En Salon & Seattle (Picture heavy)

A month or so ago Hannah, Amanda Leigh and I made an appointment at a random Japanese salon Hannah had found in Bellevue called En Salon.  None of us had been there before but we decided hey why not! So Hannah called in an appointment  for all three of us to get our nails done.  Which I'd never done before.  Plus it was gel and the other two had done acrylic only.  All in all a new experience.

So weeks passed, and finally the day showed up.  Amanda and I got up early (after I had closed at work, and a restless night of little sleep!) and caught the bus down to Seattle.  A convenient little straight shot from right outside our apartment complex right down into downtown Seattle.  For only $4.50.  Pretty amazing.  Anyhow! We caught the bus and ended up talking with our friend Jack who happened to be on the bus too. Good times were had.  We chatted and laughed about how Jack had to use the restroom a fourth of the way through the ride.  Like I said, good times.

Hour or so later we ended up at Westlake Center (A shopping center.) The main area was open, but not many of the shops.  Hilariously, for us at least (Not Jack.), the restrooms were closed too.  So he had to run around and try to find one.  While we were waiting for him I spotted a delicious looking Crepe shop.  Which wasn't open.  And had no sign for when it would be. So depressing.  Eventually Hannah showed up and we made a little adventure to find Jack's bus connection.  It took a bit more time than we expected, but we found it then headed off to Starbucks so Hannah could get her coffee fix.

(This is where the photos start...)

Hannah and her...whatever it is.  My Vanilla Rooibos tea.

After dropping off Jack and our quick run in at Starbucks we attempted to find my bank to convert my currency.  The was the one downfall of getting into Seattle so early.  It wasn't even 9:00AM yet so hardly anything worthwhile was open.  So, 8:30, we decided to catch one of the buses to Uwajimaya (a Japanese market.) and hang out there.  Luckily it was within the "Ride Free" zone so we didn't have to pay for the trip.  One of the many conveniences.

On the bus!

Once we got to Uwajimaya, however, the entrance we usually take was closed! How frustrating.  So we walked around, and got distracted by the trees across the street.  Which called for some dork time.  Which did amuse a few passerbys.  It was rollarcoaster of events there.

There was dancing!

Victorious poses.

Clothing shots...

Even coffee theifs.

And cuteness.

Eventually we figured out that another entrance was open, and went in.  After a bit of searching, and a lot of sadness over certain places not being open, we left to head to Hannah's bank, so she could get some money to give me to buy her things while I'm in Japan.  Afterwards, since it was getting closer to 10:00 and our appointment was at noon, we caught the bus to Hannah's.  Another straight shot.   

We sat at Hannah's for about another hour to an hour and a half after we got there.  Hannah got ready for the day, and Amanda and I watched TV.  Random shows.  Mostly the cooking network!

Hannah hamming it up.  And me...in a closet.

Finally it was time to leave and, after a little prodding, Hannah's mom gave us a ride to the Salon.  We got a little lost in the parking lot, since it didn't say exactly WHERE in the lot the salon was.  But finally we found it.  With an agreement to call her mom to get us when we were almost done, we headed in.  Immediately they knew who we were, greeting us by name.  The lovely woman at the front counter offered us seats and gave us the paperwork we needed to fill out.  And about two minutes later we were lead back to the nail station and greeted by two cheerful women.  Whom we learned a bit later were named Yoko and Hiromi.  

Before heading to the Salon we had all printed the design (Or general idea) of what we wanted, which they giggled about.  Hannah took one of the seats, and I offered up the other to Amanda.  Her design seemed easier than mine, so it made sense.  After a slight consultation about what she could do in the design, and what needed to be changed, Yoko started on Amanda's nails.  And Hiromi on Hannah's.

Hiromi and Hannah!

I sat by, completely fascinated by the process.  They would take one hand, paint on the layer of gel they needed at the moment, then tell the girls to put their hand in the little timed light box while they worked on the other.  Then switch.  There were only one of two times where their timing was off and a hand had to wait.  It was pretty incredible.

Amanda's hand in the UV lightbox.

After a few minutes the woman from the front counter (who's name I never got...) came back and asked us what type of tea we would like.  I have to admit, I was a little excited. I love tea.  It's a sick obsession.  Hannah and I chose Green, and Amanda chose a gorgeous Mountain Berry style.  All the while during the appointment we chatted with the nail techs about random things.  They were surprised and delighted to know we all spoke varying degrees of Japanese and chatted on and on.  Hannah found some surprising details about Hiromi including that she went to the same college as Hannah's boyfriend, their dogs are the same color and name, and they have the same pair of scissors.  More too probably!  They were also interested in my coming Japan trip and we talked about nails in Japan, the expense of them, and places to eat.  A  bad idea in retrospect, since we talked about it about four times.  Yoko says I need to try a Teriyaki burger at McDonalds.  I HAVE to.  I'm pretty sure if I don't by the next time I go in she'll be mad at me.  

It even came back up later, Yoko saying she "kept thinking about it and now she's hungry".  We all were by then!

Which one is Amanda's?  Hmmmm.

After about an hour or so Amanda's nails were finished.  They were gorgeous, so we had to take photos of them.  Yoko seemed pretty stoked by the idea, so she grabbed a flower ball that they have for their website photos and told Amanda to hold it while she took the photo.  A brilliant idea in retrospect, they came out gorgeous!  Sparkly white with little black sparkly spots and silver metallic bows. Very Amanda.

Amanda's gorgeous polkadot bow nails.

Then it was my turn!  Hannah still going on the other side, with a slight hitch in her design as the gold liner wouldn't stick or stay put.  Among other things.  But all worthwhile, and fixed in the end.  Like I mentioned earlier, I've never gotten my nails actually done before.  A little manicure for senior prom, but those were my real nails, just shaped and polished.  This was a whole new thing.  

Previously in the week I'd broken a nail or two at work, which I'd worried about, but Yoko said it was find.  And we'd just extend those two nails and that would be it.  It was an odd feeling, I have to admit.  Not unpleasant.  Just odd.  For the extensions they would put a layer of gel, then have you dry it, then buff that layer (instead of your actual nail.)  Glue the extension to the buffed nail, then dry it again.  And that was it.  Of course a few layers of gel after that, but that's the same treatment any other nail gets.  It was pretty cool.  Of course the extensions got cut and shaped to match the other nails.  It was pretty amusing before hand though.  I played around while she got ready to move on.

Poking around with my two witch nails, pre cut!

Of course my nails wouldn't be exactly the picture I brought since they had to use what deco they had on hand.  But it was a cool process.  Layers of black, and layers of while.  Then the hand painted stripes that turned out so accurate.  Much more drying (For every layer).  Then came the deco.  For both me and Hannah our respective tech would put on one, then look at it for a second and ask a question "Too big?" "Different color?" It was cute.  We'd put our input, and they would fix it and move on.  No smudging, no problems.   

It took so much less time with Yoko than I thought it was going to.  She finished up the design, and added a clear layer on top for shine.  Then buffed a few rough edges, and added some clear to fill in the spaces between 3D pieces and nails.  And just like that she was done.  A slight hand massage and it was all over.  Just as Hannah was finishing too!

My monochrome nails with pink hearts and gold accents. <3

Gorgeous work.  Well worth the time.  Extensions and Gel.

We payed, and thanked them.  It was so much less than any of us thought.  Hannah commented on how she thought it would be atleast $150 and they laughed.  Overall it was $65 for Amanda, $85 for me, and $95 for Hannah.  So cheap!  They asked if we wanted to schedule our next appointment, and we had to decline.  Since I won't be back for a month, we'll have to consider when we can.  But we're planning on either the week I get back of the week after that.  It's a new addiction.

So we headed out, thanking and laughing.  And called Hannah's mom.  She was at a store down a bit, in line to purchase.  So we decided to grab a snack.  Our first choice, the sushi place two stores down, was closed.  So we settled on the Persepolis Bakery.  It took a little deciding, but we grabbed a box of homemade cookies and sat to wait.

Not only cute, but delicious!

My favorite were the heart and flower shaped ones.  They had jam on the inside and were soft and sweet.  All in all not a bad choice while we waited.

Dining.

While we waited, of course we had to ham around and take an obligatory nail photo.

Manda had a hard time understanding the concept of a star.

Her mom arrived, and we headed back off to Seattle.  Hitting traffic of course.  And laughing about Hannah's moms hate of Subaru's.  We finally made it back with about an hour to an hour and a half to spare before our bus home.  We checked the bus schedule and planned accordingly, heading back to Westlake Center.  When we got there, we went upstairs and I finally got my crepe!  A delicious Strawberry Banana Choco Crepe.  It was so good!  I was in heaven.   And the girl at the Sushi place next to the crepe place looked sad, so I went up and bought some Salmon rolls (my favorite.)

Crepe from Yummy Crepes!

Hannah going a Strawberry Banana Crepe, and Amanda got a Chicken and Vegetable Crepe.  Both delicious.  We also got a diet coke, and two Almond Milk Teas.  All in all a great meal.  Then we headed down to the Daiso and I grabbed a few things.

Yum.

Afterwards we ran across the street to my bank, to see about money.  They asked what I needed and I told them, then they said it would be two business days.  No bueno.  So I explained and they apologized, saying if I had stopped in earlier tomorrow was a possibility, but since it was so late it wouldn't be before monday.  The day I leave.  Luckily though they knew where I could go.  Back into Westlake!  To a place called Travelex.  So we headed back.  

I waited about three minutes for the woman in front of me before taking my turn. It was pretty painless.  Basic "How much do you need?" she seemed a little surprised when I said around $2,000 in yen.  But it all went well.  We chatted a little about what I was doing in Tokyo and how it made sense for shopping and such.  She even gave me an assortment of bills.  Done with that we headed back out to catch the bus.

There were blue trees.  It was sort of cool.  We got stopped by some kids doing a film about Youth Violence, and had to answer some questions on film.  Then back on track.

We had about seven minutes before the bus came so we all sat and discussed how the day went and when we'd do it again.  It was so much fun.  Even for so little.  I can't wait to do it again.  Officially my new salon, and definitely my new technician.  Both of the girls agree.  

Eventually the bus came and we parted ways.  An hour and a half later we were home.  Sad the day had to end, but exhausted. 

♥ Myshappy