Kimono Time!

I have about 3 more days worth of pictures from Tokyo, but I decided to give you a break.  I'm going out of chronological order and want to share with you my last day of Golden Week holiday.

A friend from work, Yuri, invited me to dress in a kimono and have a real Japanese tea ceremony.  Her friend owns a kimono shop and speaks really good English, so it sounded like a great experience!

The shop owner, Nobue, is doing my hair.

The rule is that hair must always be up when wearing a kimono.

Ready to get dressed!

Nobue puts her professional skills to good use with me.  The whole dressing process took about 20 minutes, and I felt like a bride needing help getting into her wedding gown!

My whole outfit consisted of 16 pieces (including sashs and wraps), plus my tabi socks and zori shoes.  That's a lot of layers, and they wrap you pretty darn tightly!!

The back of my kimono.  This bow is generally worn by young, unmarried women :)

Maybe they were hoping a nice Japanese boy would see me at the shrine and want to marry me!

The final product!!  I felt like a Japanese princess!  It was long enough (to my ankles) because they are all long and the extra fabric is folded and tucked into the sash around your mid section, but the arm length is a little short!

Kimonos are generally only worn a few times a year, for special occasions or family pictures.

The kimono I am wearing would generally cost about $2500 for all of the pieces.

Nobue, Kerri, & Yuri after our tea ceremony.

Being silly!  This usually isn't allowed.  You're supposed to be a proper lady while wearing a kimono, but they made a special exception for me!

With our tea master, Toshiyuki, who is also Nobue's husband.  I was surprised that we were being surved tea by a man, but then was reminded that tea ceremonies were historically for men only.  The men would gather round and share tea together after battles and wars.  Only in the recent century have tea ceremonies been hosted by women.  I'm told that even the tea schools (which take over a decade to master) are still all run by men!

He liked having fun, too! 

Next, we went to the Atsuta Shrine to pray to the Shinto gods and show off my outfit!

Yuri and Kerri are lovely ladies!  While at the shrine several Japanese women told me how beautiful I looked (in Japanese, of course), and I was flattered!

Ladies day out in Japan!

(Check out my sleeve length in this pic!!  Hahaha!)

Days like this really help me appreciate the Japanese culture!  Everyone is so kind and want to help me to enjoy life in Nagoya!  I am thankful for making such nice new friends!