Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Nogal

Sunday we ended up just staying in all day and lazing about. Nothing too exciting, until I saw on Ameba that Fujita Shiho had updated her blog about harvesting this year's rice. Who's Fujita Shiho? She's the leader of a movement called Nogal, which is dedicated to spreading awareness about the agricultural crisis in Japan and educating about the unnecessary anxiety towards rice and other healthy food through the means of growing her own rice together with other famous models who have a particular fashion sense called gyaru (gal). They also have the goal to create a newer, more stylish image for farming.

Anyway, she updated her blog and wrote about how she was taking applicants for people who wanted to participate in this year's harvest festival. I wasn't sure how much of a chance I had, but I applied anyway. The application consisted of usual things such as name, phone number, address, and age, as well as whether we like rice or not and our reason for wanting to participate. I ended up writing a little mini-essay to introduce myself and that even though I'm foreign I know Japanese and am interested in gal style, and told her I've been following her activities for the past year and have read her books, written essays, and even given presentations on her work. We also had to include a picture of ourselves, so I ended up getting dressed up just to take a picture. XD
This is the picture I ended up choosing to send in along with the rest of my application. I was really unsure whether I had a chance or not, but my chances would remain 0 if I never sent it in at all, right? And that was pretty much all the excitement for yesterday, although while we were falling asleep we felt our first earthquake! That was an experience. It was pretty short though.

Today I got up as usual, checked my email, and found out from their newsletter that Ikebukuro PARCO is having a sale in nearly every store to support a baseball team. I noticed that Liz Lisa was having lucky bags as their participation. ...how could I resist!? So I headed over to Ikebukuro by myself since Daniel was at school. I was curious how much my commuter pass is going to cost, so I decided to go to the ticket counter and purchase it. My pass is 6,450 yen a month. Much better than 24,000 a month, right?

Anyway, I headed over to Ikebukuro PARCO, went over to Liz Lisa, and got myself one of their lucky bags.
The letters are shiny. :D Inside were three items. I was hoping for two dresses, but instead I got...
A purse that was originally priced at 8,295 yen.
This adorable skirt originally priced at 6,195 yen.
And last, this fluffy sweater originally priced at 7,245 yen.

The skirt alone was worth the whole bag. It's so cute! I'm not sure if I have anything good that would go with it though. I don't really dig the bag, and I'm not sure what to think of the mint-color sweater. I'm thinking I'll just sell the two on eBay or something. But for that, I need a scale to calculate shipping with. I wonder if I can find one to buy around here or if there's one I can just randomly use...

Right as I was about to try on the skirt, my phone started vibrating. I was getting a call. I picked it up nervously and answered in Japanese and got a long explanation...the conversation is now a blur in my memory, but my heart must have stopped when I realized it was Fujita Shiho and she had told me I had been accepted to join in with the harvesting of the Shibuya Rice. I was speechless and shaking all over, that's how shocked I was!! I remember her asking me how I found out about it, and I told her it was from her blog, and she asking to make sure I know when and where they're meeting in Shibuya, and she mentioned that it's cold in Akita this time of year so I should dress accordingly and make sure I wear something easy to move in and have long shoes I don't mind getting dirty, but I asked and rain boots work as well.

I was trembling with excitement after the phone call. I couldn't believe I had talked on the phone with Fujita-san herself and that I had actually been accepted!!! Waaaaaah! (≧∀≦) She even wrote about me briefly in her latest blog post today. She only said that "a foreign girl living in Japan had applied" though, so nothing too amazing.

So, on Friday night I'm going to meet up with possibly Fujita-san herself along with the 39 other girls who had been selected in Shibuya and we're all going to get on a bus and go to Akita to go harvest rice all day on Saturday. Saturday night there'll be a barbecue and we'll head back to Shibuya on Sunday. I'm guessing it's going to be an all night trip to Akita though. Akita's pretty far from Tokyo. I hope they give us blankets or something.

But that's about it for my day today. The skirt fits great though not sure what to wear with it, and I'm still extremely excited. What an opportunity! I need to find something cute and functional to wear, since we're creating an image of stylish farming. The weather report says that the highs will be low 70s and lows will be high 50s, so I'm thinking shorts with tights + rain boots, plus a long shirt if I can find a cute enough one. And gotta figure out what to wear on the bus too! Gotta buy rain booooots.

2 comments:

  1. Hey Honey,
    So proud of you!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, you look great in that hat. It really was made for you.

    Yeah, that skirt is too cute. Pink ftw.

    Congratulations again on getting accepted to Shibuya Rice, foreign girl! XD

    ReplyDelete