Kimono ga hoshii (free-form)

I probably spelled that wrong, but I believe the meaning is clear enough: I want a kimono. Or perhaps at least a yukata. If I have a brain in my head (which is highly disputed) I will probably buy one before I leave, but if not, I will have to live with the pictures that I will hopefully soon recieve from my okaasan's (host mother's) cell phone. Today, she took me to the international community center for a large-scale event where they introduced kimono tsuke (kimono wearing), ikabana (flower arrangement), sado (tea ceremony) among other things that are a part of Japan's culture. My host mother asked me if I wanted to go, and I thought it would be a day of demonstrations and, as such, interesting. What I did not expect was that I WAS the demonstration (I might have done my hair if I knew, for example) and that I would soon be standing in a six-tatami mat room with twenty other women, five of whom were intent on getting me into a kimono (worry not, I was not the only one being so garbed).

So, for those who do not know, there are many layers to a kimono. I will perhaps at some point have the motivation to go and look up all of their names and functions, but at the moment, I will simply list them by perceived function: 1) a cloth robe covering my cami - one cannot wear pants or shirts, of course, 2) a second cloth robe, heavier, 3) sash around waist, 4) two towels covering the sash, 5) another sash, 6) if I remember correctly, the actual kimono, which was quite beautiful, 7) another sash, 8) the support for the obi, 9) more towels, 10) the obi (the decorative belt in images of kimono), 11) another sash, colorful and clearly visible tied above the obi, 12) a decorative rope that ties around the obi and holds everything in place, 13) those nice two-toed socks whose names escapes me at the moment, but which are actually the first thing to go on. They tried to do my hair with no success - it is long now and a bit heavy, but clearly not what any Asian would be used to working with, and I do not blame them in the slightest. Presented with Asian style hair, I cannot make even a passable ponytail much less a nice bun or other up-do. The sashes are all pulled quite tight, and I had to repeat many times that they were not too tight. In fact, I rather liked the tight feeling around my waist, and it made standing up straight and sitting up straight easy. It was not at all uncomfortable, and very warm. On another note, the kimonos were surprisingly easy to move in, at least side to side, but required a bit of shuffling from front to back when walking (yes, I went to the bathroom in my kimono, and no, it was not a problem).

In fact, I attended the rest of the day's activities in my kimono, and discovered that seiza (the Japanese style of sitting) was probably developed because of the kimono (probably everyone else already knew that). I ended up having my picture taken many times, recieving many exclamations of "it suits you" which is very typical for any gaijin who attempts to fulfill a Japanese custom here in Japan, and even getting to eat lunch in a fancy restuarant before I returned my borrowed kimono. These events, as I mentioned, included tea ceremony and flower arrangement, and also calligraphy (I still want another try) and cloth dying (for which I got to have my sleeves tied back...cool...). Thank you so much, okaasan! You are amazing!!

Now, I will explain why you see a Japanese ninja at the beginning of this post. Firstly, I needed some images to break up the text while I await the development and / or discovery in the local post of pictures from today's events. Secondly, my friends and I attended a welcome party the other day that was an all you can eat sweets buffet that took place in a "ninja labrynth." Yes, my friends, what we went to was a ninja cafe, and the waiters/waitresses and so forth were all ninjas. They posed for pictures (if they knew you were taking them) and read our menu off of a scroll. The sweets buffet had some real food as well, but if there is one thing I have noticed since coming here, it is that my ability to consume massive amounts of sweets in one sitting has exponentially increased (could this be some sort of response to the tea? I have a theory in the making that Japanese sweets can be so sickeningly sweet and still taste good precisely because they make many other sweets with tea, which is horribly bitter...but since you ate something so sweet before, that bitterness is refreshing...is this circular?). After five full plates of cakes, mochi, and so forth, I decided to eat two or three slices of tonkatsu, and rounded out my meal with ice cream and cornflakes. I think I had all the food groups - pink, green, red, brown, white, and black. Yum. As for why it was called a labrynth, I though the floor plan was a bit confusing, but not all that bad, so if I had not left when I did, I would have said that this was just a dramaticly funny name for the place. Alas, I left when I did, and when I met a poor gaijin family (replete with many small children) who clearly spoke not a single word of Japanese and were surrounding some poor ninja and asking with increasing exasperation "exit? Exit? We can't find our way out. Fine, it's this way" (at this point they started towards the bathroom) I decided to take pity and guide them out of the shop. Please, learn the word for exit before you come to Japan, or bring a dictionary, or don't become so frustrated by the locals' inability to speak English that other people feel they have to take pity on you. I fully understand their frustration, coming from a big family myself, but still, I hope the rest of their experience here will not be so difficult.

Ganbatte ne :)