Norway

Yesterday we came back from a 10 day holiday in Norway. What a beautiful country!

We stayed a couple of days in Geilo, then we went to Voss and then back to Geilo for our last days. More photo's to come, but here's a nice teaser :-)

Biyosugata!

Finally the biyosugata arrived a week ago! Unfortunately customs had gotten a hold of it, but most important is that it's here!

After a week of having no time to try it on, tonight I had some time. I had 2 manuals to make the bow, the one that came with the biyosugata and the one in The Book of Kimono. I have to say that the manual that came with it is a bit easier than that of The Book, but putting it on is easier with The Book and some help from the IG-forums ^_^

The hardest bit is to put it on. But as these pictures show, I got it on! My kitsuke is messed up, but hey, at least I've nailed it haha.

Yamato

Yesterday we went to see Yamato at the theatre. They were very good, very different from Tenko, but oh so very good. And of course I went in kimono!

We had a great time. Too bad the group didn't sign because they had to pack, but at least I got 2 compliments about my outfit, and a lot of stares haha.

This time I went in my furisode because it had a little taiko on it, and after wearing it the whole evening, I must say that this furisode may be the most comfortable kimono I have. It's perfect, doesn't flap open when walking, perfect height and width, very nice to wear again.

Unfortunately my biyosugata hasn't arrived (yet), but I wanted the fukura suzume on my back. So I tried to tie it on my belly and turn it around, and it actually worked! It wasn't as high as it should have been, but I thought it was acceptable ^_^

But of course after 2 carrides nothing was left of it...

My (very) little... Hanami

Still small but hopefully big one day...

Amsterdam

A week ago, Rota and I were supposed to see a tea ceremony demonstration. Rota came to my house so she could see Wolfje and that I could help her with kitsuke.

The plan was good, but we had a good time chatting along and because of that we already were late starting kitsuke. Although we did it quite fast, and we didn't get in a lot of traffic on our way to Amsterdam, we were too late... But we still had a lot of fun and had a nice talk with to the Tea Master before we went home.

One thing I learned that day: driving a car in kimono isn't that bad :-)

Fukura suzume

Ha, thanks to Yuka & Ichiro's dvd I managed to make a better fukura suzume musubi than the first time...

A couple of days ago I finally found a site where I bought a biyosugata, and that ships outside of Japan! They use EMS shipping, but because of Golden Week in Japan the package will be posted next week, let's hope on monday. Hopefully it'll arrive before sunday next week. We're going to a show of Yamato in the theatre, and I want to wear this furisode. I might be a little too old for a furisode, but heck, at least I'm not married ^_^ And this furisode had a nice drum embroidered on it.

Singapore

Buddha Tooth Relic Temple
Originally uploaded by annebyebye

When we went to New-Zealand, we had a stop of 16 hours in Singapore. Because our stop took this long, we went off the airport and into the city and saw some beautiful temples.

You can find more pictures on Flickr!