Kimono Dress Up Day

Shawn was taking language lessons at the university when he first arrived. They were held during the day on week days so now that he is working he hasn't been able to attend as much. The lessons aren't as formal as the undergrad course that I was in and was run mostly by volunteers ladies who put on the lessons for free for husbands and wives of foreign researchers (cool hey!).

Every year these same volunteer ladies offer to bring in their own kimonos and dress up foreign ladies. So when they brought out the sign up sheet during one class Shawn wasted no time in signing us up (well me really because they don't dress up the men).

When I arrived for the "dress-up" session none of the ladies recognised me, but there aren't many white people so they quickly deduced that I was Shawn's wife. They absolutely poured over me and took me around and introduced me to the other instructors as Shawn-san's wife, he is so kakuii (=cool). They even got me to bring out my camera and show around a photo of him - man he is popular with the ladies here!

Once everyone arrived we dove into kimono time. There are a lot of layers and I ended up strapped in by at least 15 strips of cloth that were hidden by important in holding the whole operation in place. There is no way that one person could dress themself. I had two ladies, sometimes three, positioning and pulling and knotting at one time. The main woman charged with dressing me told me that she has two daughters and that is how she became so skilled. She also told me that everything that I was wearing belonged to her - wow. Here are a couple of photos, my favorite part is the obi (big colourful waist strap) and the intricate knots that they tie with it. I tried to ask the significance of the different knots but didn't get much of an answer other than that yes, there is significance to different knots.


They also did our hair and make (=Japanese for make-up). They had full gear for everyone including really uncomfortable shoes and white toe socks. It was impressive to see how many women they dressed up in a short time. They had a professional photographer there who also volunteered and snapped photos of the whole event. They are providing us a cd of all of the photos too and all they asked for to cover their costs was 100 Yen (=$1). They even offered to mail the disc to me because I don't come to their class.

One woman brought her daughters along to get geared up. Here is a photo of them. They were adorable! I am not sure where they were from but their mother wore a muslim head scarf. It is incredible to see how quickly the foreign children pick up on language and cultural nuances. They seem to almost instantly move, gesture and act exactly like Japanese people.

I was the only white woman there and the Japanese ladies all seemed to get a kick out of me in kimono and continually commented on how well the colours of the kimono complimented my "complexion" (you'll notice that I was in white). There was one other woman who stuck out maybe more than me, she was from Cameroon. Below is a photo of the whole lot of us. It was a fun afternoon and I can't believe how much the volunteers did for us. Watching them all work together was like watching a busy bee hive, everyone was doing something in synchrony with someone else. I am going to have to pick up treats to leave for the ladies when I go and pick up my disc of photos.