-Shop cute Japanese products and cool products from Japan. This cute blog is about Japanese kawaii, kawaii Japan, kawaii fashion, Japanese pop culture and more. It's a kawaii blog from Japan, Japan blog in English by a Japanese girl.

Kawaii Makeover
20/NOV/2010 on air

It’s rumored that Silk-san is 50 years old. Her body and skin look so young that they do not look like the ones belonging to someone in her 50s. Silk-san debuted as a comedian 25 years ago. But she became popular especially since she released her semi-nude picture calendar before she turned 50.

What is the secret to sustain beauty and youth? She’s kept doing this facial exercise for over 10 years and 50 times of “kaeru fukkin” (=frog sit-up) everyday for 13 years. That changed her completely.

At a male exclusive esthetic salon there is a man who spends 1 million yen for esthetic treatment in 3 years. They are called “Bibo-o” (In kanji, it’s 美貌 which means good looks and 男 which means men. It’s just a coined word.). Most of them are engaged in hospitality or entertainment business or sales. The boom started from a popular men’s magazine called “Men’s Club“.

Toga-san, 43-year-old chief editor of the magazine, locates perfume and skin care goods on his desk to use for himself. He uses a steamer to moisturize his skin. He doesn’t feel like seeing people when his hair or skin condition is bad. So how is his house then? He owns more than 50 kinds of cosmetics. He had already epilated his beards and his nasal hair. Bibo-o is not just a good-looking guy but they are aiming to be a beautiful man. They can communicate with women well thanks to the common topic about beauty.

A 27-year-old man wants to be a Bibo-o. This continues at the latter part of the episode.

There is a blog written by a 18-year-old high school girl Arishan that has 70,000 daily page view. The theme is “People can change!” You will never see these are the same person. She writes how she has changed in the past 3 years since she was suffering from her plump face when she was 15. It’s in the bathroom where she updates her blog.

She has a makeover notebook that helped change her from a plump 15-year-old girl to a Dokumo. The point is to aim for a high goal. She set a goal as “to become a sales assistant for a shop in Shibuya 109″. Well, it was not Shibuya but she successfully became a shop sales assistant for a popular brand COCOLULU in her home town Utsunomiya. She aimed to be a Dokumo for some gyaru fashion magazines such as egg, ranzuki and popteen and she achieved that over 30 times.

Arishan says this notebook changed her life.

The sales floor of Yamada Denki LABI in Shinjuku is huge. They have more than 1500 kinds of beauty goods and machines there. The sales increased by 10% from last year.

Then how is the life of a woman who is obsessed with beauty machines? She uses the steamer to remove makeup, while she is checking emails. She locates the steamer near her pillow and turn the switch on so it steams her face while she is sleeping. In the morning she uses the face massager while she is selecting clothes to wear that day. Before she leaves home, she turns on the cleaning robot so it should finish cleaning her apartment before she comes back home.

Busy Japanese people cannot use time for just one task. Beauty can be maintained while we do something different. It’s called “Nagara Kaden boom” in Japan, which means to operate machines while doing something else. Why Panasonic noticed this trend and demand? They surveyed “When and what occasion do people want to do something for improvement of their beauty?” And most of the answers were “while we are sleeping!”. They produced a beauty machine with which we can still make use of our limited time. Panasonic also opened a rental powder room CLUXTA in Ikebukuro where users can rent the space and their beauty machines as well as cosmetics for 300-1000yen per visit. Most of the users are the students or workers in their 20s.

Kawakita-san, 27-year-old store manager, wants to be a Bibo-o.
The Bibo-o guy gives him instructions how to wash face for a start. He says it’s necessary to wash the face with a good lather, followed by facial scrub. Then facial pack is for 10-15 minutes. Then use a facial roller to massage the face. Lip care shouldn’t be forgotten.
Kawakita-san is encouraged to keep following this way and he even added sit-up spontaneously.

Serina-chan wants to be a Gyaru. Arishan tells her how to use the makeover notebook properly. How much weight/size/body fat rate do you want to gain? Then what do you want to do when you achieve the goal?

=====
Kirin’s opinion:
Isn’t it too much that men have to remove their beards or nasal hair? Being hygienic is OK to me, but I personally don’t require this much for men. How about you? As for the makeover notebook, I like this idea. Actually I truly believe we can achieve most of the goals when we aim them in a correct way. In my case, I will make a big vision board with full of travel pictures and hang it in a living room. As you know, I want to be a world traveler who travel all the time and works from anywhere online.
=====
Disclaimer: Tokyo Kawaii TV is a TV program owned and broadcasted by NHK Japan, and has nothing to do with this blog.

***There are archives of episodes listed under the page titled “Tokyo Kawaii TV” that is just located under the title banner of this blog.
***If you want to know the music that was used in the episode, please refer to this page and help yourself to find it by selecting the date when the episode was on air in Japan.

Makeup changes men
29/JAN/2011 on air

Who is this kawaii cosplaying DJ at a night club “MOGRA” in Akiba? Can you believe this is a man? Yes, it’s he! Torideta-san is a 28-year-old full-time company employee but he transforms himself into a kawaii girl to work as a DJ at the night club about twice a month. He is good at using wigs with some hair accessories, in which way his hair looks more natural.

Then how does he do that?

His girl friend Asami helps his transformation. She brings her own clothing to his house, gives him some makeup, and state her opinion from a woman’s point of view. This time, he becomes a Mori girl in 2 hours. Having a cup close to his mouth, he can hide his manly look. He makes that upward look just like girls like to do.

Tomoyuki Onish is a hair makeup airtist who has worked with many famous Japanese singers and fashion models. Rana-chan, a university student wants to be like Kumi Koda. 1 hour later, you see how she changed!

Takeru, a vocalist from a visual-kei band SuG is modeling for a street fashion magazine and he even produced his own fashion brand in 2010. He’s popular in some Asian countries such as Thailand as well. He makes over a 24-year-old girl Yuka-chan who hates her round and baby face. He modifies a bra with studs and gives makeup to her.

Ueda-san is a 20-year-old man who longs for a stage-actress. He liked wearing woman’s clothes and wearing makeup since he was a high school boy. It was when he was 15 that he won the grand prize of youth department at a fashion design contest, which gave him confidence and a trigger to pursue what he likes. His house interior also looks like the one of woman’s.

He calls himself the one with no gender: neither a man nor a woman, but different from the one in-between. The concept is the one with no gender. That’s what he is trying to be. Although he is as young as 20, he doesn’t like to wear young lady’s taste of clothing. His ideal image is like Miki Maya. He bought a dress for 8000yen and spent a week to modify it. Then he rented a space to have himself shot. The picture shows how he is today and the one in the mirror shows himself in the future. Look at the facial expressions of the one in the mirror and himself. You can see somehow the eyes are widely open in the mirror nevertheless he has downcast eyes. When he applies for job openings such as secretary, he doesn’t fake himself. He put a picture of his womanly photo and circle “man” on the CV, because he believes there should be a company that accepts him as he is.

Who was the most miraculous makeover? Who’s the one that has the biggest gap between before and after? It was Yuka-chan changed by Takeru. Ueda-san is beautiful as he is.

=====
Kirin’s opinion:
Interesting men! But I wonder how it’s like to have such a man as a boyfriend. Torideta-san’s girl friend showed embarrassment and confusion to see that her boyfriend is trying to look like an ideal girl. She thinks he is trying to manifest what she cannot provide him with.
But I would choose him as a biggest makeover, not the girl as Tokyo Kawaii TV selected. (I’d rather want to see how the woman changes like a manly man in this episode.)

FYI, at almost the last scene, you see Ueda-san is gluing his picture on the CV. This is common in Japan. We must paste a self picture and write down birthday, age and gender. So it’s possible one can be selected or denied only because of age, sex and physical appearances.
=====

Disclaimer: Tokyo Kawaii TV is a TV program owned and broadcasted by NHK Japan, and has nothing to do with this blog.

***There are archives of episodes listed under the page titled “Tokyo Kawaii TV” that is just located under the title banner of this blog.
***If you want to know the music that was used in the episode, please refer to this page and help yourself to find it by selecting the date when the episode was on air in Japan.

« Hide more

Tokyo-Seoul Beautiful legs
22/JAN/2011 on air

Winter 2011, Tokyo…

People enjoy boots, leggings, knee-high socks…and even the loose socks are coming back among high school girls?? But the difference from last boom is that they wear the loose socks over high socks in dark blue. BTW, speaking of the beautiful legs, we cannot talk about it without referring to SNSD (Girls’ Generation, and in Japan they are called “Shoujo Jidai”).

In Japan, who do you think of the one who has beautiful legs? IKKO is popular. (note: IKKO is a hair makeup artist and is a charismatic beauty advisor who often appears on TV and magazines. He is one of the most popular gay talent in Japan.) How did IKKO keep his legs in good shape, even though he gained a lot of weight in his 30s? He owns over 300 pairs of high heels. Above all, he likes the ones with 15cm heels. He takes off the shoes straps intentionally, to bring a feeling of tension while he walks.

Which boots make your legs look beautiful? It’s “Kaijuu(=monster) boots” definitely!!

Some people make the monster boots by themselves. Choose the fake fur fabric, cut it in an appropriate size and glue it around the boots. The tip is to cut the fabric from back side. When you glue it, don’t do it too tight, but make it loose and that will allow the boots make the mokomoko (=fluffy) look. Finally add a ribbon with a safety pin and it’s done! The budget will be around 4000yen and it’ll take about half an hour.

Beni-chan also owns over 50 pairs of boots. She is a booths mania. But she also says the monster boots are the absolute ones that make her legs look nice.

Jonte’ Moaning is a professional choreographer who works with super singers such as Janet Jackson and Beyonce. How does he maintain his beautiful legs? He wears 20cm heels, which gives him a good exercise.

EDWIN sells leggings-look jeans. The product feature is comfortable like leggings, but they look like jeans. You can actually wear them like jeans (without covering your hips with tunic, for example). They are trying to bring back the young people who don’t like wearing jeans any longer. Thus, they sell this product at a book store, for example, where people do not come to look for jeans. This is their strategy to gain new customers who do not bother to visit a jeans shop. Sheer tights industry is producing fashionable tights that can beat leggings.

Girls’ Generation from Korea.

The skinny jeans they were wearing in their promotion video recorded a big hit. They are actually from this store in Korea. Many fans visit this store to get the same jeans.

There is a Girls’ Generation’s personal trainer working in this gym. “Their legs were not beautiful from the beginning. They gained the great look thanks to their hard training,” says the trainer. “It’s important to exercise your hipline. That’s because giving an exercise around your hip eventually makes your thighs and calves look beautiful.”

Kyary Pamyu Pamyu is a high school girl model who is cazy about socks. She thinks of total coordination from socks. Socks can be a good tool to make legs look beautiful.

It was Tabio, the Japanese socks brand that John Galliano used for the Paris Collection 2010. Tabio is secretly supported by European women little by little. Kutsushitaya is its retail shop. There are 270 stores in Japan and 11 stores overseas.

Ochi-san is a man who created this brand all by himself. He was sent out to an apprenticeship at the age of 15 at a socks store and he started his own business at the age of 28. It’s not too much to say that he has devoted his 56 years of life to socks! He checks all the new products by touching with his cheeks, biting (to ensure the elasticity!) and wearing by himself. (even if the socks or the tights are designed for women!) He is a proud 71 years old, who contributes to something nice that is “made in Japan”.

Reebok or New Balance are producing toning shoes one after another. MBT‘s unstable shoes are so cool Paris Hilton loves them too. Such toning shoes are effective for those who have no time to exercise in a gym or who hate exercising. They are good for the people who have to stand up all day long, such as a hair stylist.

IKKO’s tips for beautiful legs.
He’s suffering from low body temperature and so he tries to warm it with food such as ginger and by walking at least 2 hours everyday.
While he stays at home, he put a Ganban mat (same material as the one in Ganbanyoku) on the chair and heat his body while he put his legs into a hot water and gives himself a massage.

=====
Kirin’s opinion:
The episode has become too old by now. ^ ^;; Even though IKKO has good shaped legs, I still wanted to see the ones of woman’s, because biologically women normally have less muscles and easy to get swollen. Anyhow, so it was the hipline that affects legs. My hips seem to have hard time holding the fat against the gravity and they are going down. lol I must do that exercise! XD
=====

Disclaimer: Tokyo Kawaii TV is a TV program owned and broadcasted by NHK Japan, and has nothing to do with this blog.

***There are archives of episodes listed under the page titled “Tokyo Kawaii TV” that is just located under the title banner of this blog.
***If you want to know the music that was used in the episode, please refer to this page and help yourself to find it by selecting the date when the episode was on air in Japan.