Bula Asia Pacific New Year Festival

Yesterday my family decided to go to this festival we heard about on the news that morning. I've never heard of it until yesterday morning. It was a new years celebration held by the local Asia Pacific Culture Center. This year they were featuring the island of Fiji, but there were cultural displays and performances representing many other Asian countries as well. It was a smaller event than I have been to, and the atmosphere of the performances were also much more casual feeling. We didn't spend much time there since we went late in the afternoon after baby woke up from his nap and there was only an hour or so left before the end of the event.

We took some pictures, but unfortunately my cell phone's shutter speed has slowed considerably so most of the pictures came out blurred. I also had some cute video to share but everything got accidentally deleted when I transferred photos to the computer (all my baby videos gone as well ::sob::)

In the front entrance were displays of items from various Asian Cultures.

A display of Fiji instruments. I don't know what the clubs are on the rug, but they are so intricately carved!

The head of the dragon for the Chinese Dragon Dance.

The display of items representing Japan. A daruma, a collection of kokeshi dolls, a little girls kimono fan and geta. I flipped through the red book and am now determined to find a copy of it! It is called A Step to Kimono and Kumihimo. It has instruction for dressing kimono and obi in the front half, with beautiful old pictures, and the back half of the book is instructions on kumihimo braiding for making your own obijime! And it is completely in English!! It is the best English language kitsuke book I've seen. I found it on Amazon (click the book title above for the link).

The hagoita.

Some temari. There was also a kimono displayed, but it was a plain nibushiki kimono (two part kimono).

 

I think this Korean painting is gorgeous.

Toward the back of the hall supposedly they were having martial arts demonstrations, but we didn't see any of them, only children playing. There were also tables for crafts for the kids. The only craft they were doing when we got there were these Korean tissue paper lotus lanterns. They had run out of tissue petals so we didn't make any, but they certainly are lovely!

I wish I had better pictures to show of the performances! I had some cute video too, before it all got deleted... ah well. The first one we saw was the Okinawan performances. This is the only photo that survived, the adult drummer/dancers. Of the performances we saw we liked this one the best. After the adults performances were the little kids. There was one 3 year old that got the most attention because he just stood there staring out into the audience. Adorable! 

 

Then the older women came out and performed a dance while the kids and men drummed and danced on stage. The women wore black and white kasuri kimono with one shoulder exposed showing a red underkimono with short sleeves. As the women danced, the Hawaiian performers sneaked up behind them and put leis around their necks. It was so cute, the combination of cultures.

  Then the Okinawa performers got the audience up to get the whole hall dancing. This was my toddler's favorite part. He was restless the rest of the show, but was excited to get down and show some dance moves!

After Okinawa came the Korean singing group. Most of the audience didn't enjoy this show unfortunately. I think many people got up and did other things until the next show. Even the MC was joking saying things like "Alright everyone, only one more song left to go!" (they actually sang two more songs). I thought their hanbok were gorgeous. I noticed that each singer had a different style of hanbok on. I'm so used to seeing the standard shape hanbok like the one in the painting pictured above, so I enjoyed seeing the different styles in person rather than in pictures on the internet.

The last performance we stayed for was the Philippine performance. The girl's dance was lovely. They waved around crescent shaped flower garlands. The dance and music reminded me of an old European folk dance.

I wish we were able to see the Japanese performance, but I think they performed earlier that day. They were still there in their beautiful kimono.

My son wasn't feeling up to having his picture taken! If we had heard of this event earlier I would have worn kimono. Maybe something to look forward to next year! My husband enjoyed the event too! Yay, I think he may be open to me dragging him to the various upcoming matsuri!

Enjoy your local events everybody!

Thanksgiving 2011

I wanted to do an ensemble that felt like autumn. I paired my cream colored maple leaf komon kimono with a red stream tsuke obi.

I used a green polyester scarf tied in a bow for the obiage, and a green belt instead of an obijime. The green was also reflected in the hanao of the geta, but I didn't snap a picture of my feet this time.

The flower corsage in my hair is made by me using a technique used in making silk flowers for fake bonsai trees.

Wool Kimono November 2011

 

I love wool kimono! So versatile. This one is blue with orange ume. The nagoya obi I paired it with is one I've had for many years, but never thought that I had anything to pair with it, until I was reorganizing and happened to see these two sitting side-by-side. 

 I paired it with a white and gold obijime and orange shibori obiage. I know they don't go together following orthodox kimono school rules, but I tend to dress with what items I have and throw the rules out the window!

 Vintage orange geta to complete the look!

 I've come to love this set and hope to wear it again soon!

October 2011 Kitsuke

 I wore this kimono as a Purple color challenge. It is kasuri, with a purple-ish indigo base color. I added a purple cotton han'eri and magenta sakiori obi with pink accessories.

 

The obiage and obijime are from a gift of children's kimono items I got from my brother's roommate. The obiage is child-sized, but the obijime was a good size for me. The butterfly is a kanzashi, but I liked the extra glitter to the informal ensemble.

  My favorite zouri! Thick velvety hanao look very youthful to me.

And something different. This is a nibushiki kimono. I don't particularly like these type of kimono. They are unflattering on me. But often times at Japanese festivals I see womens' chorus groups wear these kimono.

Halloween 2011

Alright, I didn't wear kimono on Halloween (gasp!), but my sister asked if she could borrow some of my stuff to dress as a "geisha girl" for her company's costume contest! My sister has no interest in kimono, so I was more than happy to help her!

My sister goes to work very early, so she had to learn to dress herself. I visited her the night before for a kitsuke lesson. She did very well and had fun. In the morning she left early and go dressed at work - outside! She was locked out until opening time, so she used the reflection in the warehouse windows to get dressed. She told me the truck drivers coming and going from the warehouse were staring at her strangely.

She did great dressing herself in kimono for the first time!

She of course won the costume contest, and her co-workers said they had never seen anytime so stunning.

I wore a Korean hanbok. I didn't feel comfortable going trick or treating in kimono while carrying a squirmy toddler.

The squirmy toddler: my little puppy, Bryan! 

Long time no see

It's been a long time! Much has happened. I haven't been able to concentrate on kimono for a long time. For one, I couldn't wear them! I was obese for some time. But pregnancy seems to have rewired my diet and I've lost a total of 50lbs! I can finally wear kimono again, although I still have some work left to do in order to have a nice kimono wearing shape.

I've been especially motivated lately because I finally have been able to join the Immortal Geisha Forums! Participating in the forums has been keeping me busy, but I'm more focused on kimono related activities. I recently learned that there will be a Kimono Jack event in Seattle, and I worked up the courage to register for it.

I don't find myself at the computer often, but I'll start updating with some recent kimono photos

Long Hiatus

It's been a long time since I've been able to update this page! I've been more than preoccupied with caring for my brand new son! Little Bryan was born June 6th and he is now 2 months old. I've been updating his progress on my personal blog, but haven't had much time for the kimono world. I do have ideas swimming in my head! Crafts, events, reviews... all to come eventually, but baby takes priority. Keep an eye out though, I hope to add something soon!~