Japanese Girls Rock

I thought I'd do a post I never thought I'd do. I walked past MYER today and they had an installation for cosmetics or fashion or some shite labelled 'Harajuku'. Have I mentioned this before, I must have, anyway I always wanted to personally destroy fashion with a coffee table photo book called 'It's not working' where I take photo's of unattractive people dressed in current fashion.

Horrible as the sentiment is, this Harajuku installation at MYER is practically the same thing, they have hired a bunch of young girls that appear to be a mix of white and asian but not Japanese. And the overall effect is awful. They look like people who are far too old to be playing dressups.
I mean the very notion of a brand called 'harajuku' is ridiculous. Yes it's a fashion centre of Japan but it's actually made up by a whole bunch of independant brands. To just missapropriate a cultural region's name and use it to endorse your own line is like expecting your daughter to grow up classy and avant garde because you call them Paris.
Albeit if you went by my experience of Paris you would probably expect your daughter to grow up as a dirty hobo who intrudes in your personal space all the time.

I think what is most interesting though is that Harajuku style doesn't translate well across cultures even to Vietnamese and Chinese born Australian teenage models.

I don't want to be no nihonjinron/chrysathenum club writing social darwanist Japanophile motherfucker, nor do I wish to be one of those slavering connoissuer/philistines over at www.asian-sirens.com because this isn't a safeway/woolworths meat specials catalogue.

So firstly some disclaimers:

1. I've been to Japan 3 times now and had a relationship with the nations history, present, language and culture for over ten years now - my views come from the perspective put forth in 'The Little Prince' "that his rose is unique and special, because she is the one that he loves." I'm sure had I the experience and the knowledge I could write about say why Chinese women rocked, German Women rocked or why Quaker women rocked (I'm confident Quaker women would).
2. My definition of 'Japanese' is twofold and may upset some of my friends who consider themselves Japanese and others that merely want to be Japanese. The most important criterion is that you were predominantly educated in Japanese secondary school, and secondly that you are ethnically Japanese, Korean, Chinese or any mix of the the three. You are most definitely not white.

That said - why Japanese women rock. Well first and foremost because they are funny.
Japnese girls have great expressions like 'IiiiiYAda!' or the more condescending 'Iyadesu' or the equally expressive 'CHIgaO!' 'uSO!!!' or 'SAIyaKU...' the true extent of which requires emoticons that I can't be fagged doing.
At any rate if you know a Japanese girl take every opportunity to annoy them, insinuate lies and rumours about them and make sure you do it all to their face for full effect.
Miki could real off a very expressive little tantrum at times.
This is also often coupled with very antiquated fist shaking and foot stomping. Despite the reserved reputation of Japan in general girls particularly in the homosocial society often break from this stereotype.

That would be enough to tide me over happily, the expressions are just that entertaining. But there's also the grace and style that I guess needs mentioning. Largely a product of old fashioned social conditioning and peer pressure the likes of which dissappeared during the women's movement in western society and provides a dissapointing lack of non-lezbian tomboy's in Japanese society many Japanese women still attend thinly veiled 'finishing schools' so this is a brutal characteristic I can't really endorse and comes with plenty of baggage too.
But Japanese women have grace and style, they fold everything like you wouldn't believe in swift uncomplicated movements impossible to reproduce. They don't ravenously tear open presents in an attempt to preserve the most important part - gift wrapping.
And sure they all dress the same, so much so one can barely tell them apart but like a field full of daisies you just have to pick one and pay attention to it to appreciate its beauty. Or so I assume I've never actually done this.

Then there's the encyclopedic knowledge of fashion and hair and makeup and shit, Japan has phone book sized glossy magazines with painfully detailed step by step illustrations on how to style your hair and other shit that they must actually study by rote much like the education system because they know what they are doing.

Then there is the diet, healthy amounts of fish rice seaweed and of course cigarettes. It's not like being stick thin is a virtue, but the high soy content means no menopause and Japanese girls just seem to fail to age, until some point where they get real old real fast somewhere in the 90's.