Boldly wearing kimonos...

[akihito89]

I got a cool idea today. Let's tell our stories boldly wearing kimonos where no one had before! I've gotta go to class now, but I have a few to tell.

[Kiyoaki]

Well Akihito,

My episode was in Los Angeles. It was in 1980, I was living there and it was the New Year's holiday. I had dinner with a friend at the then New Otani Hotel. The hotel had just added a tempura bar to their Japanese restaurant, so they were very eager to make a good impression on customers, who were adventurous enough to try it.

In keeping with the holiday and the setting, I believe I wore my blue tsumugi kimono and matching haori with a striped silk hakama. Instead of black accessories, I had white tabi and himo for the haori and black leather soled zori. The white items may have been a mismatch for the 'informal' style of my outfit, but I thought it was less staid than black. In any event, I was the only person in kimono that evening. I had thought, surely there must be a smattering of women dresed in kimono because the hotel books group tours from Japan, but I was mistaken. I suppose, because it was the New Year, everyone stayed close to home.

From the moment we sat down at the bar, we became the focus of several tempura chefs, because we were the only ones that sat there all evening. Of course, everything was cooked to order, and in between items we talked, drank tea (I don't drink alcohol) and talked about the food with the chef. The last thing he made for us was an asparagus spear, wrapped in nori, then dipped in batter and deep fried. The crisp, clean, crunchy taste of the asparagus was very refreshing at the end of the meal.

The whole experience was like eating at a sushi bar, where you are well-known. You can request certain favorite things, but mostly the chef decides for you and tries to orchestrate the different courses so you experience the differing textures and tastes, but never realizing your appetite is being satisfied until the very last; and then you can call for soup and/or rice to finish the meal.

I had been an assistant manager at a Japanese restaurant in Seattle, before moving to Los Angeles. That restaurant in Seattle had had a tempura bar of it's own, but it never really caught on. Back then, sushi bars were still confined to the Japanese part of town located east of the King Stree rail station. Nowadays, they almost seem like standard fare and the delights of 'raw' fish have spread far afield.

Our's was the first to locate in the center of the business and hotel district. We were on the ground floor of a high-rise office building. Naturally, we were playing against type, but we had a great deal of patronage from the Japanese-based firms that either had branch offices in Seattle, or local firms that did business with Japanese clients. We were the only up-scale Japanese restaurant in town, so we really didn't have competiton when it came to hosting business clients or eating on an expense account.

I mention all of this because, the owner of the restaurant (my then boss) is the one, who actually made it possible for me to accquire my first sets of kimono. All of those items I got through him, still fit and are just as pristine as when I got them in the 1970's. I don't think anyone can claim the same for Western clothes.

Kiyoaki

[Himiko]

It wasn't the first time I had decided to wear kimono but while shopping in Ginza, I simply had to go up to the kimono department at the top floor to look at the kimonos and obis on sale. I know it wasn't one of the most ideal places to look for kimonos, knowing that I am more of a used-kimono person but anyways, I ventured upstairs and it certainly proved fatal.
I immediately took to a light blue tsukesage with flowers handpainted on it. I tried it on, just casually draping over and covering my regular clothes, in the adjacent tatami dressing room. Before I knew it, I was looking for accessories to go with it, like the obi, obi-age, date-eri and the whole works. I knew I had to have the rest of the stuff before I walked out of the store. And I did walk out wearing that same blue tsukesage, complete with hair accessories, tabi, zori and a bag to match, after paying for my purchase. I also boldly took the subway home, feeling that I might be looking rather strange in traditional gear, side by side with the dyed-blonde hair and mini-skirts modern Japanese girls were sporting. When I finally reached the hotel, the hotel manager, flabbergasted, asked me when I stepped into the lobby, if I had just come back from a wedding reception.

[akihito89]

There is nothing good! Everything is getting constantly worse!!! Theres no bottom and you don't go up till you hit the bottom! That's all I've learned with all the money I wasted in college!!!!!

Getting on with the subject. I have a Happi that I used to wear almost everywhere! PPL told me it was cool and they'd get one if they could just go out and buy one.

Back in the 1990s, I wore a black kimono to Myrtle Beach SC and even a local fast food joint!!!!! I didn't plan on that, but I have friends who encourage me to accomplish great things!!!! I don't know if anyone stared. I was having a good time and wasbn't self conscious enough to be looking at them looking at me .

[Himiko]

I knew one Japanese guy who went to a ski resort in hakama and was skiing in them. People asked him if he was some sort of samurai.
I won't imagine skiing in a kimono, I'd probably fall.

[chiiyo]

I don't know whether this counts, but I intend to dress up as Shinsengumi this yearend for cosplay. I'll have to make everything... Will upload pics when I do it.

[akihito89]

I've toyed with the idea of skiing in a kimono. Never done it, but I'd like to try it some time .

[Kiyoaki]

For those who haven't read everything so far, there is an entry under the heading What about us guys?, which predates this topic, but which also is a perfect fit. It is the February 1st entry under that heading [in fact my opening statement for that topic].

Kiyoaki