Oh, the Ordinary Places You’ll Go!

You could say that I have a public pool habit when I travel. From Reykjavík and Sydney to Phoenix and Palm Springs, Calif., it’s how I eavesdrop on and observe everyday life, wherever I am. Early one morning last summer in Tokyo, I entered the lobby of a sports complex in the Shimokitazawa neighborhood, joined the orderly queue of seniors, and enthusiastically pantomimed my way to a day pass.

After my swim, I followed the illustrated signs and rinsed off before wandering over to the hot tub. A tiny Japanese woman with a halo of white hair gave me a grin as I got in. “I like your swimming!” she said, in English. From our perch, we chatted animatedly as the 8 a.m. aqua aerobics class kicked and splashed into high gear. It was a highlight of my time in Japan.

I was reminded of this the other day while getting a haircut from my longtime hairdresser in Berkeley, Calif., Noel Shabazian. He mentioned a trip he was about to take to Little Rock, Ark., to visit his girlfriend’s parents, and I asked what he was planning to do.

“Oh, I’m going to the barbershop,” he said, snipping away. “Whenever I go someplace new, I like to head over to the local barbershop for a shave and a haircut. I don’t even tell them I do hair — I just like to see how they do things.” He loves getting a window into the lives of strangers: where they live, who they gossip about, what preoccupies them.

I’d always thought of my public pool visits as idiosyncratic, but Noel’s barbershop ritual made me see it as a shared way of thinking about travel, of experiencing the world. Our eyes met in the mirror, and I smiled in recognition.