Even after leaving Japan, I try to keep up to date with Japanese beauty trends and products. It is difficult as you're not bombarded with sales, rankings, and other marketing tactics that keeps you notified of the latest product. However, living near Kinokuniya in San Francisco Japantown makes it easy to go ahead and pick up the latest copy of Non-no, Can-Cam, or ViVi (which are all Japanese fashion magazines).

So in preparation for the summer when there's immense pressure to have a somewhat presentable body, I purchased a copy of VoCE, the July 2016 Issue.



The theme for this issue is "weight loss"! The model on the cover is Oshima Yuko, a former member of a popular girl group, AKB48. She has lost quite a bit of weight herself so her tips and tricks are peppered throughout the book.
Another fun thing is that the magazine comes with this yellow massage thing that's you put on your hand like a glove. It's supposed to help you massage out your fat. Regular usage will apparently help you shed a couple centimeters...
I'll try it out and see how it goes... Regardless of my doubt about the effectiveness of the item, it's cute and I'm glad to have it as decoration. It has a cat face on the front and the book used the term おなか or stomach to refer to the back.

This is what it looks like....

   

There are in total 8 different ways to use this. 4 ways with the front (with the face) and 4 ways with the back (with the paws).

After putting it on your hands, you can....

On the back (aka stomach) 

1. Slide strongly down the nap of your nap. Start from below your ear and slide it to your collarbones. This will help with your neck line. Repeat 5x on each side.

2. Slide it down strongly from your armpit towards your bellybutton. This will help push down the fat from your sides and waist. Repeat 5x on each side.

3. Push it strongly down your front upper thighs. So start from the start of your upper thigh and push it down hard as if you're putting your body weight into it towards your knees. This will help you get more beautiful legs! 美脚！My favorite word. Do this 5x on each thigh.

4. Start from your ankle and massage up the outside of your calves. Apply pressure as you do this! You can do this sitting down. This will help you slim down those calves. Do this 5x on each side.

On the front (with the face)

1. With the yellow massage thing on your hand, grab the underpart of your forearm and squeeze it hard. Squeeze the flesh and this will help with slimming down your forearm. Do this 5x on each arm.

2. Grab your inner thigh and squeeze it hard 5 times each on both leg on multiple spots.

3. Grab the meat on your lower belly and squeeze it. Squeeze 5 times for every location you touch.

4. On the back of your calves, squeeze the flesh with the yellow cat thing. For one spot, squeeze 5 times. Go up the entire length of your legs.

So it kind of looks like this:





And here are some of the before and afters. It looks like a fun and easy way to mold a bit of your body, especially if you're watching TV or youtube.





I really like sharing Japanese beauty tips because they're so creative and fun. They also like to put the emphasize on easy, albeit I'm not sure if we should place too heavy an emphasis on that. Nonetheless, if I can massage some fat away, it's worth sharing!