POTD Day 18 Five Years Ago

This picture is of my friend's foot in tabi socks and geta sandals with her kimono at my first traditional Japanese tea ceremony.

I joined Okinawa International Women's Club (OIWC) the fall of 2008 and in March our culture group had a tea ceremony. One of our members and her mother were tea ceremony senseis and they had a tea ceremony facility connected to their home. When we did this same ceremony the following year, I had all my kimono parts and was actually able to dress in kimono for the event and it was such an honor.

I really took advantage of our time in Japan during this second opportunity we had to live there and tried to submerge myself in the culture whenever I could. OIWC was a huge part of that. I made life long friends in that group and will forever be thankful for the adventures, experiences and friends.

I took this pic in the morning with my Fuji Finepix f50 with no flash. I edited it in GIMP for color, light and to add the fuzzy border.
___________________________

Five Years Ago on In My Words...Kimono Adventure, this has pics of my kimono parts and then some images of me in it at one of our luncheons.

Easter Bunny Luncheon

Today, I once again had the opportunity to hang out with some great ladies and share some culture. We had a luncheon with OIWC and I decided that we definitely needed the Easter bunny to make an appearance!!

So I dressed up in an Easter bunny suit and took gobs of pictures with all my Okinawan friends. It was great fun to see all the smiles and excitement. We tried to host a meal that was traditional for Easter dinner and I know that everyone had a good time.

We had a flamenco dance troupe perform (not Eastery but really awesome anyhow). The ladies were beautiful in their dresses and we were all completely impressed by their abilities.

I am going to miss OIWC like crazy when I leave here...it has been a very rewarding experience and I highly recommend it to any of my friends. It has been a great way to get to know the local people and share our cultures.

_____________________

Three Years Ago on In My Words...Friends

Tea Ceremony

Tomorrow, I get to go to another tea ceremony but this time, I am wearing my kimono that I wore to a luncheon a few months ago. I am excited that I get to wear it again before I leave here...all those pieces and parts need to be used more than once, right?

I have another kimono that I recently acquired at a luncheon auction, and I need to find the pieces and parts for it as well since it is less formal than the one I have all the parts for, so it requires its own set. I will need new cords, new undergarments, a new obi, and new shoes...but then I can wear those things with any other "non-formal" kimono I get.

I hoping that there will be people in Hawaii that can help me wear it once in a while. I know there is an Okinawan community there...perhaps, they will let me bug them every so often.

We'll see. Anyhow, climbing through the little door in kimono should be interesting...I'll let you know how it goes...

______________________

6 Months Ago on In My Words...Kimono Adventure

Kimono Adventure

Okay, I promised to post some pics from my kimono experience. Since this is a public blog, I can't put any recognizable pictures of myself but I can show you parts and pieces. These are all duplicates from the album I posted a week ago on Facebook. If you hover the mouse over (at least in Blogger) it will give you a description for the image.










It was a great experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I was not uncomfortable at all, and I didn't feel restricted in my movement either. The one thing I had to do was sit up straight because any time I tried to lean back in my chair, I could feel the obi knot being squashed.

_____________________

One Year Ago on In My Words...Chase in Miniature

Kimono Quest

So, having been in this country for 6 years now, I have never had the desire to wear kimono. While I do try to embrace and experience the culture where ever we go, I just thought that kimono wearing was not for me. Now, don't get me wrong. I love them, think they are totally beautiful but the cost and the fact that most kimono's are not made for average sized Americans has always kept the idea of it at bay.

In the past, I have purchased a few used kimonos at resales to give as gifts to friends or family. I have even purchase a couple of yukatas (a summer casual kimono) to use for lounging around the house. Recently, I had managed to get my hands on a beautiful formal kimono kurotomesode (worn mostly at weddings by the bride's mother) that I thought was beautiful (and it only cost me a few bucks), but I was only planning to hang it on the wall...not wear it. It actually looks very similar to the one pictured at the link.

Fast forward to this month...we have a luncheon at OIWC that is traditionally one that many members wear kimono or yukata to. The cool thing is that the ladies that know about kimono wearing, help those of us that don't. I didn't wear one last year because I didn't have one (or all the parts you need) in order to be able to do it. This year, as the date started getting closer, I figured I would see if I could find all the parts for a reasonable amount of money and finally experience this aspect of Japanese culture.

I managed to find an antique formal silk kimono irotomesode (a step down in formality from the kurotomesode and an antique obi to go with it. I have been told that new, each of these items would be in the thousands of dollars and I managed to get both for 100 dollars each. After getting the hard part out of the way, I started to look for all the parts and pieces that go with wearing a kimono. I needed the under kimono nagajuban (which needed to be formal as well), the shoes zori, the socks tabi, the ties koshihimo and bands datejime, and cords/decoration obijime/obiage.

Since my kimono ended up being such a formal one, I decided to stay as traditional as possible and wear white for the majority of the accessories. This meant spending a bit more but I figured it is a once in a lifetime kind of thing. I will have a master kimono dresser helping me to get dressed for our luncheon, and while I am sure I will not be able to breathe or eat the entire time (not to mention not going the bathroom), I know it will be an experience I will remember and always have.

I have pictured my yukata here with its accessories as well....as you can see, a lot less goes into wearing the more casual summer yukata.

___________________

Two Years Ago on In My Words...Sentimental: Good or Bad?

Trying New Things

While out to lunch with friends the other day on a scheduled visit to several facilities (I'll have a separate post for that), I was able to once again try something new that I have not eaten.

We were at a traditional Okinawan restaurant (which can be very different from a Japanese restaurant, mind you). I ordered the fried shrimp set (which was very yummy by the way). Along with it came a small side dish of snails (just two). I had never eaten snails before. These were not the round type like I believe escargo is made from. These ones almost looked like hermit crab shells (only smaller). They were less than an inch long.

They had been steamed and then flavored with soy sauce but were served chilled. The idea was to pick up the shell, pick at the meat with a toothpick and pop it all out at once and then eat it. I was suprised at how good it was....tasted a bit like any other mussle or clam you might eat from the ocean. I think the ladies were suprised that I wasn't grossed out but I am usually willing to give anything a try once.

Here is a picture of my set. It has the fried shrimp with tartar sauce, some rice, some miso soup, some seawead salad, some american style salad, an egg pudding (that is not sweet and have meat hidden down in it), some pickled radish, and the snails are in the top right hand dish.


________________________________

Two Years Ago on In My Words...Mom Visit

Isn't This Smart?

At the community center that we used for our culture group meeting last month, they had these cool tables. They have a little shelf under the main table for putting things that you don't need right now but might not want to put on the floor. In our case, we were using it for the lids to the potluck items. I need a table like this in the States...it would be great for my creative area and for my office...

______________________

Four Years Ago on In My Words...Locked Out

Cultural Group

This September I joined a cultural exchange group where we get together and everyone takes turns sharing something about their culture with the others. I even became a board member of this little organization. We do a lot of charity work, luncheons and get togethers so I have been able to keep myself very busy (not including all the things I have on my own personal To Do list).


The whole organization has about 300 women in it, and it is broken down into smaller cultural groups. My group has met twice so far. We are getting ready for a big Christmas luncheon/bazaar so we have been meeting for food, fun and time to work on our projects.


The first meeting was at my friend's house and we had some great food and worked on 1/2 of our project. Our second meeting was at a community center near Naha where we had more great food and worked on our projects some more. I thought I would post some pictures of the great food, and our projects.


One part of our project are these really simple bracelets (that I don't have pictures of), but the second part are these really cool flower arrangements that are made from preserved flowers. They last for 3 years but look and feel like fresh flowers. One of the ladies in our group owns a flower shop that specializes in these arrangements and she so graciously showed us all how to make a small arrangement that we can sell at the bazaar.

_______________________

Three Years Ago on In My Words...Time Flies