A week of firsts: salon edition.

I’m going to go all girly for once, since I thought it was necessary to describe two firsts that were inevitable since I’m living in Japan now.

Haircut: Last weekend I spontaneously decided to bite the bullet and get my first haircut in Japan. It’s proven to be difficult to find a salon that is able to deal with non-Asian hair, but mine is nothing too difficult. I ventured into a quieter area of downtown Kumamoto and stumbled across the salon, which I’d recommend to anyone.

Although English wasn’t really spoken, I got my point across with pictures and limited Japanese, all helped by the friendliness of the staff there. It was hands down not only the best experience I’ve had, but also the most precise. The poor girl doing my hair was on her tiptoes and kneeling because my hair is so long, but nevertheless, she spent forever going over it to perfect it. I’ve never had anyone use 3 different types of scissors on me, and I have no idea what they did, but my hair feels fabulous! She also did magical things with a curling wand I’d never seen before in my life, and I’m actually contemplating getting a perm over here. I’ll keep you updated if it goes wrong from the mermaid waves I envision and I end up looking like a poodle.

Nail Salon: I’ve wanted Japanese gel nails for the LONGEST time, and for some reason never bothered to get any done when I was in Japan the last time. They’ve got a distinctive look to them, basically very “kawaii”, but I am totally in love.

On my last day in Okinawa (a trip I’ll describe in another post), I decided to have some ‘treat yo’self’ time and get them done. After some major Instagram stalking, I found Litomo Nail Salon and gave them a call. The girl I spoke to was lovely, and once I arrived she told me how she can’t speak English, but is learning from Coldplay songs. The girl is going to sound so poetic I’m actually a little bit jealous. But anyway, we went for a ‘teacher appropriate’ style, and off she went.
I was there for two hours, being treated to a massage both before and after. I was also given a little pot of Earl Grey to enjoy while I was dozing off. My nails even have real flowers on them now, which the girl meticulously picked out from a pot of water, dried and selected each petal individually.

The salon itself was adorable, hidden away on the top floor of a building, with random stuffed polar bears dotted around the place. I’d definitely recommend this place to anyone visiting Naha as it’s easily accessible, Ayame is the sweetest and by how nail salons go, it was pretty damn cheap.

Visit litomo.jindo.com or check out their Instagram: litomo.nail. You can even see the super adorable post Ayame wrote after I left. The translation is hilarious, but you get the jist of it.

Now it’s time for me to find somewhere in Kumamoto to enjoy too, and I have no shame in admitting when I’m not in schools, I will be having themed nails because when in Japan, anything goes. I say that while sitting here at school wearing pink Rilakkuma crocs (that I’m not admitting how comfortable they actually are) and clashing pink Hello Kitty socks with pineapples from Okinawa. They really set off my cankles.