Model's Diary

My story is a story of a model born in a small town called Zushi in Kanagawa prefecture of Japan, currently living in Seoul, South Korea. While being at high school I became interested in K-Pop culture which made me eager to learn Korean language by myself. After spending six month studying in Korea, I decided to finally move there in 2015. Working as a model, TV host, interpreter to Korean artists and models, as well as sometimes writing a beauty reviews for “Nylon Japan”. But you could probably heard about me the most after the popular in Japan Netflix TV show called “Terrace House: Opening New Doors”. But first things first!

When turning 14 years old in 2005, I got scouted by some modeling agency, while simultaneously with that continue taking classes in dancing and vocal. Later, I signed a contract with a major entertainment agency, as well as also started working as a model. After a year of extensive training, I finally became a full-time model, getting my first assignment as a modeling photoshoot for a brand book of “Penty’s”, a very popular brand in Japan among the high school students and youngsters at that time. Having in mind that I was very young, my mom went to Osaka together with me. I can’t express in words how excited I was when having that makeup and hair done on me, and while trying on the new clothes one by one.

My dancing classes led me to another exciting event in my life — in 2010 I got a chance to take part as a backup dancer at the huge performance in terms of the tour “Exile Live Tour 2010 Fantasy”. That was the first stage experience for me to appear in front of more than 40,000 people, and I was super-nervous, but above all that, it was fun.

Meanwhile, the process of learning Korean language went better for me, so I started to think over an idea to move there, and it seemed to me I would be happier while living in Korea, so I used my savings from the part-time job and flied to Korea for a casting, this time just by myself. That ended in a half a year of study in Korea during 2012, and moving there for a long-term later in 2015. The same year I got a great modeling contract with the Korean brand called “Jucy Judy”! Modeling contracts went one by one: a lookbook photoshoot for “Vibrate”, a modeling job for NBA in Korea, various pamphlet photoshoots, as for example the one called “Women’s Travel In Seoul” which goal was to popularize Korea as a travel destination for Japanese people.

Working with Nylon Japan magazine made it possible for me to not just getting tiny contracts but also appear on the pages of the various magazines and web modeling campaigns. I usually don’t exercise a lot but when I got a contract for a lingerie photoshoot, I had to give up on my favorite beer for almost a week before the photosession and also to take 1,5 hours of daily walking. Whenever the work was finished, the beer at the end of the photoshoot was the most delicious reward to me!

When posing for a collaboration of Nylon Japan and a known snowboarding brand “Burton”, I tried snowboarding for the first time in my life, but at the same time I couldn’t ski at all due to anxiety and fear.

And after that the most exciting part of my career has started — the participation in the new Netflix TV show called “Terrace House” in 2018. The show follows the lives of six strangers, three men and three women from different walks of life, who live under the same roof while getting to know and date each other. “Terrace House” is still well known in Japan, and at that time I had a lot of filming and work in Japan, so I came from Korea to Japan quite often. When I was busy, I was on an airplane once every three days, going back and forth between Korea and Japan. It was an amazing time during that TV show! Sometimes, Netflix producers took a week’s worth of shots and edited them into just 40 minutes of one episode. Although it wasn’t actually aired, there were days when we just played card games until midnight, and days when we watched movies together, went to a convenience store with just the girls, went for a drive with Tsubasa (one of the key TV show participants), and went shopping. I also remember having a freestyle rap battle with other Terrace House members after my graduation party. This was never included in the live version of the show but it was definitely an exciting time!

By the way, there was a rule that no one of the show participants could add each other in any social networks before the show aired! The producers were surprised how seriously we took that rule because the previous seasons’ participants did not follow those rules at all somehow! I couldn’t help but surprise with how popular that show became on both local Japanese TV and English speaking TV as well, that was an incredible and unexplainable global influence of “Terrace House”! It also appeared later on TV in South Korea too.

One more thing to mention is the difference between modeling in Japan and modeling in South Korea. A modeling industry itself appeared in Japan much earlier than in Korea, so it’s hard to compare, though there’s one distinctive peculiarity: in Korea you will notice an extremely short period between the casting and the actual selection of the model to get the contract, so it’s like super-fast! While in Japan, there’s an ample time between audition and filming, so it is often done really slowly and step by step. I have an impatient personality, so I guess the Korean style suits me better. Time will show!