sifow : What has she been up to?

I know she's pretty old news now but have you heard of sifow? She's a really inspirational gyaru!



Her real name is Shiho Fujita although she commonly goes by the name of sifow. I was introduced to her through her music back in 2006, around the release of LOVE&PEACE. She started up her own company aged 19 after realising that gyaru, especially ganguro gyaru, were getting a bad press and simply wanted to improve the image of them. Her online blog proved to be really popular and she even had a music career for awhile, although she didn't really chart on Oricon.



After the release of her album Love Spell in 2007 she announced she would be going on a hiatus so that she could open a school for gyaru. She'd been talking about opening the school in her GAL REVOlog all the way back in 2005 so it was most likely one of her dreams. This school was going to teach gyaru about I.T., the music industry and the entertainment industry in general. I was under the impression the school would be opening in 2010 although by the sound of things it hasn't opened it's doors yet.

But sifow hasn't been sitting doing nothing. She's currently working on the NoGal project, aka the Farm Gal project.



As a lot of Japan's food is imported and there are a lot of abandoned fields in Japan, sifow realised that Japan had to stop relying on other people and produce food for themselves. She set up the NoGal project after buying a rice farm and encouraging other gyaru to join her. Yes, that does mean leaving behind Shibuya 109 to go work on a rice farm. Not entirely glamorous, is it? That's why she collaborated with various clothing brands to provide affordable, stylish and practical clothing for gyaru to wear. She also gives lectures on agricultural subjects to gyaru and gyaru mamas!

Her farm appears to be mainly a rice farm, and she produces her own brand of rice which she promotes with her fellow gyaru. The name? Shibuya Rice, of course. The packaging even features a big, sparkly image of Hachiko.



Whilst sifows GAL REVOlog hasn't been updated in some time, she has moved to ameblo and her blog can be seen here! I really do recommend checking her out, she's really inspirational! I've really missed her since she went on hiatus so I did some research and found out what she's been up to lately. :)