Let's Yukata!

It's not often that someone offers to give a free lesson on how to put on cotton summer kimono, so when I got wind of this I decided to drive up to the prefectural capital o take a look. I'd previously bought a book on how to put on kimono by yourself, but had so much trouble trying to read the Japanese text that I totally messed up, particularly on the fancy knot you're supposed to tie the sash into.

The drive up to the capital was long and uneventful, except for the odd speeding kei car or massive convoy of container trucks. My prefectural street directory came in really handy, but it still didn't stop me from taking a wrong turn before I even got to the right neighbourhood. It's times like this that I kinda wish I had a little GPS box in my car, but I can only dream.

The lesson went alright, even though it was a little awkward because I didn't have the full complement of items to put on a yukata with, not to mention that my yukata wasn't folded properly, my cotton ties were all bunched up and the sash I'd brought was the cheating variety that had been pre-tied by the manufacturer. Oops.

I must admit I can't remember what the individual parts of a kimono are, but the teacher showed us how to use certain seams to make sure it was centred against the body and tucked in properly. I also found out that I had been using the wrong knots to tie up the yukata, and that there were specific places the knots should lie to prevent the whole thing from coming loose. I half remember seeing the same kind of motions in my book, but it's a whole lot easier to visualize with a live demonstration.

The fun bit was doing up the sash. From the teacher's demo I finally saw how the material should lie, and how it should be turned so that the knots wouldn't come loose. The teacher showed us different ways of arranging the excess material to make differently shaped bows, from a simple butterfly bow to more intricate flower bows and a traditional favourite, the clamshell knot. Forget the pre-tied bow, this was way more fun to do. So much fun that I went out to the kimono shop on the main street the next day and bought a real sash of my very own.

Cool, so now I'm all ready to hit the streets for all the summer festivals that will happen in the following months. If you're gonna do something, do it in style! ^^