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The other day, Lisa, one of my blog readers who also has lived and worked in Japan kindly introduced me an interesting blog that is written by a foreign Gyaru who lives in Tokyo now. This is it: Universal Doll

I think that some of my blog readers who are very much interested in fashion can enjoy her blog. In her blog, she mentions about a new magazine, “Shibuya 109 English Guidebook“. I also found another post about the magazine but is written in more objective way than hers.

If you are planning to visit Shibuya, which is the very center of Japanese Gyaru fashion and where 109 department building with full of Gyaru taste of fashion stores is located, it’s not a bad idea to give it a try. It’s also well-known that Hollywood celebrities and musicians love to drop at 109 when they visit Tokyo. I see how much they can get excited about kawaii fashion at cheap prices!

Shibuya 109 is a fashion department building especially targeted teens and young men and women. (It was not that much Gyaru-targeting atmosphere when I was a highschool student. That’s because I used to shop there often but I was not Gyaru at all then. Maybe Gyaru was not even popular then. ^ ^; ) The taste of fashion is Gyaru-kei for women, Onii-kei for men. (Gyaru-kei fashion for men) As is always, 109 is not exceptional. They open at 10 am and close at 9 pm. (Restaurants open 11 am to 10:30 pm.) They open everyday only except for 1st of Jan.

In case you are not familiar with Gyaru, here‘s wiki for your reference. Also, let me put a video link here again, which you can also find at Universal Doll but is not played smoothly due to lack of memory or because she doesn’t use a self-hosting blog? I don’t know but anyhow it’s a Japanese TV show introducing foreign Gyaru in Shibuya, Tokyo.

“Yamanba” or “Manba” type of Gyaru is not so popular in Japan any longer. I rarely see them in Shibuya any more there days, but it’s a surprise to me this trend can be seen somewhere overseas…((-_-;))

As for myself, I have never been a Gyaru-type of girl and I have no interests in Onii-kei young guys but I don’t dislike them. I just feel awkward and out-of-place when I shop at 109 now, with my natural and casual way of looking among most of other shoppers who are totally “Gyaru” from top to the bottom. Pesonally I find Gyaru items are reasonable and cute. I think it’s good to enjoy fashion as much as we like while we are young. When we get old, we have so many other things to do and we cannot spare much time for it any longer…just like me now!

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