Thursday, July 31, 2014

Day 38: Entertainment Headquarters in Apgujeong and The Red Carpet HairSalon

Today, my friend and I decided to visit the entertainment headquarters located in Gangnam, as many are right beside each other. To get here, it's best just to look up someone else's directions as I was kind of cruising along and didn't take note of anything.
First, we passed by SM's old entertainment building, which is now supposedly their training center. It's just a regular, rectangular building on the main street, but with two large ads of SM's latest comebacks. On the side facing the street is f(x), but these huge trees are covering majority of their faces.
On the side street (which we actually didn't see until walking back to the subway station) is a smaller ad of Henry.
Walking a few minutes further and down some side streets, we saw JYP and its collage of artists. There is a Dunkin Donuts across from JYP, filled with fangirls with drinks waiting for vans to pull up.
Across the street from JYP is Cube, which has modern architecture and looks more chic than the others, and no fans waiting around.
Adjacent to JYP is Cube, and its Cube Studio Cafe is nearby. This cafe has its artists' memorabilia, which I didn't get a chance to visit. It was pretty calm here, and I think fans were just waiting inside the cafe.
To get a better idea of just how close these entertainment companies are, refer to this photo. Cube is the large building in the background, and on the right in the foreground is the Dunkin Donuts that is facing JYP, meaning JYP is practically to the right of me when I was taking this photo.
Walking further along this quaint road, we found FNC, which is just a tall building with a gate out front. It's very simplistic, though there is a large advertisement for AOA on the side. Again, there were just fans who would stop by to take pictures, then leave.
And then you walk to the end of this road, turn right and get back onto a semi-main road, and there's SM. It's a really plain building with the famous SM logo out front, a sign to the left and this little office to the right. Many fans were waiting out in front of the building, as well as inhabiting the playground park directly across the street.
As I had no interest in seeing these buildings, I didn't want my trip to Gangnam to be wasted, so we also headed to Kang Ho The Red Carpet hair salon, which is known for celebrities to go to. Infinite goes here often, as they've been here just before the 2013 MAMA Awards (where they make those superman poses ㅋㅋ) and for their dating episode of This Is Infinite. Just a head's up, this hair salon is closer to SM's training center, so maybe stop by here before heading to the headquarters? It's also located in some back alleys, and it's hillside.
Directly next door to the hair salon is JYJ's Coffee Cojjee coffee shop, which I'll be sure to check out soon. Just as we arrived at the hair salon, my friend noticed a woman coming out of the salon with an entourage behind her saying how beautiful she looked, and to avoid looking like 사생펜, my friend wanted to leave...so I couldn't really appreciate the building and all of the memories it holds. But I'll be back!

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