Saw these two cool friends in central Stockholm a snowy evening. They said that one year ago they used to have a style called "fjortis".
"Fjortis" is slang for "fourteen years old" in Swedish. Often when Swedish people see pictures of Japanese gyaru they directly think of the the "fjortis"-style.
The red jacket the girl to the right is wearing has been really popular for a while now. About three years ago almost every young person in Sweden was wearing one.
The jacket is pretty expensive and everybody know that so it used to be like a status symbol. The market for pirate copies of the jacket was really big since everybody wanted one.
It's from the brand "Fjällräven" which is extremley popular when it comes to backpacks in Japan.
It's awesome how they're both are wearing the same kind of hat but in different colors! The girl with lighter hair has a lighter one, and the girl with darker hair has a darker one.
I love when you can see that people put thought behind how they dress, especially when two people does it together.
Just like the Japanese Gyaru-world got its own celebrities, there's been some profiles in the Swedish scene for young people too.
They usually get famous through the most popular TV-show here called "Idol" which I guess most of you readers know about. It's a contest for becoming a famoous artist and about 50% of the Swedish people is watching it. One guy that didn't win but became extremley popular among the girls is Johan Palm, blonde guy in the picture together with his brother.
Don't you think they look a little bit like Gyaru-O with those hair cuts?
I once got the chance to ask Johan if he's inspired by Japanese fashion in a chat arranged by a newspaper but he had know idea what "Japanese fashion" was.
It would be really intresting to know more about what people that dress like this do, what kind of music they listen to, what blogs they read, what famous people there are etc.
I also wonder if there is similar styles in other countries than Sweden??
Jag hann inte fråga så mycket frågor när jag tog bilderna, men om ni två som är med på dessa bilder skulle vilja göra en intervju via mail/msn om detta så kontakta gärna mig. Andra som har denna stil vore också intressant att prata med.
So the meeting place today was not Shibuya with all its scryscrapers and gigantic screens but Stockholm with its old buildings and snow. ;)
For some reasons it's almost impossible to find Swedish food in Stockholm but there's lots of Asian resturants. We went to a Thai restaurant called Sawadee.
Thailand is actually the most popular destination for Swedish people to travel to. One of the reasons is the good food!!^^
We walked around in a lot of stores to check out the holiday sales. I had no idea Sweden have lots of kinds of fake eye lashes because I very rarely see anybody wear it compared to Japan.
While shopping we took some group pictures in a big mirror in the store Gina Tricot.
Many camera flashes at the same time!! :D
Sofia to the right was wearing some CocoLulu-stuff.
I had been hearing people talking about a big photo shoot for the men's fashion magazine "Men's Knuckle" in Shibuya 109-2 but nobody knew when it were going to take place.
Maria, Said and Me were just standing around waiting for two gyaru that were going to join us for the ELLE-photoshoot when a big camera crew and the models Kenzou and Kazuaki came walking by and asked us to join =).
Luckily I had been setting up my hair in the 109-2 toilet right before they came. ;D And there you see the camera I take most of the blog picture with.
First they wanted me and the model Kenzou to pose with an iPad.
We were suppose to look like we were discussing some stuff we saw on it. Pretty fun pretending!!^^
I read Men's Knuckle sometimes but aren't too familiar with the models so I asked Kenzou if he was a model and he said "Yes" at pointed on the poster in the top left corner of this picture which was a poster of him.
Pretty good answer! ;)
Then we took a picture with all three of us and the two models. The pictures will be in the issue of Men's Knuckle that's in stores January 24!!
This is the story about when I met Leon for the first time!
First time I talked with him was at Men's EGG Night in Atom. If you think we look really sweaty and tired here, it's because this picture was taken after about 24 hours of events/partying... XD
We kind of just stumbled upon each other and it was so much fun to talk with him from the first moment! =) He was there with some people he had connected with at Mixi, and because he looks like an EGG model a lot of girls had gave him free drinks so he was a little drunk and super happy... ;D But he wasn't hitting on any girls, instead he was going up to couples and told them how cute they looked together!! ^^
The next day we decided to meet in his hood Ikebukuro.
You probably heard somebody say: "Girls don't dress up for guys, they dress up for other girls."
In Japan the same thing has happened to guys. Leon works at a beauty parlor and wants to become a make up artist so he's always extremley fashionable. Even though neither of us is gay, I always feel like I have to dress up extra when I'm going to meet him.
We started off by taking some Purikura.
On the first picture Leon wrote: Kokusai KouRyuu Hajimemashita. (Warau)
= The International Exchange has Begun. LOL
Leon seemed really used to taking Purikura.
Me: -"How many time have you been taking Purikura!??"
Leon: -"About 700 times."
Benkyou Chuu = In the middle of Studying
Leon is studying English and I'm studying Japanese. :D
It was a lot of fun hanging out with Leon and I liked this picture so I tried
to make a painting of it as a present to him.
It started off something like that.
And ended up like this.
Unfortunatley Leon's chin got way too big, so it doesn't look much like him,
and my nose and mouth is too small. :/
The sketch actually looked better because I'm really bad at coloring, but it would feel strange to give him a sketch without colors.
Well, you learn from your mistakes, right? ^^
Bought a frame for it at the store Don Kihote.
When I was small I wanted to become a Disney painter and make Donald Duck comics.
I think I've drawn Donald Duck 10 000 times or something...
So that's one of the few things I'm good at in life!! XD
Later I changed my mind, and rather wanted to become a "Manga-Ka",
someone who draw Manga comics. That's one of the reasons why I'm intrested in Japan by the way.
Anyway, back to the Purikura in Ikebukuro!
"Fika?" = "Do you want to go take a coffe?" in Swedish. It's kind of a pick up line in Swedish that's mostly used as a joke.
Leon was really impressed how you could say all that in just the short word "Fika". =D
When we came out Leon noticed a tall white building he never seen before, even though he's so much around here.
To celebrate this strange happening, Leon pretended he's Buzz Lightyear. ;)
Then we went to Shibuya and met up with Kenichi, Mr. Jakob, Anica and Reina. When we were going into Shibuya to say hello to Jenny we got stopped by a Street Snap photographer from the magazine EGG.
As I wrote in that entry they were also making some recording there for this band called Juliet!! I had no idea who they were before I put up this picture on the blog and some readers commented and said it's a famous Gyaru music band called "Juliet". I'm so happy to have such nice and smart readers commenting on this blog!!^^ Thank you so much for telling me who these girls are!! =)
Here's one of their music videos featuring three super famous Men's EGG models: Ayumu Satoh, Tanaka Daichi and Yukihide.
Then we went for some Karaoke.
Leon used to dream about becoming a musical artist.
After we're done with the Karaoke, Mr. Jakob asks Leon if he has Facebook. Leon looks really confused for a long time and then he pulls up a package of "FRISK-mints" from his bag and asks:
-"Is this what you mean??"
I almost laughed myself to death... I can't understand how most Japanese don't know what Facebook is. I mean, it's like the biggest thing since Internet or something.
This was also the first time Leon ever hanged out with non-Japanese people.
Sometimes hanging out with Gyaru people kinda feels like visiting some isolated Indian-tribe that never had contact with the world outside, if you understand what I mean... ;D
We had a small "Goodbye-party" for Reina and Mr. Jakob which was leaving us for today. Lloyd(right) joined us and we took some more Purikura.
For some reason Leon thought that Lloyd looks like the Pokémon Metamon which he made very clear to everybody... XD
For the second time today, me and Anica laughed ourselves to death... :D
Later Leon bought this book to learn more English.
Leon wrote a long entry about this day in his Mixi diary and was really happy for his new friends. During the day Leon told me I looked like I was sad inside because of something, so he thought I should let my feelings out for my friends more. After writing a lot in Japanese he wrote this in English to Jenny, Mr. Jakob, Anica, Lloyd and me.
"You'll never be perfect, and I don't wont you to be. I like you just the way you are.
A friend is someone who laughs when your jokes aren't good and listen when your problems are bad. Because no matter how dark things get, remember this: I care about you.
Seeing you smile always bring me joy."
The next day in school we were supposed to write a text with the theme: "What animal would you like to become?"
I don't really want to become any animal so inspired by Leon I choosed "Metamon" as my animal, since he can transform himself into anything. :P
Everybody thought I was cheating since Metamon is a monster and not an animal... I asked Leon what animal he would like to become.
Leon: -"A Lion of course!! That's why my nickname is Leon, which means Lion!!"
