It´s been a while ...

Hello to all those who are still following me. It´s been a while since I posted something new (my last entry was 2013!).

Indeed, this blog, once known under the name Kimono Momiji, was inactive for quite a long time. I wasn´t satisfied with the name and the whole design anymore and announced, ages ago, that I will open a new Kimono blog.

Time passed, but I just couldn´t find the motivation to work on this blog again ... further, I also haven´t found many occasions to wear my Kimonos in public anymore.

I still love Kimono a lot, nevertheless, last year I haven´t bought any new piece for my collection. And so everything regarding this blog came to a standstill.

However, since my motivation to work on this blog again came back a little bit, I decided to reactive it! Many things aren´t finished yet, and older posts will be deleted/changed with time or newly shared!

But my Kimono blog is now back to life under the name:

Iki-Kimono ~ The elegance of Kimono ~

Best wishes and I hope all of you had a good start into 2016!
Aichi

Christmas Kimono

The Christmas season came and went as fast as every year - I hope you all had a nice time together with your dearest people! ♥ Unfortunately I couldn´t feel the Christmas vibe as much as in the past years, surely due to the stress caused by all the preparations we had to make *sighs* Though another reason could be that we had rather warm Christmas days, who knows!?

My family and me have spent Christmas at my sister´s and her husband´s house this time which was very nice. A few impressions for you all:

yummy *u*

I got many lovely presents and the ones which certainly interest you the most are the two Kimono *smile* Here they are ~

Hakubai -Tsukesage

Hakubai (白梅) - White plum
... with eda-ume (plum on the branch), botan (peony),
senmen (paper centres of folding fans), ougi (folding fans)
and kumihimo (cords)

I already made a first coordination try with it. What do you think? ♥

And now my fantastic new Furisode - in real it´s much more impressive, you cannot imagine *o*

Hana matsuri - Ooburisode

Hana matsuri (花祭り) - Flower festival
... with hana guruma (flower cart), peony (botan),
sakura (cherry blossoms), fuji (wisteria), ayame (iris),
nadeshiko (dianthus/pinks), kiku (chrysanthemum),
kikyou (bellflower) and hagi (bushclover)

I am still unsure about which Obi is better? 1st or 2nd one (・−・)・・・？

Somehow I totally forgot to show you my new Tabi socks (>_<). They go perfectly with the Furisode, right?

Kohaze Tabi with beautiful rhinestones ♡

I wish you all already a good and save start into 2014! Feel hugged by me ヽ(´▽｀)/*

Is it already Christmas? (Part 2)

Actually I only have to replace a few words and lines from my previous entry and change them like this:

... and then my brother asked me what I want to have for Christmas.

I donnot wanted to have another Tsukesage only but also a new Furisode since a while. The one I have is nice but there are more beautiful ones out there >_<

I surfed through Shinei´s pages again and couldn´t believe my eyes ... a Furisode with a black basic color, in perfect condition made of silk for a super price. I was like: (o.o)

I still don´t understand why it was so cheap, even the Houmongi was more expensive *haha* Good for me I saw this beauty ... I want to give you only a little preview again ~

Some of the peonies and other flowers are embroidered ♥ 

The design is fantastic, cannot wait :3

Is it already Christmas?

Hello my dear followers!

Yes, Christmas is just around the corner and I am sure most of you already thought: What shall I buy for my relatives and friends? I asked my sister, brother, mother and boyfriend what their wishes are and then my sister said to me: "What do you wanna have actually?" My first reaction was: "Hm, I don´t know yet ...."

The day before I talked with my boyfriend about our plans for the Japanday 2014 in Düsseldorf, which hotel we´ll choose etc. And of course the topic Kimono came up as well.

And then everything was clear: I want a new Kimono! >o<

Since ages I wanted to have another Tsukesage, they are just one of my fav types of Kimono. I surfed through their shop and luckily I found one ON SALE which I liked very much! I wrote a message to my sister and told her about it. In the end she said: "Yes, you can have it!" ... First I was too afraid asking her because with shipping the Kimono cost 60€ *ehem ...* Therefore I am even happier that I could get it.

I want to give you only a little preview of the lovely details:

CAN´T WAIT to get it ♥

*hahaha*

Japantag 013 Düsseldorf Part 2 (Saturday 25th)

Hello and 今日は (konnichi wa) dear followers!

First I want to thank you all for the nice comments I got to my two previous entries. Always makes me happy to read them, 本当にありがとうございます。

Today I want to continue with the Japantag (Japan-day) event. This entry will be about the actual Japantag which was on Saturday.

I woke up around 9:30 am to get ready in time. It always takes around 45 minutes only for getting dressed up in Kimono (+ 1 hour for makeup etc. ). After my boyfriend and me were ready we took a taxi to drive to the Nikko hotel. My friend Laura wanted to make my hair =) Here is the final result and the whole Kimono ensemble for Saturday:

ready to go ~

 We also made a few group pictures in front of the hotel Nikko, here is one of them:

boyfriend, friends and me xD

First we went to several shops:

the Kyoto shop had many beautiful and traditional stuff, even for Kimono and Yukata. But all was very expensive :(

Yukata ♥

Geta ~

rabbit fan >_< ♥

super expensive but cute owl ♥

lovely fans for traditional dance ♥

the Nippon bookstore had mainly Japanese learning books, not very interesting since I already have such books - and tons of magazines:

the OCS store was also open again, but for the last time and had a mega sale. I bought cute rice- and soup bowls there and a mobile phone charm (see on the other pics):

tsuki no usagi ♥ moon rabbit ♥

kingyo - goldfish ♥

After our shopping trip we all went to the Bolkerstraße (Bolkerstreet). I´ve never been to this part of Düsseldorf before *lol* This street it full of restaurants and bars. I mean, in my hometown there are also a lot ... but this place OMG - FOOD HEAVEN! o.o

In the end we found a bar called "Sweet Heart" and ordered some cocktails; mine was without alcohol tho ~

my drink ♥

To get to the Rheinufer (Rhine) where the actual festival takes place, you have to walk through the city:

exclusive shops *money, where are you? *haha*

mega fan xD

Funnily enough this year a lot more people took pictures of me. A man came to me with a professional camera and made a few pics directly in the city. I wish that I can find them someday online but a friend of mine made a pic while I posed ^^"

and a few more stalker pics from my friends *haha*

Finally we arrived at the Rhine promenade ^_^

cloudy but no rain ♥

Rhine promenade ♥

many Cosplayers

The first thing I did was ordering Sobanoodle-soup which was very delicious *o*

Impressive Cosplay:

Disney *w*

... and me again:

Like every year there are tons of stalls which sell anime/manga merchandise, display traditional stuff and much more:

lovely Ikebana ♥

Origami

Chiba information stall

furin - windbells ♥

Nya Nya ~

many Maneki-Neko O(=^_^=)O

the most visited stall xD

You really can get a lot of cute and lovely stuff, but most of it is often super expensive, you cannot imagine *sighs*

amazing live painting *o*

Here you can see my shopping haul of Saturday:

♥

cute Hello Kitty envelopes ♥

postcards with trad. motives for my collection ~

art books for my book collection

finally I have Kiharu´s book ^-^ and another Ukiyo-e book

cute wallet ~

Around 20:30 pm we went back to the hotel, I changed my clothes (and already packed most of my stuff into the luggage) to go back to the Rhine promenade for the firework which started aroun 23:00 pm.

It was a good idea that I had changed into normal clothes cause the weather changed and it rained literally cat and dogs ...

Hope you enjoyed the pics and would be nice if you´d leave a comment. THANKS ♥