Instagram Famous in Japan: From Ordinary Girls to Social Media Superstars
Step Up Your Selfie Game! 10 Popular Poses Japanese Girls Will Whip Out!
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Selfies to take on smartphones are now one of the must-dos for the young girls nowadays, and Japan is no exception. As popular Japanese pop icons or teen models post their selfies on social medias, Japanese young girls would look in to their selfies and pose the similar way. And this is not just to be like the icon she admires, but also to figure out the best posing to make themselves to look the best on Twitter or Instagram. So we have listed 10 selfie poses that Japanese young girls are likely to do on Twitter and Instagram!
1. The Peace Sign
The classic, “peace sign” pose is very deep-rooted for the majority of the females in Japan. At some point of Japanese female life, you might have done it at least once or twice, at some sort of occasion. This all have started with the popularized purikura culture in Japan. Japanese female teenagers would take purikura after school, and the “peace sign” would be most convenient pose would be to picture the moment. Later, the “peace sign” is passed down on selfie poses.
2. Tooth-Ache Pose
The “tooth-ache” poses became common from fashion magazine covers, where the cover-girl posed with a hand on her cheek.
This posing started from the voices of the magazine readers, requesting to make the nail design more visible. From there, more magazines started to incorporate the “tooth-ache” posing and girls started to imitate that pose as well. Young girls tend to use this pose very often, because by wrapping your cheek around, it covers the roundness of the face.
3. “Gao” pose; paw pose
In parallel to the “tooth-ache” pose, the “gao” pose or the paw pose became also popular. Started out with Harajuku pop icon, Kyary Pamyu Pamyu, posting selfies with her hands like claw, showing her new nail designs. But, some may say that it also looks like Lady Gaga’s “paws up” pose as well.
“Gao” is the Japanese way of describing the roar, and it’s playful as if the girl is like a little cute animal.
4. Hiding one eye
Hiding one side of the eye is another popular selfie pose both to show the nails and eye-make. It has said that the “imitation”make-up blogger, Zawachin, was the first person to start to do this pose in her selfies, to show her just one part of her eye-make up. And like the other poses above, this selfie pose also shows the nail designs as well. This has received from the viewers as cute, but also mysterious.
5. “Eliza” pose
The “Eliza” pose was named after the popular CanCam model, Eliza Ikeda. She posed in her selfies by lightly squeezing the cheeks to emphasize the lips. Her selfies are liked to many of her fans as perfect, and Eliza was soon crowned to be the “God of Selfies.”
This posing has spread through the young teenage girls, and since bright and colorful lip colors are still in trend, the lip color spices up that selfie as well.
6. “Hamu Hamu” pose
“Hamu” is the onomatopoeia of the action of lightly biting. Selfies of lightly biting the lower lip is now becoming more popular amongst the teenage girls, and the reception from the males are rather positive than the “duck mouth (ahiru guchi)” selfie poses. Now, the “duck mouth” pose is now too sketchy, many of the young teens are reacting rather positively to “hamu hamu” pose as a new, cute selfie pose.
7. Drinking pose (“near-chu” pose)
Another upcoming selfie poses are the “drinking-out-from-a-straw” pose, or the “near-chu” pose. Selfie of drinking out from straws on the plastic cups are found attractive to males as well since it looks like kissing (“chu” is onomatopoeia of kissing) pose. Rather than the actual “kiss” look, the “near-chu” look is more natural, not too sketchy, but still attractive.
8. Pinching the cheek pose
Pinching-the-cheek pose looks strange, but also cute as well. Apprently, It has started with a Smartphone App where you can photoshop your cheek to stretch out a bit. It is still a mystery why this “pinching the cheek”selfie pose became popular amongst girls, but one of the hypothesis can be that to stretch out the laugh (or smile) lines around the mouth. Some young people consider those laugh lines as a complex, and want to smooth it out in the perfect selfie. But somehow, it also looks like pouting, which makes it cute so it somehow makes it popular.
9. Covering mouth
Like the “covering-one-eye” pose, covering your mouth to only show the eyes are also popular. Many girls would use this selfie pose to show the eye-make up, as well as the nail designs together.
But some also place a finger on a bottom lip too, but this one still remain a mystery. Still, it’s cute and looks like she craves for some treat.
10. “Pistol” pose
The “pistol” pose was started by one of the popular model in Seventeen magazine, Manami Enosawa. Don’t worry, it’s nothing dangerous but rather cute too. It’s a pose to make a finger pistol and put it around your chin. Like the “tooth-ache” pose, the finger pistol covers the chin area and the cheek area to cover the roundness of the face, but the “pistol” pose also fun. It’s like a pose from comedic anime, when a character is scheming something evil.
Have you found your favorite selfie posing? Let us know if you do these poses, or have other suggestions!
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Satsuki
Grad student in Tokyo. Born in Tokyo, raised in New York, studied in London. My interests lies in Tokyo's urban street cultures and girls cultures,rock music, fashion and manga. Just livin' it up :)
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