Since everyone loves some Japanese nail art, I thought I’d wade through a few nail salon pages and bring you some highlights:
Above: Sapphire Nails, Tokyo. I like this but I think I’d change the pattern a bit.
Reminds me of pirates, though I don’t think I’d wear this. Blue Reef Salon, Tokyo.
Wow- not only candy and fruit, but pastries?! Is that a churro on the right?
Both images from Fantemille Salon, Tokyo.
Pink overdose with plastic hearts, flowers and bubbly shapes. Very princessy, with a pricetag of around $100. Kiki Salon, Tokyo.
Five Star Salon, Tokyo. Transparent bits, arglye, hearts and a giant ribbon. But why is the ribbon burgundy?
How can anyone function with these? Nail Musee Shibuya Salon, Tokyo.
A Louis Vuitton logo in the middle. You can even get a bikini wax with the LV or Chanel logo in Japan! LV is like an epidemic here, it’s ugly and I’m tired of seeing it. Socks, belts, hairclips, stud earrings, and worst of all, a baby bib…and now nail art? Pinky Salon, Tokyo.
Glittertastic! Beau Nail, Tokyo.
Nail Salon Absorb, Tokyo. Gold chains and tiny golf balls (?).
Hearts, glitter and rhinestones. Another very girly one. Nail Salon Mauna Kea, Tokyo.
Ok, the food nails – the waffle with the butter and syrup – get outta here!! I would SOOOOO wear some nails with waffles on them – lmao!!
The glittertastic ones are my faves though! Those are some I really would wear
Thanks for the pics I really like looking at these nails.
Brooke- For some reason, that churro really cracked me up! I guess the Japanese looked at pictures and tried to re-create it, because there are no churros in Japan at all. There are waffles, but something about that churro is hilarious. Maybe I’ll get a set of food nails before I go. They could probably make anything- that artist looks really talented. But it’ll cost around $160. Ouch!
There are some crazy manicureout there! I alsolove the glitter nails. Ican’t imagine how you could wear those sharply pointed nails. I know I would stab myself in many places!
Lucy- me too! I hope the ladies wearing those claws don’t have contacts! Yikes!
kool how did you make the love hearts on the last picture???
Hi Hannah,
I didn’t make those, they are just pictures of nail art that I collected.
Hey, I love using findings as reference pictures my manicurist but I can’t work out the backwards translation of Fantemille Salon. Can you give me their site so I could maybe go through their samples and blog archives to see what they’ve done? They are just soooo amazingly kitsch!
Hi there! Sorry it took me a while to get back, they changed their name to Fantimiller. Sneaky. Here’s the address:
http://www.be-beauty.jp/
They have a blog here: http://blog.livedoor.jp/fante/archives/cat_32122.html
I don’t know if you can read Japanese, but the various categories are the links where it says カテゴリー２ on the left hand side. Click on those and you can see the pictures.
Awesome article! thank you so much for posting it up. I’ll be going to Tokyo for the first time (Im from NYC) and I cant wait to get my nails done! but everything is soooo expensive! Are there any other places you would recommend for under $50 or lower (if that’s even possible lol)?
Thank you!
Hi Astrid,
http://www.nevertoomuchglitter.etsy.com (shameless self-promotion, sorry!) but having them done in a salon will run $50-80. It is not necessary to tip in Japan, but services are very expensive. 
Unfortunately in Tokyo, nothing will run under $50, especially with the very strong yen right now. You can buy some from my shop
Oh God, I knew that answer already
do u have a shop in Tokyo? Id love to meet and buy them from u in person 
thanks for all the info!
Hi Astrid! I don’t have a shop but you would be most welcome to stop by my home studio and say hi- I’m about 20 minutes from Shinjuku. I’d be happy to show you around and maybe grab a bit to eat if you have any spare time! Drop me an email with your travel details and let’s see if we can meet up!