Living a Gyaru life pt. 2 ♡ The Gyaru life in Japan

Chaossu! Part 2 of this blog post about the Gyaru life. In the first part I talked about my personal experience and how I live my Gyaru life, however this can be pretty much different from gal to gal, there are a lot of things that can be part of our lives as gals, so in this second part I'll talk about many other things that are more common to see in Japanese gals and/or I haven't done myself (yet?).

Read the previous post: Living a Gyaru Life pt. 1 ♡ How I live my Gyaru life?

1. Gyaru slang

There are a looot of words, some of them are really old like "agepoyo!" which is a expression of being super excited or "pagal" which is an incomplete not so good looking gal, could be considered the Gyaru equivalent of the "ita" for the Lolita comm (so not a nice word). And there are more modern slang like "gyau" which is a more modern a westernized way of gal (refered to current EGG models), "pien" which could be translated as "sob sob" and you use it when you're tearing about something happy or sad. 

Kyun desu! 

My favorites are "kyun desu" which is the Japanese translation of the Korean "saranghae" sign (the heart with two fingers), adding "-nida" at the end of the words. This suffix is like the verb to be in Korean, so you use it basically to say "desu" in Japanese. Like saying "kawaii-nida" or "I'm cute" mixing Japanese and Korean. And as a foodie in my heart I'll start using "tobu-zo" which means super yummy! 

In the gal community we appreciate all these words because it's a really fun way to gyaru-fy our way of speaking. However if you're going to use it with Japanese people remember not all those words are use nowadays. Old slang is considered old-fashioned and people could look weird at you. But at the same time amazed by your interest in the language! 

I recommend you this two guide from Papillon with the trendy slang of 2019 and 2020.

• Popular Gyaru slang of 2019
• Popular Gyaru slang of 2020

2. Gyaru attitude 

When we talk about the Gyaru attitude, we're talking about straightforward, charismatic, outgoing, rebellious and wild people. We're not neccesarlly talking about extroverts. Usually people have this misconsception that being wild is a synonimous of squatting on the streets, wearing showy clothes and being loud, but I would say they're just some superficial ways (usually shared by magazines) the Gyaru attitude manifests.

I think we all have different personalities, but being more open-minded and true to ourselves no matter what is a big part of being gal. The focus should be on not giving a f*ck about what other people think about you and being confident. But that's easier to say than to do, and it's a different journey for every person. That's why usually you see people getting more and more confident once they get into Gyaru.

 

You're also going to see gals talking openly about traditional taboo topics like sex or drugs. Purity culture and slut-shamming are are no no ! Not for nothing "Animal talk" is a popular section on the EGG magazine where gals share their sexual experiences. If you're a gaijin gal, you can do it on Papillon magazine too! 

I think that's also why we can see gals in the international community are often feminists and activists (I am myself an intersectional feminist), because the need of being rebellious and going against the traditional society standards is part of who we are. Speaking up for the right things has also being a thing during the last years (that also includes questioning Gyaru) and I hope we can see more of that.

3. Gyaru-friendly jobs (part 2)

Following the previous point I wanted to write a separated section of some common jobs for gals in Japan that are not always accesible for gaijin gals but are highly related with having a Gyaru spirit.

You should no be surprise to find gals who are sex workers or Only fans / Patreon content creators. In Japan there are also AV gals (porn actresses) and gravure models. Usually this kind of gals are known as Charisma GALs. Some of them are Izumi Mana and Aika. 

Host kei is also a substyle for Gyaruo.

And we can't pass this section without talking about host clubs. They started with high class ladies who would go to these clubs to have fun with hosts during the economic bubble era. They would chat, drink and sing on karaokes. It became so popular, women started to do that too and on their case it's called kyabakura (キャバクラ) and hostess are called kyabajo (キャバ嬢).

kyaba = caba (from cabaret)   /    kura = club   /   jo = young single lady

The host industry has been so big that at some point it found the perfect intersection with gyaru in Agejo and Serebu subsubstyles and that's how we have magazines like 小悪魔 ageha, 姉ageha, Men's Knuckle, Yukai+, Men's Yukai+ and more for hosts, hostess and ex-hostess.

 

From the movie Gal's Life about Sakurina's life as a hostess then a 小悪魔 ageha model.

Some successful ex-kyabajo, business owners and models are Sakurina, Emiri Aizawa and Sayaka Araki. And there are still hostess like Serika who used to be a model on Popteen and EGG on the JK cast. 

To understand more the host life, I recommend you these videos:

• Meet The No. 1 Gigolo In Japan: Akaya Kunugi | ASIAN BOSS (ENG / ESP)
• Meet The Number 1 Hostess In Japan | ASIAN BOSS (ENG / ESP)
• El negocio de las damas de compañía en Japón | Japatonic LITE (ESP)
• La psicología de los hosts | Kira Sense (ESP)
• Storytime: Mi experiencia en un host club en Japón | Sarah Nyappy Love (ESP)
• 「夜のおもてなし」日本一のホスト - The King of Hosts (ENG)

4. Bosozoku & Sukeban

Bosozoku is another Japanese subculture that also found a way to meet Gyaru. These tribes have a way older history, they come from the 50s and are associated with customized motorcycles and cars to be super extravagant, loud and go crazy in the middle of the city. In Gyaru they're mostly featured on Soul Japan and Soul Sister. Ane and Ora Ora magazines that are more into wilder and darker looks. I made a blog post about Soul Sister in the past where I mention these bosozuku gals I recommend you to read! 

 

Meanwhile Sukeban (助番) is a term that refers to deliquent highschool girls and more specifically, the leader of highschool female bands. They used to customize their uniforms and embroider their slogans and symbols. I think is good to add that usually gals were not "sukeban" themselves but most of the time they wore the uniforms for themed articles in magazines and now those clothes are often sold as costumes. 

5. Family & personal life

And finally I wanted to talk about a cuter and lighter topic. You can be Gyaru on you personal life and with your family as well. I don't even have to say much about that, I'll let the pictures talk by themselves.

 

Gyaru wedding? YES.

Gyaru babies? OF COURSE.

 

Gyaru puppies? WITHOUT ANY DOUBT.

I haven't seen pictures of cats with gyaru clothes yet. but let's remember Sakurina used to have a turtle with jewelry. So everything is possible!

I hope you enjoyed this post and found it educative! Now I'll go to dress up because today's the Harajuku Fashion Walk México and it's my first time joinig an online event from them. (We sould have a virtual fashion walk in Peru as well. /pien ). But I'm still excited! 

See ya! I'll blog about that experience later!

REILA LESS

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