It has certainly be a while...




I think the main thing that motivated me to start blogging again was from a recent arrest that was made in Japan. The girl who was arrested is very well known in the "Kawaii gaijin gyaru community" in Japan. We will call her Ms. Shi.

Ms. Shi was arrested because she was involved in a fake marriage scam with a Japanese man- that some believe was her customer at a hostess club she worked at prior to marrying him. Now I'll explain a little bit but in order to get facts from the articles, it's best if you look it up yourselves.

 Ms. Shi offered the man (who worked as a construction worker) around 7k up front to marry her for a Japanese spousal visa and she paid him a certain amount of money per month to stay married to her. Even though they submitted their marriage paperwork in 2016 someone tipped off the police about the scam marriage and the police started their investigation. In July of 2018, Ms. Shi along with her fake visa husband were both arrested. Because of the seriousness of fake marriages for the purpose of obtaining a spousal visa and eventual permanent residency in Japan, she faces possible jail-time and permanent deportation.


  Ms. Shi's arrest was all over the news and even though she was only famous within that particular *gaijin gyaru* community, the only reason she made the news was because of her reasoning as to why she actively seeked a fake marriage. She said she wanted to stay in Japan where she could cosplay in a safe environment as opposed to Canada, her home country. This was something that the media knew would make a great story so they blew it up and went with it. Her other reasoning was that in Canada, she felt she wasn't given the same freedoms that she had in Japan.
I won't post any of the articles in question or any of the gossip gyaru forum websites talking about her but it's very easy to find if you google  the keywords " Canadian, Japan, cosplay, marriage and arrest".

Back to what I was saying before, I didn't know this Ms. Shi at all. I originally saw pictures of her here and there but I had no idea what type of person she was. As another gaijin girl living in Japan, we had a few mutual acquaintances. So when someone bought up one of the articles speaking of her arrest, I had no idea it was the beautifully made up girl in the pictures that I would see on social media from time to time.



Quick side story: I was in Harajuku with a guy that I know, waiting for our reservation at the Sailor Moon popup at Cafe Qpot. We went to a Mexican restaurant called " Guzman Y Gomez" and  actually one of Ms. Shi's friends whose name I believe starts with a "K" was there with a group of girls. I recognized Ms. K right away from pictures I saw online and her and her friends sat at a table behind us, while we were at the booth facing the window.
The guy that I was with is a bit older and not really familiar with the gyaru or kawaii gaijin crowd. We got our food and sat down, that's when the subject of gaijin in Japan and working came up. He suddenly bought up the article about a girl who was arrested recently. It was Ms. Shi but I had no idea at the time. He asked me " Hey, did you hear about the recent news story of the cosplay girl getting arrested? Here take a look ".
* He shows me the article on his phone*
 I told him it was my first time hearing about this article. Let me also mention the article he showed me was from Sora News 24, and if you've seen that article and know who Ms. Shi is, you'll know that they used a stock photo (which I later found out) in that article of a girl who looked nothing like her. They also provided a screen shot of her arrest but because she had no makeup on when she normally has very heavy makeup on, I still didn't know who it was. We openly talked about it and asked why someone would pay so much money to live in Japan and not even try to actually date the fake visa husband and marry him for real. Keep in mind, Ms. Shi's friend- Ms. K was still sitting behind me with her group of friends. Not knowing cosplay girl was Ms. Shi and the guy whom I was with is a LOUD talker. I actually commented on how loud he was twice in that day. lolol.. You know who you are! lol

We eventually left to go to Qpot, but once I got home and dug around for more information about the story, that's when I found out that the "cosplay" girl in the article was Ms. Shi and I also found a farm type online gossip forum talking all about the arrest.... I originally knew about this gossip forum *after* a certain well know gaijin gyaru that was in the gyaru circle Black Diamond, stayed with me back in 2014. So when I tied the knots together, I realized that Ms. K was best friend's with Ms. Shi, and the white gaijin guy and I were talking about her arrest right in front of her. I couldn't help but laugh to myself and shake my head. Talk about an awkward and embarrassing coincidence.



Back to what I was saying, when I started getting more information about what type of person Ms. Shi was, I stumbled onto her old blog. After reading some of her earlier blog posts, I realized that we had so much in common. She was a bit older than me but we had similar dreams and aspirations. We went through similar experiences as well but she was actually brave enough to share those experiences to the public. Reading more into her life, I actually began sympathizing with her. Obviously Japan meant so much to her and most of her talent and skills were motivated because of Japan or being in Japan. I felt conflicted because what she did was indeed unwise however I saw a great deal of her in me.


SO!

I decided to start blogging again and also being more open and honest about my life here in Japan. But I have so many thoughts and experiences that I kept to myself or close friends. Not wanting to stir the pot or have people look at me in an unfavorable light. However I want something to look back on when I get older. I want to be able to say, " Wow, I did that?", or " Wow, I experienced that and I'm still around to talk about it.".

So with both Ms. Shi and the blogger "Living Tall in Japan" as my muses, I decided to seriously get back into blogging! I will try to blog at least once a week and I'll set reminders. I'll try to keep everything recent and present. This is mostly for me but anyone that is interested in tuning in, please do so and welcome!

Labels: arrest, blogging, canada, cosplay, fake, Gaijin, gyaru, japan, marriage, scam, tokyo, visa