Hello hello my dear readers!

Finally I have time to write a few new entries here. Yes, I wrote `a few´. I wanna tell you about the Japanweek and I have to split everything into 3 parts. The private language school called "F+U", located in Heidelberg, organized the Japanweek again (May 3rd-5th) and I am happy to say that I was a member of the Kimono/Yukata course (^_^)/°

THE PREPARATION TIME:

We started about 2 weeks before the event started to prepare everthing. We often met, had meetings, practiced the dressing part and I also translated a lot into German (most of our group members were Japanese people who learn German since a few months/weeks - we talked in English, Japanese and German *laughs*) for the presentation and dressing explanation. Everytime we met we worked at least 4 hours but it was always funny =3 Actually I should only help during the dressing part (Yukata), but ´cause I know much about Kimono I conducted the presentation with another member of our group as well.

I also helped with hanging up posters and handing out flyers in the city, which looked like this:



Our Yukata test dressings:



Since I collect only Kimono I wore Yukata for the first time. It´s very easy =D Maybe I will buy one someday ^_~


FIRST EVENT DAY:

May 3rd programm

- Kimono/Yukata course
- Japanseminar


Around 15 pm the Kimono/Yukata course started. We had about 20 guests. First we held our presentation:



We talked about the following things:

the meaning and origin of Kimono, Furisode, Obi musubi, Uchikake, Mofuku, Shichi-Go-San, Maiko and of course Yukata. We also prepared a little quiz for our guests =D Since I own a Furisode and many accessoires you need for it, we showed them during the presentation:

the accessoires

the Furisode

Then our guest had to try dressing themselves into Yukata without any help. Here you can see everything we provided:



After this we showed how it works correctly and also helped when they still needed some advice:





All had a lot of fun and wanted to know much about Kimono. ♥ And this picture shows all the Kimono group members together:

Thanks for the good work! m(_ _)m

Like you can see in the pics above I wore Kimono (what a surprise *haha*). Here you can see the whole ensemble for the first day:

I wore my Komon ♥

... with Asami-chan ♥

LUNCHTIME - Off to the Maid Café:




Everday the Maid Café offered many delicious Japanese meals. I never ate so much within 3 days =3 *yummy* The menu of the first day was Oyako-Don - my personal fav ♥ It was so good ♥


oishikatta desu ♥


NEXT AND LAST POINT - JAPANSEMINAR:

They talked about men society, women´s fashion and Sushi:


we could make our own sushi ♥

I hope you all had fun reading this entry and looking at the pictures. ありがとう ♥


Today I snatched this beautiful kushi (comb) and tekagami (handmirror) set for a reasonable price.


on the mirror you can see "hanaguruma" - flower cart ♥
the box

I just adore such traditonal motives, it was love at first sight ♥ I got it from a private sale. I think that I will show you my other few kanzashi someday, too.


I really have to go on hiatus now ...



... just won this cute casual bag with many different motives:

sakura-bana (cherry blossoms), sakura no hanabira (cherry blossom petals), ko-tsuzumi (little taboret), kiku (chrysanthemum), momiji (maple), ume (plum), hagi (bush clover), seigaiha (semicircular repeated wave), shippou (interlocking circles), sensu (semicircular fans) and ryusui (flowing water)

I think it´s perfect along with Komon kimono (♥ω♥)/"

I was weak again, what a shame >3< But look how beautiful they are:













I want to show you a very cute Obi musubi tutorial this time.
It´s called ウサギの耳 (usagi no mimi) which means rabbit ears ♥


Actually you use a Nagoya Obi and wear this kind of musubi with Komon kimono but the problem is that I´ve no Nagoya Obi and so I had to use one of my Fukuro Obi. A part of Nagoya Obi is always already folded and that makes it easier to tie though before you start tying Fukuro Obi you have to fold it in half by yourself.

I will also use two important words for this tutorial:

Tare and Tesaki






However ... now lets start with the things you need:



1st: Fukuro Obi (actually a Nagoya Obi!)
2nd: Obi ita
3rd: Obi makura
4th: two Koshihimo
5th: Obijime
6th: Obiage



1st step: Since I use a Fukuro Obi I have to fold up around 75% in half first:




2nd step: take the Obi ita, tie it around your waist and close it on your back:




3rd step: the open part of tesaki has to be on the left side of your shoulder:




4st step: start to wrap it around ....




5th step: wrap it again




6th-7th step: in the end I had to wrap it around 3 times until I saw the pattern of the Obi only




8th step: after this fold the tare like you can see here




9th step: take your first Koshihimo (tesaki and tare are now above)




10th step:  bring the Koshihimo to the front and make a loop




11th step: tuck the loop underneath your Obi




12th step: the tare part is now "hanging" down




13th step: now we want to build the rabbit ears! Take the tesaki from above and fold it down




14th step: then fold the right part up like you can see on the following picture


that are already the rabbit ears ♥

15th step: use now the second Koshihimo and slide it over the rabbit ears




16th step: then bring the Koshihimo to the front, make a loop and tuck it underneath the Obi.
Your rabbit ears are ready!




17th step: Time to use the Obimakura and Obiage




18th step: put the Obiage over the Obimakura




19th step: fold the tare part up and put the Obimakura underneath the Obi. The flat part of the Obimakura touches your back.



Bring the strings of the Obimakura to the front, tie and then tuck them underneath the Obi. You can see how you have to tie the Obiage in my previous tutorial, so I skip this part now!


20th step: now the final steps ... tuck up the tare and then put the Obijime on the center part of Tare, bring the Obijime to the front and tie it (you can see how to do it in my previous tutorial!)




the end of o-taiko has to have the same length like your forefinger:




FINISHED!