So, day 4.
New Years Day. Because of going to bed so late, I woke up at like 1pm or 2pm, but Niijii was awake before me! I was so shocked! The film crew called at around 8am (why) and Niijii had picked up saying that I was asleep so they asked for Niijii to call them when I was awake. He called them around 1, when I peered over the top of the cover with my hair a mess, and a big frown on my face and scrunched up eyes HAHA. He told the film crew we didn't want to film today because we were still hell tired, so they said okay and said they would call again tomorrow. A few minutes later, they called again and asked if they could film us sleeping. wth? Niijii said "uh..hold on" and told me. I was still quite sleepy, and went "wtf, no way thats so damn creepy" and rolled back over. Niijii said "er, no you can't film us sleeping" and ended the call. We still wanted to go out, so I got up and had a shower.
Because of my extensions, I either have to wash my hair the night before, or REALLY early in the morning if it needs a wash and im going out (like if I haven't washed it a day before or something like that), because it takes FOREVER to dry. Seriously, like, my real hair will be dry, but where the braids are inthe hair, they like, lock in all the water and slowly seem to release it into parts of the hair ive already dried. So annoying! Anyways, I take a long time to get ready even if I haven't washed my hair and I was taking soo long, I think I annoyed Niijii a lttle bit >.< We headed out to Shibuya (sans le maquillage) and decided we could use this free unfilming time to buy stuff for our families. When we headed into Center Gai from the crossing, we saw famous gal singer, Sifow Fujisawa walking directly towards us. We were so stunned, and looked at each other and said "isn't that Sifow???" and she was right in front of us! Complete with the beauty spot and everything! She was tiiiiiny! I guess because she wasn't wearing heels, but her head came to like my shoulder! She was wearing a really big russian hat because I guess she didn't want to be noticed. We didn't ask for a photo (im expecting "well, you didn't really see her then, DID YOU" etc etc), but she was hurrying across to the crossing, so we called out her name a few times and she looked back and smiled! That was enough for us~
We carried on, and took some puri, and headed up to Mac because we were starving. You gotta try the Japanese take on Western food! And it was gooooood. Real chicken yo! We went to Donki and stocked up on a few things like hair curlers (that were crap so we never used them and they don't work properly here so I have brand new japanese curlers should anyone want them!) kigurumis, and random shit lol. We then went back home and rented the DVD player from the hotel, as well as Ali G movie...yeah! it was all the way in Japan! I was such a loser though, and fell asleep at 8pm! hahahahaha That was the day, nothing majorly exciting im afraid!
Purikura: http://tinypic.com/a/1k9wj/2
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Friday, 15 January 2010
Japan Day 3
Thursday 31st January 2009
New Years Eve! And I was about to celebrate it in Tokyo! Id heard a lot of great things about New Year in another country, especially Japan. Me and Niijii didn't really know what we wanted to do in the evening, and just assumed we'd spend the day with each other at the hotel doing nothing. Wrong.
The film crew wanted to come over and film us. Again, although they had said that New Years was originally going to be a free day. Gen (the researcher) called in the morning and wanted to know a time that he could come over with Ikuo (the director). Unfortunately, Niijii was hell tired and hadn't slept again that night. Gen arranged a time with me, and said he would see how Niijii was when he arrived. I got dressed, and didn't put on any makeup because id be putting it on later in the evening.
I checked my facebook on the computers downstairs - which was empty. I guess because everyone was out because it was like 12pm. There are only two computers, which I have to say aren't the best. The keyboards are multi Japanese and English, but because of so much usage, half of the letters are in the wrong place on the keyboard, so if you want to do @ or ", think again. Also, the majority of the print on each letter on the keyboard had rubbed off, so its a good thing I know my way around the letters at least. One computer has a Java platform and one doesn't. Only one will let you upload things from a camera onto the computer (slowly, but it works), and only one stores things like your email so you don't have to kill yourself trying to type everything out again. At night, the computers get busy, obviously with people contacting their families and what not, but every night you would get really selfish people who would stay on there for hours on end. There was a limit of 30 mins if someone was waiting, but of course, this was ignored. The computers are also unsuable after 00:30 because the desk shuts at this time. They're not literally not working, the staff dont want to stay up any longer (understandable as they are there at like 6am to start at 7) and like have to "keep watch". Anyways
Gen and Ikuo came in while I was on facebook and the like and they were interested in what I was doing, so I showed them my FB profile, mixi, HIBISCGYARU forum and HIBISCGYARU Gal Tours website. They were impressed! We got some instant noodles from the 7/11 and they wanted to film me eating :\. Afterwards, they filmed me on the computer talking about the sites I use and stuff. Luckily noone else was about because we were on the computers for like 3 hours or something haha. I also showed them gal secrets and fucks to which they were REALLY interested haha. They did laugh at some stuff on fucks too ... ; D
Niijii was still fast asleep, but Ikuo wanted to do something fun. The hotel rents out a gamecube or dreamcast but there were old games and only like, one controller, so we decided to go into the arcades in Ueno. I am reigning champion of Mario Kart (whether it be arcade or console) and I beat all of the film crew the previous night multiple times in the arcades in Shibuya. Once again, I beat both guys single handedly. Ikuo just couldn't believe it and wanted to keep challenging me, but it was useless! Haha : D)
We returned and Id left Niijii a note saying where we had gone. He was awake and already applying makeup when we got back, so I too browned up, and we took a cab to Shibuya where we went straight to Purikura and met with a Japanese guy we met in London. Hes a retard, and so fucking selfish. We asked if he wanted to take puri with us, and he said "if I take purikura with you, can I be on TV??".... he sent me and apology on mixi. accept or reject? i think ill bide my time. We were starving after all the photo taking so we went for some Okonomiyaki, which I really liked, my Niijii not so much. There was a gyarusa meeting in the restaurant! They looked at me and Nij like "oh my god!" and one girl just couldnt stop staring. When she got outside (eventually) we waved and laughed and she looked like she had a heart attack she was that excited. They came back in and tried to get a table next to us but couldnt, so they left. (It was empty but they wanted to sit like, right next to us, and there was too many of them so I think they probably went to another place to meet and eat). A crowd of young Japanese saw us in the window and got really excited and were waving and smiling like craaaaaaaaazy, so we waved back too. They came in and sat at a table next to us, but I think there were too shy to say anything. We did say "byebye!" when we left and they were like "eeeeeeeeeeeee!!" haha!
It was like 11:50 so we headed towards the crossing and counted down the New Year. Not as spectacular as I thought it might be, there was one firework before the countdown started, but when it got to 00:00, everyone just screamed with happiness. Some twats behind us had a champagne bottle and shook it up and sprayed it everywhere, and some gangster guy who got sprayed was about to start a fight with the sprayer, who had no shirt on, but the sprayer backed down hahaha. His friends had to hold the guy who got sprayed off. Don't mess with them tanned, black haired boys yo. A lot of people took interest in us and wanted our picture/talk to us. Some hime girls were standing in front of us while Gen interviewed us and looked so scared. We got pushed forward by people behind us and they like backed away! Gen got them over (slowly) and they talked and said we were cute but you could tell they were shit scared still. Bless their Liz Liza hearts.
Our UK friend, Ivan, had suggested we find a good club to go to on NYE and suggested the Para club, King & Queen because its "so great, you guys will love it!"......wtf. We went to Roppongi and eventually found it....and its 50 year old dancers. No joke. All the dancing was in the style of ParaPara Stadium, and was music from the 70s-80s. Cringe big time. We also got harrassed by a guy and a girl. The girl kept touching out faces (despite the brown) and saying "cute! slim face!!!" and picking up our hair and throwing it down and picking it up and throwing it down again and squealing "kawaii!!!!!1kawaii!!!!!!!!!!!!!". The guy kept trying to forcefully drag us onto the dance floor which got kinda scary after a while. He would disappear and then reappear and try the tactic again. He also brougt over his friends to talk to us and I think he must of thought we were like celeb or something lol. He andthe girl made sure we got free drinks from the club though 8D that was faaaaaaaaab :p
We left after not even an hour and went back to the hotel while Gen and Ikuo went back to Fuji TV HQ to do editing. We stayed up a little and phoned our families and then went to bed at 4am lol. It was a good day, and a weird night for sure....
Day 3 Purikura: http://tinypic.com/a/1jio9/2
NYE video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm3rXfp4ao4
New Years Eve! And I was about to celebrate it in Tokyo! Id heard a lot of great things about New Year in another country, especially Japan. Me and Niijii didn't really know what we wanted to do in the evening, and just assumed we'd spend the day with each other at the hotel doing nothing. Wrong.
The film crew wanted to come over and film us. Again, although they had said that New Years was originally going to be a free day. Gen (the researcher) called in the morning and wanted to know a time that he could come over with Ikuo (the director). Unfortunately, Niijii was hell tired and hadn't slept again that night. Gen arranged a time with me, and said he would see how Niijii was when he arrived. I got dressed, and didn't put on any makeup because id be putting it on later in the evening.
I checked my facebook on the computers downstairs - which was empty. I guess because everyone was out because it was like 12pm. There are only two computers, which I have to say aren't the best. The keyboards are multi Japanese and English, but because of so much usage, half of the letters are in the wrong place on the keyboard, so if you want to do @ or ", think again. Also, the majority of the print on each letter on the keyboard had rubbed off, so its a good thing I know my way around the letters at least. One computer has a Java platform and one doesn't. Only one will let you upload things from a camera onto the computer (slowly, but it works), and only one stores things like your email so you don't have to kill yourself trying to type everything out again. At night, the computers get busy, obviously with people contacting their families and what not, but every night you would get really selfish people who would stay on there for hours on end. There was a limit of 30 mins if someone was waiting, but of course, this was ignored. The computers are also unsuable after 00:30 because the desk shuts at this time. They're not literally not working, the staff dont want to stay up any longer (understandable as they are there at like 6am to start at 7) and like have to "keep watch". Anyways
Gen and Ikuo came in while I was on facebook and the like and they were interested in what I was doing, so I showed them my FB profile, mixi, HIBISCGYARU forum and HIBISCGYARU Gal Tours website. They were impressed! We got some instant noodles from the 7/11 and they wanted to film me eating :\. Afterwards, they filmed me on the computer talking about the sites I use and stuff. Luckily noone else was about because we were on the computers for like 3 hours or something haha. I also showed them gal secrets and fucks to which they were REALLY interested haha. They did laugh at some stuff on fucks too ... ; D
Niijii was still fast asleep, but Ikuo wanted to do something fun. The hotel rents out a gamecube or dreamcast but there were old games and only like, one controller, so we decided to go into the arcades in Ueno. I am reigning champion of Mario Kart (whether it be arcade or console) and I beat all of the film crew the previous night multiple times in the arcades in Shibuya. Once again, I beat both guys single handedly. Ikuo just couldn't believe it and wanted to keep challenging me, but it was useless! Haha : D)
We returned and Id left Niijii a note saying where we had gone. He was awake and already applying makeup when we got back, so I too browned up, and we took a cab to Shibuya where we went straight to Purikura and met with a Japanese guy we met in London. Hes a retard, and so fucking selfish. We asked if he wanted to take puri with us, and he said "if I take purikura with you, can I be on TV??".... he sent me and apology on mixi. accept or reject? i think ill bide my time. We were starving after all the photo taking so we went for some Okonomiyaki, which I really liked, my Niijii not so much. There was a gyarusa meeting in the restaurant! They looked at me and Nij like "oh my god!" and one girl just couldnt stop staring. When she got outside (eventually) we waved and laughed and she looked like she had a heart attack she was that excited. They came back in and tried to get a table next to us but couldnt, so they left. (It was empty but they wanted to sit like, right next to us, and there was too many of them so I think they probably went to another place to meet and eat). A crowd of young Japanese saw us in the window and got really excited and were waving and smiling like craaaaaaaaazy, so we waved back too. They came in and sat at a table next to us, but I think there were too shy to say anything. We did say "byebye!" when we left and they were like "eeeeeeeeeeeee!!" haha!
It was like 11:50 so we headed towards the crossing and counted down the New Year. Not as spectacular as I thought it might be, there was one firework before the countdown started, but when it got to 00:00, everyone just screamed with happiness. Some twats behind us had a champagne bottle and shook it up and sprayed it everywhere, and some gangster guy who got sprayed was about to start a fight with the sprayer, who had no shirt on, but the sprayer backed down hahaha. His friends had to hold the guy who got sprayed off. Don't mess with them tanned, black haired boys yo. A lot of people took interest in us and wanted our picture/talk to us. Some hime girls were standing in front of us while Gen interviewed us and looked so scared. We got pushed forward by people behind us and they like backed away! Gen got them over (slowly) and they talked and said we were cute but you could tell they were shit scared still. Bless their Liz Liza hearts.
Our UK friend, Ivan, had suggested we find a good club to go to on NYE and suggested the Para club, King & Queen because its "so great, you guys will love it!"......wtf. We went to Roppongi and eventually found it....and its 50 year old dancers. No joke. All the dancing was in the style of ParaPara Stadium, and was music from the 70s-80s. Cringe big time. We also got harrassed by a guy and a girl. The girl kept touching out faces (despite the brown) and saying "cute! slim face!!!" and picking up our hair and throwing it down and picking it up and throwing it down again and squealing "kawaii!!!!!1kawaii!!!!!!!!!!!!!". The guy kept trying to forcefully drag us onto the dance floor which got kinda scary after a while. He would disappear and then reappear and try the tactic again. He also brougt over his friends to talk to us and I think he must of thought we were like celeb or something lol. He andthe girl made sure we got free drinks from the club though 8D that was faaaaaaaaab :p
We left after not even an hour and went back to the hotel while Gen and Ikuo went back to Fuji TV HQ to do editing. We stayed up a little and phoned our families and then went to bed at 4am lol. It was a good day, and a weird night for sure....
Day 3 Purikura: http://tinypic.com/a/1jio9/2
NYE video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gm3rXfp4ao4
Sunday, 10 January 2010
Days 1 & 2 of Japan
Japan trip
28/12/09-7/1/10
So, after 7 years of wanting to go to Japan, and a whole lot of planning, I finally made it to Japan! Originally, the trip was supposed to be with HIBISCGYARU member Shin, but due to personal reasons, she wasn't able to come, so there was a point when I actually wasn't going to be going at all. I had one day to try and find someone to come with me, and after my boyfriend saying no because he had no money, I am lucky that my girl Niijii came to the rescue~
This trip wasn't just going to be the first time going to Japan, it was also going to be 10 days of filming for a segment on popular TV programme, Mezamashi TV...so you can understand that it was going to be exciting but also very nerve-racking! For the next couple of days, i'll write a a detailed desc. of everything and everyday and what we did etc etc:
Day 1: Monday 28th December 2009
This was our arrival day in Japan. We met the Fuji TV film crew that we would be working with for the rest of our time in Japan as well as Koko Shira's main presenter, Yuki Sakamoto. We walked out of the arrivals gate to 2 guys and 2 girls holding up a sign with a Fuji TV border and my name "Eilish" written in quite cute child like writing ;p
They wanted to film us straight away, so we were whisked away to begin! We brought them British presents of Tea, Marmalade, glittery British flag and taxi stickers, and 2 flags, a Union Jack on a wavy stick and an England football wall flag; and they seemed to love them! We eventually left the Airport after some filming and eating. Niijii wasn't very well when we arrived and was sick, but he got well again in the car on the way to our hotel.
Let me introduce you to the film crew;
Ikuo - the programme's director and occasional presenter of Koko Shira
Gen - helper; he basically sorts out getting permission from all the places they want to film, and sorting out any bookings for places we want to go to and handles the money side of things
Koto - camerawoman
Yuki - main presenter of Koko Shira. Not as crazy as she seems in the programme. She's actually really quiet and her english is good!
We decided to give them all English names to be more comfortable with them and also because it was a fun idea:
Ikuo -> Paul
Gen -> Peter
Koto -> Poppy
Yuki -> Amy
L-R: Ikuo (Paul) and Gen (Peter)
L-R: Yuki (Amy) and Koto (Poppy)
Paul, Peter and Poppy became known as "3 Pea" or "Edamame" during the trip : D
Our hotel is called Aizuya Inn, and is located in Minami-senju, around 15/20 minutes from Tokyo Station, and 30/35 minutes from Shibuya and Roppongi. It's a hotel mainly for foreign travellers, but there are also Japanese guests from other parts of Japan that stay there too. It's comfortable, cheap and the owners are really awesome. The fact that the rooms are yours, and yours only are great. You don't have to worry about other people that you don't know staying in the same room and that. I would recommend to anyone wanting to visit Japan on a short holiday!
After arriving, we were filmed some more, and then the film crew left. Niijii was feeling a lot better, so we decided to go into Shibuya for the first time. We would be heading in the next day with the crew but we wanted our own view of it. Minami-senju's residents are all old people, and it's no surprise that they were shocked to see me and Niijii walking down the road to the station. Surprisingly enough, noone seemed to give a second glance when we walked past (we were manba at this point) by the time we got to the station, got on the train and got off. We were tired and didn't really pay much attention to the trains properly so we ended up getting of in Roppongi and WALKING all the way to Shibuya......BAD IDEA. It took about half an hour, but it was still early, like not even 6pm, but the nightime surrounding gave a false guide to the time and threw us off at first~
We reached Shibuya and it was crazy! We managed to find Center Street and the first place we happened upon was Purikura Mecca, probably one of the oldest and most famous of all purikura shops in Shibuya. The only downside about the shop is that it's tiny and gets very crowded really quickly. The machines are also extremely close together so you have hardly any walking space once you manage to get past the girls stuck in the doorway. We went inside, but alas, too busy, and there were a lot of girls staring at us, so we decided to find somewhere else. As we turned to leave, I saw some tanned girls with big braided hair and coloured clothing, but no makeup. I said to Niijii; "Lol, manba with no makeup" They saw us and one turned round and kinda like looked like she was really scared, then turned to her friend behind her and looked like she was really excited. They ran out of the shop and we walked through Center Street, attracting a LOT of attention. Some gals sitting on the street called us over and tried to communicate with us which was quite awkward. Only one could speak english and seemed to like the fact that her friends were talking to us in Japanese and we couldn't understand a word. She would translate something after a long time and it was too weird to stay any longer, so we just walked off.
We caught the attention of some foreigners who asked us to take photos in Japanese and seemed really shocked when I replied "yeah whatever" and would then start a conversation with us. Now this next bit isn't racist, but surprising to me. There are LOADS of black people living in Japan! Roppongi is like, THEIR place, and Shibuya is a place where they deal drugs....a lot. They saw us and shouted "Yamanba!" and actually seemed quite happy to see us haha. We walked back towards Mecca and we saw the manba we had seen there standing outside. One was wearing crazy glasses, like with fake eyes inside them lol. Niijii said "I swear that Ga-ha..." but it didn't look like her at all. She was just a short tanned girl with crazy white weave, and a stitch towel on her body and a stitch hat on her head. she could have been anyone! We carried on and were stopped by the manba running up to us shouting "Mixi! Mixi!". A boy that wasn't with them before immediately started gabbling at us in Japanese and me and Niijii just looked at each other and eventually I just shrugged my shoulders and said "wakarimasen" :s. He stopped, looked at the two girls, and got out his phone to show Niijii a photo of himself from his Mixi. Niijii was then like "OH yeah. He's from my mixi friends lol". We stood there for a few seconds before I said "uhh...hajimamashite...koneko desu!" ;p and pointed at Niijii and said "Niijii desu".
The stitch girl then surprised me and Niijii by announcing "uhh...ge-ha" and pointed at herself. Me and Niijii's mouths dropped lol it was so funny and I went "EH?!" because she looks SOOOO different to her photos. She was only wearing dark foundation and had a silver nose stripe. She is way shorter than her photos make her out to be..I think I was a little taller or maybe the same height, and im shorter than Niijii and Polly from HIBISCGYARU so I was even more surprised.
When people saw us all together, they immediately asked for photos...:
L-R: Ano-tan, Ge-ha, Me, Niijii, Naonki
They took us to an alley way (yes, really) and we sat down with them for a little bit trying to converse with them in broken english and japanese before we went to Mecca and took purikura. Ge-ha showed us some photos from her stitich suitcase taken on a throwaway camera that included Yunkeru, Tomonya, Ano-tan, herself and some others. She was surprised that we knew the names of people.
I think they got fed up with being with us because they couldnt speak any english and we couldnt speak any japanese so after taking purikura, they hurried off to a supposed Galcir meet, and me and Niijii took purikura together. We headed back to the hotel after as we were tired and needed to get up early for the next day, our first proper day of filming. It was a weird, but also great first night in Japan!
Purikura: http://tinypic.com/a/1j9k8/2
Day 2: Tuesday 29th December 2009
So, day 2. As mentioned already, we were going to be filming everyday. Today was to be the start of the real filming process out and about in Shibuya! The film crew didn't film us doing make-up on the first day as we requested not to, but they filmed us making up on the second day. Well, rather, they filmed me, as Niijii was sick on this day and I don't blame him for not wanting to put makeup on. He hadn't slept in the night, and had gotten up twice to be sick, so what should have been an awesome first night in Japan turned out to be not so great :(
For those who eventually watch the programme (whether it be when it's broadcast in Japan, or whether you see it when they mail me a disc), you'll see that I do 3 different make up styles while im there. The first day I was manba, but because we were going to be visiting 109 for filming (although me and Niijii visited it the night before and manba in tracksuits in 109 really aren't all that welcome lol), and I don't really wear typical gal clothes with manba makeup, I decided to be banba instead. So im clearing that one up right away before anyone decides to say "Yuki (presenter) says you're going to start manba makeup but you don't do manba makeup, wtf" and bitch it about. ANYWAY.
So, the film crew arrived early, maybe like 10am. Okay, thats not actually that early haha, but still. Its really difficult to do any kid of makeup when you have a camera and 6 people crammed into one room because you get distracted SO easily. So much so that it took me 40 minutes just to do makeup because I was asked lots of questions, and my stuff was filmed throughout, and also because i had to rummage around for things too during this process. I guess in total, just putting the slap on my face only took 20 mins,but the other 20 mins were spent pissing about with everyone. Once we were out, it was great! We headed straight to Shibuya and started to film right away. We wanted to ask some gals questions about the way that they thought I looked, but there weren't really any about, so we decided to go into 109. As I had suggested, there were gals inside, but not very many. I guess because the majority of them were still at home putting on makeup or something, it was only 11ish, but I guess thats still quite early for gal!
I had a browse round the shops and the film crew interviewed some shop staff about me. There was such a sweet server working in Golds Infinity with such cute hair and outfit! She was really helpful and sweet, not just because she was on camera, and I saw her again on the start of the grand sale and waved and she waved back, so she was genuinely a nice girl! haha! There were two matching clothed girls hanging around the store because of the camera and the disctinctive "Koko Shira" white jacket. They came inside and browsed around and then got their little interview haha. They were quite sweet actually, and we saw them in Center Street later on, and they seemed excited to see us again which was cute :p I picked up a black hat from Maison Gilfy:
http://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/double/cabinet/gs_3/img56506579.jpg
And some tops from Golds, which ill show you later : D One is just a plan jumper type top of creamy white colour, with fake crystal buttons on the bottom which make the top fold up on one side, and its loose so your shoulders are exposed. The other is silver with a black skull and some writing on the front with thin straps at the top with fake crystal studs and a gold chain on one side:
http://e-shop.shibuya109.jp/webshop70/shopdetail?ctc=/&shc=GD&cmc=GD94226&moneySrch=&scbk=2 (the middle one)
http://e-shop.shibuya109.jp/webshop70/shopdetail?ctc=/&shc=GD&cmc=GD94235&moneySrch=&scbk=2
(the white/cream one)
So cute! Skulls are definitely in at the moment. The tops I bought my bf in 109-2 have skulls on them, all 3 of them haha! Anyways, we went up to SBY to take a rest and because Niijii wasn't feeling well again. By the time we got up, he had decided to go back to the hotel, although I felt really awful because he would be by himself and we had promised not to leave each other alone on any day, but he said that I shouldn't worry, so he went back. Magazine models work in 109, not all of them, but two work in SBY, and Nicole from Ranzuki works in a shop on a lower floor. Yuki taught me how to say "please can i take a photo" - "shashin issho ni totte kudasai" and I went and asked them. Trouble is, the film crew made me say it twice, so when I asked the first time, the poor girls got into place and then were asked to repeat the scene again (really fake obviously lol):
After 109, we headed to Center Guy for some food and purikura. I can't remember the restaurant's name, but the food was really great, and we went there a second time before the trip was over hehe~
After this, we went to Donki and HMV. I wanted to buy some Para DVDs but the places I went to only seemed to have a limited choice. HMV only had Chozen ParaPara I ♥ Dance! and another old one, one of the Gakuen high school ones, both of which I own already.
On the way, the film crew had been stopping girls and asking them what they thought of my look. The general response was "cute!" "choooo gyaru!" "she looks like Aina Tanaka" and two girls said "you are god!!!!!" which was strange haha! At some point, we went back to the hotel to check on Niijii. He was sleeping at this point, and had been for the whole day, and so, the film crew filmed what I had bought and then left to come back again the next day. Here are some pictures from this day:
Me and Yuki waiting for the boys to finish filming upstairs in SBY
A classy hoe at the end of her day
MANBA MAN!
Purikura: http://tinypic.com/a/1j9kh/2
28/12/09-7/1/10
So, after 7 years of wanting to go to Japan, and a whole lot of planning, I finally made it to Japan! Originally, the trip was supposed to be with HIBISCGYARU member Shin, but due to personal reasons, she wasn't able to come, so there was a point when I actually wasn't going to be going at all. I had one day to try and find someone to come with me, and after my boyfriend saying no because he had no money, I am lucky that my girl Niijii came to the rescue~
This trip wasn't just going to be the first time going to Japan, it was also going to be 10 days of filming for a segment on popular TV programme, Mezamashi TV...so you can understand that it was going to be exciting but also very nerve-racking! For the next couple of days, i'll write a a detailed desc. of everything and everyday and what we did etc etc:
Day 1: Monday 28th December 2009
This was our arrival day in Japan. We met the Fuji TV film crew that we would be working with for the rest of our time in Japan as well as Koko Shira's main presenter, Yuki Sakamoto. We walked out of the arrivals gate to 2 guys and 2 girls holding up a sign with a Fuji TV border and my name "Eilish" written in quite cute child like writing ;p
They wanted to film us straight away, so we were whisked away to begin! We brought them British presents of Tea, Marmalade, glittery British flag and taxi stickers, and 2 flags, a Union Jack on a wavy stick and an England football wall flag; and they seemed to love them! We eventually left the Airport after some filming and eating. Niijii wasn't very well when we arrived and was sick, but he got well again in the car on the way to our hotel.
Let me introduce you to the film crew;
Ikuo - the programme's director and occasional presenter of Koko Shira
Gen - helper; he basically sorts out getting permission from all the places they want to film, and sorting out any bookings for places we want to go to and handles the money side of things
Koto - camerawoman
Yuki - main presenter of Koko Shira. Not as crazy as she seems in the programme. She's actually really quiet and her english is good!
We decided to give them all English names to be more comfortable with them and also because it was a fun idea:
Ikuo -> Paul
Gen -> Peter
Koto -> Poppy
Yuki -> Amy
L-R: Ikuo (Paul) and Gen (Peter)
L-R: Yuki (Amy) and Koto (Poppy)
Paul, Peter and Poppy became known as "3 Pea" or "Edamame" during the trip : D
Our hotel is called Aizuya Inn, and is located in Minami-senju, around 15/20 minutes from Tokyo Station, and 30/35 minutes from Shibuya and Roppongi. It's a hotel mainly for foreign travellers, but there are also Japanese guests from other parts of Japan that stay there too. It's comfortable, cheap and the owners are really awesome. The fact that the rooms are yours, and yours only are great. You don't have to worry about other people that you don't know staying in the same room and that. I would recommend to anyone wanting to visit Japan on a short holiday!
After arriving, we were filmed some more, and then the film crew left. Niijii was feeling a lot better, so we decided to go into Shibuya for the first time. We would be heading in the next day with the crew but we wanted our own view of it. Minami-senju's residents are all old people, and it's no surprise that they were shocked to see me and Niijii walking down the road to the station. Surprisingly enough, noone seemed to give a second glance when we walked past (we were manba at this point) by the time we got to the station, got on the train and got off. We were tired and didn't really pay much attention to the trains properly so we ended up getting of in Roppongi and WALKING all the way to Shibuya......BAD IDEA. It took about half an hour, but it was still early, like not even 6pm, but the nightime surrounding gave a false guide to the time and threw us off at first~
We reached Shibuya and it was crazy! We managed to find Center Street and the first place we happened upon was Purikura Mecca, probably one of the oldest and most famous of all purikura shops in Shibuya. The only downside about the shop is that it's tiny and gets very crowded really quickly. The machines are also extremely close together so you have hardly any walking space once you manage to get past the girls stuck in the doorway. We went inside, but alas, too busy, and there were a lot of girls staring at us, so we decided to find somewhere else. As we turned to leave, I saw some tanned girls with big braided hair and coloured clothing, but no makeup. I said to Niijii; "Lol, manba with no makeup" They saw us and one turned round and kinda like looked like she was really scared, then turned to her friend behind her and looked like she was really excited. They ran out of the shop and we walked through Center Street, attracting a LOT of attention. Some gals sitting on the street called us over and tried to communicate with us which was quite awkward. Only one could speak english and seemed to like the fact that her friends were talking to us in Japanese and we couldn't understand a word. She would translate something after a long time and it was too weird to stay any longer, so we just walked off.
We caught the attention of some foreigners who asked us to take photos in Japanese and seemed really shocked when I replied "yeah whatever" and would then start a conversation with us. Now this next bit isn't racist, but surprising to me. There are LOADS of black people living in Japan! Roppongi is like, THEIR place, and Shibuya is a place where they deal drugs....a lot. They saw us and shouted "Yamanba!" and actually seemed quite happy to see us haha. We walked back towards Mecca and we saw the manba we had seen there standing outside. One was wearing crazy glasses, like with fake eyes inside them lol. Niijii said "I swear that Ga-ha..." but it didn't look like her at all. She was just a short tanned girl with crazy white weave, and a stitch towel on her body and a stitch hat on her head. she could have been anyone! We carried on and were stopped by the manba running up to us shouting "Mixi! Mixi!". A boy that wasn't with them before immediately started gabbling at us in Japanese and me and Niijii just looked at each other and eventually I just shrugged my shoulders and said "wakarimasen" :s. He stopped, looked at the two girls, and got out his phone to show Niijii a photo of himself from his Mixi. Niijii was then like "OH yeah. He's from my mixi friends lol". We stood there for a few seconds before I said "uhh...hajimamashite...koneko desu!" ;p and pointed at Niijii and said "Niijii desu".
The stitch girl then surprised me and Niijii by announcing "uhh...ge-ha" and pointed at herself. Me and Niijii's mouths dropped lol it was so funny and I went "EH?!" because she looks SOOOO different to her photos. She was only wearing dark foundation and had a silver nose stripe. She is way shorter than her photos make her out to be..I think I was a little taller or maybe the same height, and im shorter than Niijii and Polly from HIBISCGYARU so I was even more surprised.
When people saw us all together, they immediately asked for photos...:
L-R: Ano-tan, Ge-ha, Me, Niijii, Naonki
They took us to an alley way (yes, really) and we sat down with them for a little bit trying to converse with them in broken english and japanese before we went to Mecca and took purikura. Ge-ha showed us some photos from her stitich suitcase taken on a throwaway camera that included Yunkeru, Tomonya, Ano-tan, herself and some others. She was surprised that we knew the names of people.
I think they got fed up with being with us because they couldnt speak any english and we couldnt speak any japanese so after taking purikura, they hurried off to a supposed Galcir meet, and me and Niijii took purikura together. We headed back to the hotel after as we were tired and needed to get up early for the next day, our first proper day of filming. It was a weird, but also great first night in Japan!
Purikura: http://tinypic.com/a/1j9k8/2
Day 2: Tuesday 29th December 2009
So, day 2. As mentioned already, we were going to be filming everyday. Today was to be the start of the real filming process out and about in Shibuya! The film crew didn't film us doing make-up on the first day as we requested not to, but they filmed us making up on the second day. Well, rather, they filmed me, as Niijii was sick on this day and I don't blame him for not wanting to put makeup on. He hadn't slept in the night, and had gotten up twice to be sick, so what should have been an awesome first night in Japan turned out to be not so great :(
For those who eventually watch the programme (whether it be when it's broadcast in Japan, or whether you see it when they mail me a disc), you'll see that I do 3 different make up styles while im there. The first day I was manba, but because we were going to be visiting 109 for filming (although me and Niijii visited it the night before and manba in tracksuits in 109 really aren't all that welcome lol), and I don't really wear typical gal clothes with manba makeup, I decided to be banba instead. So im clearing that one up right away before anyone decides to say "Yuki (presenter) says you're going to start manba makeup but you don't do manba makeup, wtf" and bitch it about. ANYWAY.
So, the film crew arrived early, maybe like 10am. Okay, thats not actually that early haha, but still. Its really difficult to do any kid of makeup when you have a camera and 6 people crammed into one room because you get distracted SO easily. So much so that it took me 40 minutes just to do makeup because I was asked lots of questions, and my stuff was filmed throughout, and also because i had to rummage around for things too during this process. I guess in total, just putting the slap on my face only took 20 mins,but the other 20 mins were spent pissing about with everyone. Once we were out, it was great! We headed straight to Shibuya and started to film right away. We wanted to ask some gals questions about the way that they thought I looked, but there weren't really any about, so we decided to go into 109. As I had suggested, there were gals inside, but not very many. I guess because the majority of them were still at home putting on makeup or something, it was only 11ish, but I guess thats still quite early for gal!
I had a browse round the shops and the film crew interviewed some shop staff about me. There was such a sweet server working in Golds Infinity with such cute hair and outfit! She was really helpful and sweet, not just because she was on camera, and I saw her again on the start of the grand sale and waved and she waved back, so she was genuinely a nice girl! haha! There were two matching clothed girls hanging around the store because of the camera and the disctinctive "Koko Shira" white jacket. They came inside and browsed around and then got their little interview haha. They were quite sweet actually, and we saw them in Center Street later on, and they seemed excited to see us again which was cute :p I picked up a black hat from Maison Gilfy:
http://thumbnail.image.rakuten.co.jp/@0_mall/double/cabinet/gs_3/img56506579.jpg
And some tops from Golds, which ill show you later : D One is just a plan jumper type top of creamy white colour, with fake crystal buttons on the bottom which make the top fold up on one side, and its loose so your shoulders are exposed. The other is silver with a black skull and some writing on the front with thin straps at the top with fake crystal studs and a gold chain on one side:
http://e-shop.shibuya109.jp/webshop70/shopdetail?ctc=/&shc=GD&cmc=GD94226&moneySrch=&scbk=2 (the middle one)
http://e-shop.shibuya109.jp/webshop70/shopdetail?ctc=/&shc=GD&cmc=GD94235&moneySrch=&scbk=2
(the white/cream one)
So cute! Skulls are definitely in at the moment. The tops I bought my bf in 109-2 have skulls on them, all 3 of them haha! Anyways, we went up to SBY to take a rest and because Niijii wasn't feeling well again. By the time we got up, he had decided to go back to the hotel, although I felt really awful because he would be by himself and we had promised not to leave each other alone on any day, but he said that I shouldn't worry, so he went back. Magazine models work in 109, not all of them, but two work in SBY, and Nicole from Ranzuki works in a shop on a lower floor. Yuki taught me how to say "please can i take a photo" - "shashin issho ni totte kudasai" and I went and asked them. Trouble is, the film crew made me say it twice, so when I asked the first time, the poor girls got into place and then were asked to repeat the scene again (really fake obviously lol):
After 109, we headed to Center Guy for some food and purikura. I can't remember the restaurant's name, but the food was really great, and we went there a second time before the trip was over hehe~
After this, we went to Donki and HMV. I wanted to buy some Para DVDs but the places I went to only seemed to have a limited choice. HMV only had Chozen ParaPara I ♥ Dance! and another old one, one of the Gakuen high school ones, both of which I own already.
On the way, the film crew had been stopping girls and asking them what they thought of my look. The general response was "cute!" "choooo gyaru!" "she looks like Aina Tanaka" and two girls said "you are god!!!!!" which was strange haha! At some point, we went back to the hotel to check on Niijii. He was sleeping at this point, and had been for the whole day, and so, the film crew filmed what I had bought and then left to come back again the next day. Here are some pictures from this day:
Me and Yuki waiting for the boys to finish filming upstairs in SBY
A classy hoe at the end of her day
MANBA MAN!
Purikura: http://tinypic.com/a/1j9kh/2
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