Comments on: Tokyo Kawaii Collection in Paris

By: kirin

kirin — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:10:10 +0000

Oh I didn't notice your comment up until now, sorry. It might be too late to reply to it, but thank you so much for telling me such a kind message. ^ ^ All the best!

By: kirin

kirin — Sun, 28 Mar 2010 14:08:52 +0000

Cool. Yeah, I heard of the store in San Fransisco.

By: Aisha

Aisha — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 09:58:03 +0000

Ah I own the bunny print dress the girl was wrapping in the BTSSB store! I bought the pink version of the dress the San Fransisco branch, which was recently open last summer. Now there is an official Japanese Lolita store in the United States for those interested, ironically I live in Texas so it was a large pilgrimage for Lolita's in North America to all flock to San Fransisco for the Grand Opening.

By: Luigi Fulk

Luigi Fulk — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 18:32:31 +0000

I simply wanted to add a comment here to say thanks for you very nice ideas. Blogs are troublesome to run and time consuming therefore I appreciate when I see well written material. Your time isn’t going to waste with your posts. Thanks so much and carry on You’ll defintely reach your goals! have a great day!

By: kirin

kirin — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 00:31:16 +0000

Thank you Lisa! I've learned something new. I didn't even know "hit the nail on the head" even though I understood the meaning from the context of your comment. :p

I found that Kimo-kawaii is explained at ALC (which is the site I use as a dictionary).
http://www.alc.co.jp/eng/hontsu/ima/21.html

By: Lisa

Lisa — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 13:48:56 +0000

ha, actually 'hit is square on' is almost a kind of mix of some expressions! 'You hit the nail on the head' is probably the 'correct' version. It just means you got the point or idea exactly/perfectly. Hitting something square on is like getting a bullseye, hitting the target perfectly. So they both mean the same thing, that it's the 'right' answer. ^^

I agree with you, and I also hope it will be understood! Then perhaps the next thing to explain would be 'kimo-kawaii', which is such a perfect expression!

By: kirin

kirin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:34:55 +0000

"hit it square on"?? I'm learning something new which I cannot find in a dictionary…(@ @;) So…cute gives you an image of being dependent right? I hope the day will soon come when word "kawaii" is recognized as it is… Maybe it's difficult to explain it with words, and the best thing is they should come to Japan and see what it means by themselves. Fashion or art or music, these things are hard to be explained with words.

It used to be said by some foreign people that Japanese adults are very strange because they read Manga on a train. That's because they imagined comic like Spider-Man. But it could be something like "Kacho Kosaku Shima (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kach%C5%8D_K%C5%8Dsa... Time has passed and now what happens? They like to read Japanese manga! (^_~) I hope someday they understand why we like "kawaii"!

By: Lisa

Lisa — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:54:31 +0000

I think Harukosama definitely hit it square on – the translation of kawaii to cute does the concept a disservice. :/ It's much more than that and certainly a lot broader. Also, like you said – we hear the word 'cute' as adults and are almost repulsed by it. I used to hate being called cute, because it can sometimes have a negative meaning: it can be perceived as considering someone as less capable, not able to take care of themselves, maybe not as intelligent as others. I don't know why, but it seems as if it has become anti-feminist when it comes to adult women. Which is really odd, because you would think the ultimate sign of independence is to be able to wear what you want! But anyway, I digress. Now I have no trouble with cute, because I think and use it as a broader word like 'kawaii' myself. But I agree, it's disappointing that the people they interviewed didn't understand it that way. Perhaps they should have gone to the show to learn what it really means!

By: kirin

kirin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:40:10 +0000

Thank you for your interests to my blog and your comment, Steve. I don't understand Lolita very well, but it was very fresh to me when I heard they like to live as Lolita by nature. There are certain numbers of people in the world who like Lolita way of dressing but they notice that when they actually see the Lolita looks.

Most of the Japanese do dress normal clothes (less extreme fashion) but even so, it's absolutely important that the clothes, accessories, or fashion items are perceived as kawaii (cute, pretty, or cool). If it's kawaii, it sells.

By: kirin

kirin — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 13:28:49 +0000

You're right. Cute and Kawaii is not 100% equal. There are many words in Japanese that do not mean 100% the same way when converted to English. For example, "Natsukashii" is not 100% equal to the feeling that one misses something. (I was not sure from your profile if you understand Japanese too.) :p

Thank you for sharing your thoughts here.