Kimono Ho

I spent the weekend pimpin' kimono. I was volunteering at the Far East Bazaar. Of course, I worked with the Kimono vendor: Le Kimono Galerie. Ikeda-san is the owner and a very sweet guy. I wore kimono both days, and I think it really helped business. Besides, I needed the practice and the opportunity to wear the damn things outside of my home. I got lots of compliments on this outfit, even though if you told someone I was wearing purple, yellow, and magenta, they would probably go "yuck!" My pose in the picture to the right is not the most dignified one, but it's the best of the pictures. I look constipated in the other ones for some reason.

The best thing though, is that I can see that my kitsuke skills have improved tremendously over the course of my studies. So much, in fact that today, I passed the ultimate acid test; a Japanese man said to me, "Your kimono is perfect. Who dressed you?" I told him that I study kitsuke and I dressed myself. "Even the Japanese can not do that so well. Very good!" Yee-haw. It only took 20 minutes for me to get dressed. Last week, I tried for the first time in a long time, and it was two hours. Saturday took 30 minutes and today, like I said, was 20--and this outfit looked better than the previous two.

So I sold lots of kimono and obi. As a thank-you, Ikeda-san hooked me up! I got a bag full of kimono and kimono accessories for five bucks. I was like "Holy Crap!" please let me pay for some of this, but he wouldn't hear of it. There go the profits, right out the door (and into my kimono tansu). Well, sort of. The kimono tansu has reached the bursting point. I have 33 kimono crammed into it, and that's not counting the wedding robes (six) or the complete hanayome (wedding) set that Eiko-san foisted on me (there's 2k worth of white silk in that box--I'm afraid to even touch it, for fear of stains). I'm thinking I may have to empty the drawer that contains the underrobes, scarves, ties and hardware to make room for more items. I have been trying desperately to find a chest or even a nice wicker basket to this end, but no such luck. Chris asked if I wanted to get another tansu, but that's just way too dangerous, as I would feel absolutely compelled to fill that one, too. Well, not all the kimono would be in there-- Chris has a couple of kimono now, too! Well, three. But I'm counting a full 10 piece formal set as "one."

So now I am off to dinner--a diet-wrecking treat of tempura at Yamakura. Yay! Tempura. And I'm gonna wear my kimono!