips and wax at the end. It looked like so much wax on the screen but was actually very tiny, so I was surprised that such a small amount could impact my hearing so much after being pushed down so far.
The best part was definitely the head massage where she used a warm towel and different oils to massage my head and ears.
After, at the shop, they had these cute little gems for people to put on their ears. For an extra 550 yen, customers are allowed to pick any color stone they want (the gems don’t exactly have a meaning or purpose, but you can pick your birthstone or your favorite color as a plus). I wanted the red garnet (my birthstone/my favorite color), but I thought it would look like blood in my ear, so I went for blue haha.
Afterward, she showed me a big ear diagram where I could choose a pressure point to put the gem on. I chose the pressure point for stress. From there, she took the sticker off the back of the stone and pressed it really hard into my ear. That hurt quite a bit but was definitely worth it as it’s a completely non-invasive sticker that sits on your ear for a whole month, hitting that pressure point.
It was so cute and I got soooooo many compliments over the last month. 10 out of 10 recommend ending with the gemstone!
Let’s Hear It All
Overall, I was really grateful for the experience. I thought it was a bit expensive for just 45 minutes. However, my ears are extremely clean now. The employee did a wonderful job of getting out wax that I might’ve needed to go to the doctor for, and it ended with a really cute stone on my ear. I couldn’t be more satisfied. It’s a great service, but unless you have money to dish out, I really think it’s a service people should do maybe once every five to ten years due to wax build-up or possibly pushing the wax too far down.
It’s something I’ve been recommending like crazy to people since getting done because you don’t really think about how important your ears are and them being completely clean until you start losing your hearing.
As a whole, I recommend this experience and certainly recommend BONITA BONITO OSAKA. If you go there, make sure to tell them I sent you their way ;D.
Get the experience at least once in your life~
You never know, you may be going back for more!
