Ah,
so I've been humouring myself lately bt thinking of what bad Japanese
fashion and pop cultural trends I could try out as a gaijin (foreigner).
The one I know that is a running joke in American Anime Conventions is
that black girls can't do ganguro (the pic shown) because they're
already colored. And no, its not some sort of "blackface" or anything
like that. Its just an outdated fashion trend, kind of like the fifties
beach bunny combined with Ke$ha and her obsession with glitter and thick
makeup times 30^6. Anywho, I was thinking that since I am going to
Japan, I could make "ganguro sightings" since they'll have no idea who I
am or where I came from. Also because I could pull it off decently if I
get an even tan (since I'll need to go into the sun for once and get
vitamin d). Even if it went horribly wrong, it would be a great story to
tell of later. Also was thinking about whether or not to buy some
clothes from the thrift store in advance, just in case this comes up
later if I tell friends I make there. Ah, for those that aren't
familiar, http://popgyaru.com/ganguro.html and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ganguro and http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DarkSkinnedBlond
On
another note, I realize that this could highly confuse some of the
Japanese people since it is a "dead" pop culture trend. Though this
isn't entirely bad, since a lot of the media still reference and use
ganguro in shows and comics and the like. Hmm.... I'm not sure now, I
could epically confuse them and call it a day, or I could not do it and
still confuse them quite a bit. I'm a little torn between the two ideas,
since you know, living in one area means that after a while the locals
will get used to seeing me a bit. Although I don't know whether I'm in a
city or in the countryside yet.... So many questions arise just because
of those simple questions. I am sure that in these last 15 days, there
will be a lot to debate and decide upon. I'm sure that there will be
plenty more posts such as this to arise soon.
Have a great night and a terrific tomorrow~! Thank you so much for reading~!
That would be hilarious! I haven't heard of ganguro in some time, but if you do it, you should definitely take pics if you can and catch people's reactions! Love your blog btw!
ReplyDeleteThank you, I'll do my best to keep up the good work. Ganguro is really hard to do though, since you can't really bathe so I'll have to wait for it to warm up a little more, but not get too hot.
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