Opening Ceremony and Wearing a Kimono

Wow!  What a month!  The official school year began on Friday, April 6^th.  I went to school that day and learnt that they wanted me to sit at another desk across the office.  Now I am further away from the administration, closer to the heater, and I have a lovely (and distracting) window view of the courtyard.  Nice!  Also, many teachers have moved to different schools, so I am still getting to know the new faces in the office.  So far, everyone seems really friendly.  Here’s a few pictures from the opening assembly:

Here are the new teachers.

(Did I mention that each teacher, including myself, had to introduce themselves during this assembly?  I challenged myself and spoke only in Japanese even though I only found out about these introductions 10 minutes before I had to speak.  Besides, I only had to give a short, simple introduction.  That should be easy enough.  Still, I hope people understood me…)

Anyway, today I’d like to write about a visit I had with a friend.  A former adult English class student (now friend) invited me over to his place one Sunday.  He wanted me to meet his wife and his daughter.  He also wanted me to experience wearing a real kimono.  His wife and daughter were trained in the art of “kimono dressing,” so he wanted them to dress me up.  I looked forward to meeting his family and I wasn’t sure what to expect with the whole kimono dress-up thing.  My friend also invited another student from class (who I also consider a good friend, now) to assist with the English translation during the dress-up time since his wife and daughter didn’t speak English and he wasn’t obviously going to be there during that time.

When I arrived at their house, I was surprised to see his wife wearing a kimono herself.  She was stunning!  My friend’s daughter is my age, and she’s stunning as well!  They invited me in and showed me a doll display they had setup.  March 3^rd was “Girl’s Day,” so many households make and setup doll displays.  (Yes, that is how behind I am with my blog.  Again.  Are you surprised? ;-)

My friend showed me his daughter and wife’s license, which was modestly hidden behind the doll display.  His wife and daughter were humble about it, but my friend proudly explained that they had studied for over a year or two to learn how to put on a kimono properly.  Wow!  I didn’t realize that people studied that long to learn the art of kimono dressing!  But with all the layers I was wearing, I wasn’t surprised!  Here is a picture of their licenses/certificates:

So my friend left the room and the dressing began.  First, I had to put on the special socks.  I chose the biggest size they had and they were still pretty snug.  (I’m between a size 7 ½ and 8.  Hello Bigfoot!)  These socks had about 5 clips on the back:

Then it was explained that the ideal look of the kimono was to have a box-like figure.  So they said that ideally the woman shouldn’t have an hourglass figure, and she would be flat on the front.  So I had to put on a special undergarment to flatten the front of me, and they decided to leave my “hour glass figure” alone.  (I’m putting “hour glass figure” in quotations because I only have a slight hour glass figure, which is why they probably left that part alone.) 

Next, I had to wear a lovely silk housecoat layer.  It was heavenly!  Next, they put on another layer that was much thicker and heavier.  They tied it up in so many different ways and pulled and tugged that I couldn’t tell what went where.  Finally, I had to decide between two different kimonos.  The one on the left was a more modern kimono with beautiful, spring colours.  The one on the right was a red kimono with a more traditional Japanese pattern.  I knew that the pastels would probably look better on me (my mother always tells me that pastels are my colours, even though I normally wear everything but pastels), but I decided to go with the red kimono for two reasons.  First, my in-laws are Chinese, and I know that red is a very lucky colour in the Chinese culture.  Also, I had the opportunity to wear a very traditional Japanese style kimono, so while I probably liked the pastel kimono best, I chose the red one because it was the closest to what a real Japanese kimono would have probably looked like throughout Japan’s history, and to me that made it special and unique.

Once I chose to wear the red outer garment, the ladies put it on and began wrapping me up.  They continuously asked me if I was ok as they tightened the middle section.  Actually, I was fine.  They continued to wrap and pull and tug and ask me if I was alright.  I was fine through the whole process…until they asked me to sit down so that they could put my hair up.  I could hardly walk!  I mean, I had great posture (I didn’t really have much of a choice), but I normally take longer steps when I walk, but the dress didn’t allow me to do so.  So I had to take itty-bitty steps to the couch and sit down (with good posture, of course).  Now I know why I see people take baby-steps when they are wearing kimonos; you have no choice but to take tiny steps! 

When the daughter tried to put up my hair, she yelled “Great!” in Japanese and continued to play (or pet) my hair.  The other two ladies asked for my permission to touch my hair, and I did even though I thought that that was a strange request.  They all shouted the same thing, and continued petting my hair.  Apparently, my hair is very soft.  Who knew?  Eventually they stopped playing with my hair and put my hair up.  (Talk about being spoiled!)

Then the process was finally finished!  I think the entire process took about 30 minutes to 1 hour…I’m sorry, I wasn’t really keeping track of time.  My friend came back into the room and we took pictures:

We then had tea and sweets.  We all talked the entire afternoon.  It was a lovely day, and I got used to sitting and moving around in a kimono.  Their dog, Koko, joined us.  (The cat made an appearance, too.)

Finally, it was time to leave, so the two kimono experts undressed me.  That process didn’t take nearly as long as the actual dressing up process. 

This was a really special experience, and I am lucky enough to have experienced it with close friends.  I felt really spoiled that day, as I had two women basically dress me and then even do my hair for me.  I hope I will have another chance to wear a kimono and experience this part of the Japanese culture all over again!