This might come across as pitiful, or even worse, annoying, but when I was growing up I was the only half-Asian, let alone half-Japanese girl I knew, and I'll readily admit that I spent a good deal of time wishing I was a "normal" white girl. My mom tells me even when I was little and going to school in Tokyo and Hong Kong (both international schools and populated with every nationality imaginable), I would always befriend the prettiest blonde girls in the class..probably because I wanted to be them! My three best friends were British, Swedish, and French. Then I went through a phase wishing I was fully Japanese, at least then I wouldn't be so blatantly stared at in the Tokyo subways. When I discovered Vivi in high school one summer while bored in Tokyo, it was like coming across a personal and highly colorful bible. A magazine filled with nothing but half-Japanese girls! And they were all impossibly hot! I found this to be highly cool and was instantly hooked.I have long since stopped suffering from such indulgent identity ponderings but do still enjoy my monthly dose of the Vivs. (I do realize that it's a little odd for one of Japan's most popular fashion magazines to never use any fully Japanese models, but this is probably a whole separate topic...)
My favorite girl would have to be Jun, with her dark stare that makes me think she would be pretty intimidating in real life. I rank her as one of the most gorgeous people currently in existence on Earth. Lena and Chikako have that cutesy/sexy thing going on, and Marie pulls off a Vojtova-esque nose with aplomb. Now, if only I had paid more attention in my rigorously enforced Saturday Japanese school and subsequent "Japanese for bilingual speakers" class that was easily the single hardest, most time-consuming course I have ever been a reluctant part of. And slacking off wasn't an option since I was one of err three students.
Crazy fashion eye candy with pages chock-full of photos and weirdly awesome items:
I have the strangest feeling that Lucky isn't going to provide us with the following:
This post was completely due to reader Tali's comment informing me that the site of my dreams does exist, a livejournal community dedicated to Japanese glossies that posts scans of, like, entire magazines. You're stoked. I'm stoked. THANK YOU TALI!