Gyaru Meme

Okay so to kick start me back into blogging, I've decided to start doing the gyaru meme Lizzie and Alice made. Here's the list of all the topics for each day:

Day 01 – When did you start dressing gyaru?

Day 02 - A picture of yourself with fifteen facts  

Day 03 – What’s your best and worst experience with non-gyarus?

Day 04 - A picture of a memorable night

Day 05 – What do you love and dislike about gyaru?

Day 06 - A picture of something you want to do before you die

Day 07 – Your favourite accessories that you own. (a.p)

Day 08 - A picture of something you wish you were better at

Day 09 – Your wish list. (a.p)

Day 10 - A picture of you and the person you have been closest with the longest

Day 11 – If you could have any dress for free what would it be? (a.p)

Day 12 - A picture of someone who has made a huge impact on your life.

Day 13 – Name the best websites for gyarus.

Day 14 - A picture that makes you laugh.

Day 15 – What’s your gyaru inspiration? (a.p)

Day 16 - A picture of your typical night.

Day 17 – Show a photo for every year (or month if you’re new) that you’ve being into gyaru.

Day 18 - A picture of your favorite memory.

Day 19 – Share your best tips.

Day 20 - A picture of your most treasured item.

Day 21 – How did you come across gyaru?

Day 22 – Take a picture of your wardrobe.

Day 23 – Is there local gyarus in your area? If so where and how many.

Day 24 – Are you a lifestyle gyaru? (If not will would you?)

Day 25 – Worst hair/wig experience.

Day 26 – What do you wear when you are not in gyaru?

Day 27 – Did you ever consider leaving gyaru?

Day 28 – What do you think will and would like to happen to gyaru in the future?

Day 29 – The gyaru items you have brought over the past 29 days. (a.p)

Day 30 – Take a beautiful picture of you in gyaru

Day 1 : When did you start dressing Gyaru

This is kinda a difficult question to answer. Through the end half of high school my main interest was Lolita (which I was awful at) but even then I was choosing to read gal magazines. When I was around16/17 I decided to start trying gyaru and I joined my first circle. I wasn't very good at all so even though that was the start of my gyaru journey I don't know if I could say I was gyaru then.

When I went to London for university I started hanging out with Hibisgyaru which I guess is when my style eventually started to improve. I still wasn't very good >.< I don't even really have any pictures from that time. Looking through my pictures though I find it hard to find any from before I came to Japan where I would say I look gal. Which is kinda embarrassing. 

In other news I've been thinking of starting to vlog as well as just blog. I tried to make when describing my look before I went to the Royz live (which I'll update you on later) but yeah...there's no sound >.<

I was trying to say that I'm wearing those hair clips everyone has from Spinns. Make-up wise I have my Urban Decay blush on in "afterglow", I'm wearing my Geo Bambi lenses with Diamond Lashes on the bottom and some I frankensteined myself from cheap Donki lashes up top. They have pink accents on. My whole theme for the live was purple (for Kuina) so I have purple eye-shadow and I'm wearing my d.i.a shirt. The under shirt is from Babyshoop and the shorts are from New Look. Oh and my room is a tip....don't worry I tidied it after.

I really wanna try vlogging again. I have a new mic now so hopefully next time there will be sound. 

109 Sales and Gets

On the 2nd of January 109 began their massive 7 day sale. I'm sure by now everyone knows the drill with New Year sales in Japan; most stores put out 福袋 or lucky bags in English. These bags could contain past season goods or clothes created just for the fukubukuro. This year most of the bags were open, as in their contents had already been relived in store blog posts, magazines or by shop staff. I kind of hate this because in my opinion it really takes out the 'luck' aspect of it, but I guess with people having less money to play with it's a safer bet to let them know how awesome the bargain is that they're getting. One brand that doesn't reveal their contents however is D.I.A and it's their bag I wanted to get.  The D.I.A fukubukuro is notoriously hard to get your hands on. Last year they sold out in 3 hours so I knew I would have to get to 109 early. Early as in before 5am that day to queue in the underground station with all the other crazy people (who also all wanted the D.I.A bag as I worked out from....well eavesdropping).

People with their bags outside getting ready to trade stuff

We were finally let into 109 at 7am. The D.I.A bags being as coveted as they are had a whole special procedure to get them. I had to go to the 8th floor (people were running up the escalators) only to go down the stairs until I met the end of the queue. This was at the 6th floor when I got there...going down! I had to go down 6 flights to go back up 8 again to get my bag...and I arrived early! This year the bag sold out before 8 I heard...that's 1 hour. Mental. I can see why though, for one bag it is packed with goodies:

So much D.I.A goodness :Q____

There were 16 items in total, including jeans, several hoodies, tops and one pieces. All the stuff isn't pictured in here, some because I traded with Chriss (the jeans and a one piece) for her Real Mars fukubukuro jacket and some just because I couldn't fit it into the picture. So yeah, getting the bag was madness but it was definitely worth it and I got to strut around 109 feeling like I won at life. 

Other sales gets were this JSG one piece (it's so soft and moku-moku I just love curling up in it...in fact I'm wearing it as I write this) and this Glad News under top. It was super cheap and it's so useful to wear under things. It goes super well with the JSG one piece so I'm wearing that atm too. Chriss got a top from D.I.A in the sale which meant I had to stand outside with all our bags for awhile. I wanted to go in too but there was just no way with it being so busy. We had to take it in turns, waiting outside with all the bags like all the other  overworked looking boyfriends and dads. D.I.A was crazy.

My shop staff isn't actually in this pic but somewhere inside the crush of the store

I went the next day too when I was less shattered and the crowds had died down a bit and my D.I.A shop staff had totally lost her voice. She still went up on the step ladder to attempt to shout to customers though. Wah she's so adorable I love her. Also I realised how mistaken I was thinking people would be buying less considering the economy. People were buying shit loads, it made no sense to me how they could afford it. Clearly they were blowing all their お年玉 or New Year money on 109. There were so many boyfriends laden with bags while their girlfriends shopped. My friend went that evening and saw guys waiting around with D.I.A bags which is how you know they've been there since the early hours >.< One woman brought her whole family (including her two young boys) to make them carry the bags. I know this because she was bragging about it to reporters when we were queuing underground in the early hours. Now I like to shop and all, but some people have some messed up priorities.

I also bought some stuff with wasn't on sale. I got the Real Mars one-piece which I adore. Totally ageho! The D.I.A jumper is lovely and Emmie ended up getting the same one so now we can twin. The belt I wanted for a while and basically all the staff wear their's constantly. I got it in the end and I think Marie might have bought the same one too.

All in all, New Year is such an awesome time to shop in Japan and I don't think I will forget the madness that is 109 on the first day of sales for the rest of my life. It was some next level shopping!

On another note I'm super lonely now because Chriss and everyone have GONE BACK TO LONDON. I started tearing up in grammar class when I suddenly remembered Chriss wouldn't be back at home when I returned. We spent so much time together having so much fun. waaaaaaaaaaaah

Oh and I've started a new tumblr which I've been trying to update regularly. Check it out if you wanna see daily snapshots of my usually mundane life as a student in Tokyo here.

Shibuya is where it's at

I'm getting so behind with blog posts because so much has been happening lately what with everyone coming to Tokyo for the holidays. I mentioned in my last blog post I was going to go to the Royz live. It was a really good night out and for an indies band they put on a great show. I will shamelessly fan-girl them from now on.

 After the gig we went to take purikura and then went to our beloved Denny's. I've been there twice in the past two weeks. In fact I've been eating out a lot lately, but it's been worth it. I've been having a lot of fun too. And I'm never going to say no to deserts. ^^

Christmas Eve in Japan in basically a date day. Since I'm doing the long distance thing atm I wasn't exactly looking forward to it. Alice was sleeping in because she works nights at a karaoke place so me and Chriss went off to 109. We saw a few other groups of girls having a girly day too so it seems we weren't the only ones not on the romantic bandwagon.

After chatting with the shop staff and picking up some stuff at D.I.A and Mars (me) and CoLu and MarpleQ

 (Chriss) we decided to get something to eat. We went to my favourite Omurice place in Shibuya (they do even better deserts than Denny's). In the end I guess it did sort of end up being like a date lol

It was so good. Then when we got back home Alice was up and she wanted to go out. We dressed up and had what she named "HO HO HO Merry Christmas". I don't think I've ever been such a tramp ever >.< I wore my new Real Mars dress so I was feeling pretty awesome and then we went to Shinjuku at around midnight. First stop was Donki to get boot covers (because my legs were freezing) and then we went off to my favourite izakaya. We had 2 hours all-you-can-drink and actually went for it this time so we came out pretty wasted. Then we went for karaoke (and tried badly to explain how Alice works there in order to get staff discount. We failed unsurprisingly). For some reason after that we still hung out, still drinking at like...7am at this point? We eventually headed home which took far longer than it should have. In the morning me and Alice had to go and get KFC for Christmas dinner, still pretty wasted >.<  A very merry Christmas all around I'd say.

1,2 Agehoes

I posted a pic yesterday on Facebook of me and Chriss twinning. Well you can work out what that means, CHRISS IS IN TOKYO!! Yay I am re-united with one of my agehoes. She's visiting for a few weeks and staying in the same place as me so super convenient for fun times ^^

We then went off with Alice on various errands to ensure we have cake and KFC in time for Christmas. Or should I say Chriss-mas? I'm really happy we managed to order the KFC in time. It's not as good as being with your family I guess but it's still fun doing Christmas the Japanese way. After our errands in Shinjuku (and some flapping about and taking puri in Kabukicho) we went off to Harajuku.

In Harajuku we looked around a few shops and went to Tenya for some tempura-don because we were epic hungry and I realised I hadn't eaten tempura at all since I'd got to Japan which is a travesty since it's super yummy. After that we went for crepes because you can't go to Harajuku and not eat crepes. Believe me I've tried.

The sign next to the crepe shop.

Our crepes. I had double chocolate and banana and Alice and Chriss had double chocolate and strawberry. Mmm fruit.

And finally this is my eye make-up at the moment. I've been playing around with it a bit and have gone back to glitter under the eyes because it helps with the darker shadows and thicker liner I've been using lately. The top lashes are Candy Style (cute) and the bottom lashes are Diamond Lashes (charming eye).

I can't wait until everyone else gets here for the winter holidays. When Emmie gets here the Agehoes will all be assembled and armed to take over....

Lashtastic : Candy Style

When I got here I was in desperate need of new lashes, the ones I'd been using were pretty much trashed. I was all set to buy some Diamond Lashes or Dolly Wink but as I was in Donki I saw loads of lashes for like, 107 yen in various styles. I never bought cheap lashes in the UK because they looked so fake and didn;t come in the styles I wanted. However these Candy Style lashes were all designed for gal make-up and didn't seem too awful.

The lashes don't come with glue but I never use the glue that comes with lashes anyway, I use D.U.P Lash Fixer EX. They aren't the best quality lashes I've ever had, but because they're so cheap I don't mind wearing them all the time and basically trashing them. It also means I can try out different styles without investing too much. I mean who wants 4 pairs of eyelashes that don't actually suit you?

And I'm not the only one wearing them. I knew the packaging looked familiar when I saw them in the shop so I flicked back through some of my gal mags and sure enough the reader models are using them too.

• Kanako uses the Baby top lashes.
• Rina uses the Baby and Natural top lashes and the Racoon bottom lashes.
• Minyatocchi also uses the Baby top lashes.
• Nemoyayo uses the Bapion and Racoon lashes.

So if you're around a Donki I recommend giving some of these a try. I mean what does it cost you?

Style Inspirations : RihoKate

RihoKate (リホケイト）is an egg reader model and the first in my series of blog posts about my style inspirations. I think I first really remember her from last February's valentine's section where I thought she just looked awful. I remember making fun of her with Unni. I'll be honest, I still don't like how she does her makeup but she is also at the moment one of my favourite gal models.

RihoKate model for my beloved JSG for their A/W collection. I like her style and the way she puts her co-ordinates together. I think everything she wears screams gal, even if you take away her make-up and her hair. I like that she takes risks with gal.

This November's issue of egg had the theme of "grrrls message from the street". I think this is them trying to breathe some fire back into gal tbh but I really enjoyed RihoKate's sections because she has such a good attitude to her fashion. It made me respect her so much more and I understand some of her more out there choices now (such as her hair in that issue, it's like when I had crochet braids but worse >.<)

Her general stance on fashion, and life basically is : "I look the way I like because I like it. It my life so I can't spend it worrying about what you think of me" (not a direct translation just summing up) I find it so refreshing in a land of girls that all want to look just like Nishino Kana because it's pretty much socially acceptable and it means boys will like them. When I first got into gal it was at the height of haaaaardy (if anyone even remembers that) and Kaoru was queen. At that time I hadn't started dressing gal really but I really liked the whole atmosphere around the style. It was young and rebellious and bright. Now it's all pastels and no edge which bores me almost to tears so seeing that gals like Riho still exist is like a breath of fresh air. Yay for gals that don't give a shit! More of these please!

DINO

I finally bought the dino sweater I've been coveting. It's silly how happy wearing this makes me. Now me and the gang are off to all night karaoke!�

Gal* Ten

Now it's been around for awhile so I'm sure some people will already know about it but Gal*Ten (or ギャルトーク天国 in Japanese) is what I wanna blog about today. As the name suggests it's just a bunch of gals sat around chatting for a bit over an hour but it's really entertaining. It's a live online show from TBS so if you tweet them during the show they might read it out. I like it because it helps me get used to more casual Japanese and I think the best thing to keep up your interest in studying Japanese is to base it around things you're interested in. It airs at 8pm on Tuesdays Japanese time. You don't have to worry if that is at some ridiculous time in your time zone, you can re-watch it whenever you like on the tbs gal-ten website.


Now for the cast:


Hiromi Imaizumi ( Hi-bou) 

She models for Edge Style and favours a more adult look. She's quite funny on the show too.
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Kanako Kawabata

Everyone's favourite egg model Kanako is on this show. She kinda makes the show to be honest because she has such a fun personality
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Rui Kotobuki

Popteen model. She's very cute and lovely, but kinda quiet in the show.
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Aya Suzuki

My original favourite gal model ever. She models for Ranzuki and has really nice style. You should check out her blog. She's very good friends with Kanako and Romihi.
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Romihi

Romihi of GLIA and egg fame. No surprises that she's on the cast too since both Kanako and Aya are. They have a really good relationship together which makes it fun to watch. They're also all under the same entertainment company.
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Tenchimu

OMG I love her! I don't know how popular or well known she is with western gyaru since I guess she's more of a talent. I see her on a few shows here in Japan and she models in Nicky too. Along with Kanako she brings the fun to gal-ten.
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Akohina

Ako is one of the most adorable gyaru mamas. Three kids and still so glam. She's super cute and sometimes her daughter is on the show. Her style is always fabulous and she's kinda quiet on the show.
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They also have a TBS announcer (Nagisa Satou in case you're interested) who basically babysits the gals. Her and Aya usually do the presenting.

The show is a bit different every time but the basic format has them starting with a bit of chatting and showing what gifts they have to give away to a viewer that tweets them. Recently they've started plugging the theme song for the show (you need to use TBS's phone website to download it) at the start too. They move on to outfit run downs which is the best bit for me. Once the models are out of their magazines you get to see their normal style and where they personally shop at. I love Romihi's style on down days and Aya always looks really cute. It also goes to prove that even the models don't look like models every day. They also take some time at the end usually to talk about advertise something they've been interested in lately. The links to all the products later go up on the website. There is at least one guest every week, usually two which helps keeps the show interesting each week. They also throw in new segments. Last week was a truth game to do with relationships. Kinda brings it home how young some of these gals are when they say they've not had their first kiss yet.

I guess if you can't understand Japanese this show might be kinda boring for you. You can still enjoy the outfit run downs though but I think a lot of the actual fun of the show would be lost. If you are studying Japanese or understand it though I really recommend this as part of your weekly routine. ^^

New 109 stores

Now as I'm sure a lot of people know from Mitsu blog post here there's been huge turnover in the shops in 109. I went last Saturday when most of the new stores opened up and since I figured people might be interested I thought I'd blog about it.

Now most of the new stores are on the upper floors. The first I went into was Pinza on the 6th floor opposite Ank Rouge. It's not my style at all and I just went in to check it out while my friend was trying on stuff in Ank Rouge. While I was in there there was some guy in a Lolita dress who was getting a lot of staff attention. He was the only other person in there. Wow, sucks to be Pinza. I didn't feel too bad for them though because one of the shop staff gave me a dirty look when she saw I was wearing trainers ¬¬ In an empty shop don't try to be picky about customers lady! The cloths were nice, very cute and ladylike but nothing to scream and shout about.

Ungrid on the 7th floor, unlike Pinza was PACKED with people. It's a smaller shop but still, it was full. I wondered why and then I realised a lot of people had come to see the model that had turned up. I was literally forced around the shop by the  movement of people in there and I couldn't look at anything really so I went back later for a better look. I like most of the stuff, especially the burgundy jumper you can see in the picture above. The layout is actually alright as well when there are less people about.

moohoop was my first stop on the 8th floor and the store I was most interested in looking at. It's crazy small and quite a few people were in there looking about but I could still look at everything without feeling too swamped. I like the stuff they have in but it has a different feel to the rest of 109. I like that the clothes are cheap and the shop staff are friendly but I also had a bit of a jumble sale feel to it. It's currently on the list of models such as Suzuki Aya and Kanako though and is definitely worth a look at. I really want the dolman sleeved batman hoody. Super cute

GYDA is nice but so expensive. I saw a few things I liked such as the shoes you can see in the pic and some other bits and pieces but things would have to just be more spectacular for me to pay what they want for it. They were selling a set which included leggings, a t-shirt and fluffy waist coat for like 80 quid or so? They must be on crack. But I think that about a lot of pricing in 109. How does it cost so much? It's not made that well and I hope the corridor of space they have in 109 isn't raising the costs that badly.

When I first went Repipi Armanio was full of children so I didn't even go in. Then when I went back later in the day (yeah I went to 109 twice in one day) my friend dragged me in to look at thier fluffy back packs with ears. It's a really sweet shop and the prices are low but...it's for kids tbh. Some of the stuff could work into other outfits but I couldn't see it ever being a shop someone almost exclusively buys from. I mean it's the kinda AmeKaji style of CoLu or w♥c but somehow just doesn't have a grown-up element to it at all.

So there we go, all the shops I went to that day. I went into Garula too and again like a lot of stuff there but would not pay that much for booty shorts. That 16-year-old is crazy. Where do these gals get their money from? My favourite atm is moohoop.