KIMONOS!!!

I got to dress up in a real kimono on Saturday with Olivia!

My Japanese teacher also teaches the art of kimono/kimono dressing. So she was nice enough to devote the whole afternoon and night to us! She's really amazing. I thought it was going to be a 2 hour deal...but we got at her house at 3pm and left at 10pm. She did our hair...took us out for Japanese red bean ice cream and tea. Showed us off like princess dolls to her favorite kimono shop where she knows all the owners. The whole day was really just amazing.

It took about 45 minutes to get into. And there are about 5 layers? It's not as heavy as i expected it to be. And it really wasn't terribly hot (maybe it was for Olivia?). But it forces you to have a really flat straight posture and after about an hour, my shoulder blades got tired and my back wanted to give out. It was fun 'cuz at the end of the night when they unwrapped us out of it, with each layer, you get this great sense of relief and you feel like you can breath a little more...and it gets better and better with each layer until finally, you can just slouch like a slob in your undies. As your body was meant to be. =P But you know what, even after all the prep and the ceremony and layers...i think it was still more comfy than wearing a corset. There's just a little more give-way. Well ok, no I take that back. The sleeves are hard to accommodate when you sit down, because you forget they're there. In fact, it's just incredibly difficult to sit down in. And even more difficult to get back up, from sitting down. And walking is no easy feat either, especially small slopes or stairs. But that's part of the whole experience! =) Maybe I feel a corset is more uncomfortable because it's putting pressure on your belly and tightens your waist, whereas a kimono is just snug around and below your chest. So you can still have a pooch hanging out in a kimono. But you wouldn't be able to tell so much cuz there's so many layers. hehe

Anyway, once we were dressed and took an obsessive amount of photos =), my teacher took us to Susukino (the city center/shopping/night life area) to show us off. It was quite fun. heehee. Old Japanese people told us we were beautiful, we took pictures with random tourists...we posed in front of shops. haha. ok, it was a lot fun!

The photo does it absolutely NO justice what-so-ever, but I was most stunned by the intricacy of the bow. It's a looooong beautiful "obi" (about 15 feet long?) that she wraps into a bow. Like, it begins as a piece of heavy fancy fabric and then she pulls and pushes and stretches and tugs and then viola! It's this beautiful huge intricate bow! Olivia got a video of it...that I still haven't gotten around to watching yet. But I saw her tie Olivia's and it's amazing. That's the true talent of the kimono (I think). Well, the whole process is absolutely beautiful. it's a total art. and you feel like a doll in dress-up. =D We were so pretty!

I would totally do it again.

Naturally, I had no grace in the thing though. But Olivia was

 great...she had all the cute Japanese poses down to a tee. She knew how to shuffle and look pensive. And do a little twirly dance. I just kind of...held my sleeves up a lot - apparently that's the "pose"...but even I did that wrong. The arm should be more like 100 degrees from your waist, not stretched out like a bird...but the kimono was SO beautiful! I wanted to show it off! ;)