Kumiko-san and Oka-san kindly arranged for us to be dressed in their kimono for the day. We had tried on yukata (summer kimono) at the International Festival that took place in October but these... these were bone fide, the-whole-nine-yards kimono. It took two people two and a half hours to dress both May and me. There were so many layers, bits of string, back-boards, padding, towels... ugh, it was all very exciting and interesting and something I will remember for the rest of my life, but boy, was it tiring. It was very similar to how I imagine being dressed in a corset would be like - lots of pulling, tugging, bracing yourself - as was the end result: very pretty, but difficult to walk and breathe in.
Once fully kimono-clad, we took a walk around the hospital (where we got dressed) and showed a few of our friends on the staff. There were many “Kawai ne!” (“Cute!”), “Sugoi ne!” (“Amazing!”) and “Kirei!” (“Pretty!”), which was all very nice. After some photo-taking we then got in to Oka-san's car and drove to Suwa-jinja (the main Shinto shrine in Nagasaki). Something to note: riding in a car with a huge obi shaped into a flower on your back is tiring work!
After only a few hours of wearing the kimono, we were glad to get them off and back into our jeans. I have a new-found respect for women who wear kimono regularly, particularly geisha, who's kimono are notoriously heavy. Really, it was hard work just standing in them. Doing anything else required additional effort too. Still, kire katta desu, ne! (they were pretty, weren't they).
1 comment:
The older generation of Turks do that, too - they count the day they were born as their first birthday. My grandmother did the same, oddly, even though no one else in my family agreed with her. She used to always insist that I was a year older than I actually was, which I loved when I was 9, but not so much now. :-D
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