Donning a Kimono

Have you ever worn a kimono? I never had before I went to Japan. And guess what? (I bet you can guess!) It's really hard to put one on! But one day in late June, just before my trip to Osaka and Hiroshima, (These posts are getting out of order, I know. I'm sorry!) my host mom got together with Christine's host mom, and decided that they would dress us in kimonos.

Our friend Caitlin was also dressed, along with another girl from the program, Li, who was lovely but didn't speak much English - she was more comfortable speaking in Japanese than in English, even though she was only a second year student. Anyway, those were the people our host moms decided should come, so we were the four who were all dressed in kimonos.

Now, kimonos are many-layered. And each layer is made up of several different pieces of cloth. All of the first layer of things are white. The white layer includes socks (note the separation of the big toe!), a wrap-skirt, a wrap-shirt, and a white collar-thing that will peek out of your outer layer.

The first picture is of Christine, with her host-mom tying on the crossed collar piece, while she wears only the white layers. Looks like she's already totally covered up, right? Well, that's true. But it doesn't mean she's totally ready to go! After the white layer... (A caveat: only I have ever called it the white layer, as far as I know...)

After the white layer, you put on the colorful outer layer, which is always incredibly beautiful. You may be thinking, "I thought you said this was complicated! There's only two layers?!" But it is complicated. And there are more than two layers. Nonetheless, the second layer you put on is the outer layer. Just bear with me here, please.

My outer layer was purple, see? That's my host mom, aligning it for me, and then for Caitlin. If you'll notice, the white collar-thing shows through just the tiniest bit, and she's wrapping the first of many belts around my waist to keep my kimono closed all the way. At this point, my host dad was allowed in, since we were all decent with our top layer.

But now, do you understand? The third, and most complicated layer, is the BELT layer, otherwise known as the obi. I'm sure you've heard the word obi before. Anyway, there are several different belts and cords that keep the kimono from opening on you at the wrong time. Or any time. Any time would be the wrong time, wouldn't it?

Here is my host mom, tying Caitlin's decorative obi. It's really difficult to do, apparently. So difficult that even though my host mom does this frequently (because she has so many host daughters!) she needed to refer to directions she downloaded off the internet to get her through the whole tying process.

You have to wrap another cloth and a cord around the obi in order to get it to look right both from the front and from the back, and if you untie even one thing the whole structure will fall apart. Luckily, everything's tied pretty securely, so that's not much of a worry. In the next picture, Christine's host mom is tying the extra piece of cloth around her obi.

When all of that has been done, it turns out looking like this! Adorable! Right? There are my proud host parents in the background, admiring my host mom's hard work. Putting all of us in these kimonos, after all, took about an hour and a half, I think. (I can't quite remember, but I know it took awhile!) After we put them on, we were supposed to go outside to the Japanese garden.

But it was raining, and you can't really go outside in a kimono in the rain, so we stayed inside, and took pictures there. Here we all are in front of a pair of hung wedding kimonos displayed on the wall. From left to right, it's Christine's host mom Kiyomi, Li, me, Caitlin, Christine, and my host mom Junko. After we took this picture, we all went downstairs to take pictures. There, we stood just inside the building (and out of the rain) but close enough that you could kind of see the garden out the windows.

Here I am with my host dad, Toshihiro, posing together.

And that is the story of how I once wore a kimono. I wish I owned that beautiful purple fabric! But then again, since I could never dress myself in it, it would be kind of a waste. Better to just have my host mom do it, whenever she's willing.