Japan Tag - Düsseldorf

Last weekend my boyfriend and I had the luck to go to Düsseldorf, Germany to visit Japan Tag (Japan Day)!

We already made reservations for Hotel Nikko (very good, and in style!) which is perfectly situated in Düsseldorf's city centre. And as it turned out, we got ourselves a suite instead of a normal room without paying for the upgrade. All I did was ask if we could check-in early 'cause I wanted to change into my kimono for Japan Tag... Maybe that did the trick, don't know for sure though...

Anyway, we had a blast! Didn't take any pictures, sorry, we were too busy enjoying ourselves haha. The weather was absolutely perfect, nice and sunny, not too cold and not too warm.

Of course I stopped at the booth where women and children could try on kimono, but only to see if I could see some kitsuke-tricks... But it was very crowdy and to each woman/girl they dressed were 2 or 3 women doing the kitsuke. I do have to say that there was one Japanese lady in that booth who looked very very sophisticated in her dark kimono, obi in tsunodashi musubi, and hair in an immaculate updo. So pretty!

We also had drinks with a Japanese colleague of my boyfriend, who lives and works in Düsseldorf, and gave us tips to do in the city. We met with him and his wife, and have a lovely chat. This picture was made by him (sorry for the difficult looks, we stared straight into the sun).  And, always nice to hear.... they (and some more people) complemented me on my kimono and kitsuke!

At the end of Japan Tag we saw the most amazing fireworks ever! 20-25 minutes of the best professional fireworks, with 4 scenes and many ohhs and ahhhs.

On Sunday we wanted to visit the EKO-haus, but we were way too early! We'll go there another time...

Almost forgot... Worn kimono and obi :-)

Finally Hakata!

Finally I'm the happy owner of a beautiful red & black hakata nagoya obi! It has to arrive, but I hope it will look as good as it does on Ichiroya's photo's.

It's been a little while since I bought a kimono. The last kimono I bought was from Ume Bloom's blogsale, this very pretty purple & gold komon kimono. Just found out that I didn't even made a blogpost for this kimono! I'm very ashamed of this, I will do this soon, it's so pretty.

And there was more I liked, way more than my wallet can handle! But eventually I chose an extra long black & purple yukata with a bolder pattern than I usually wear. Linda also has this yukata, and it looked so pretty on her, I hope she doesn't mind I got the same.







And to complete the order I got me a bundle of iromuji kimono. I do hope they're long enough, otherwise those will be my first project to lengthen them... But they had really nice colors (a pink iromuji is almost a necessity in your tansu I think) and fabric/patterns, and the bundle wasn't that expensive.

Let's hope this all will arrive very soon :-D

Tea

 

Last friday, after a very long time from our first date to do have this evening, my boyfriend and I were invited to participate in a private tea ceremony with a couple we know. It was absolutely wonderful!

At their house, their diningroom flows into a beautiful Japanese tatami room with shoji (paper) panels, closets and room for an ikebana-piece with a scroll (can't remember the specific name for it right now). The shoji panels can be opened to look at their small but very nice Japanese garden, and they can even open the garden doors so that Japanese outside is flowing into Japanese inside. Very beautiful. And our hosts both wore kimono!

Our hostess performed the ceremony and her husband explained what she was doing. I had trouble sitting on my knees and feet for long... Next time I have to bring a little cushion to put under my feet ;-) (we were already had cushions under our knees).

We had lots of fun and talked about a lot and very different topics. It was a very nice and entertaining evening.

I wore my peacock-kimono and obi, and tried a bit of padding on my belly with an obi makura. But if it was successfull??? So if anyone has suggestions for padding, please let me know :-)

Kimono de Jack Leiden

Last saturday Holland had it's first Kimono de Jack, at the Sieboldhuis in Leiden!
You can see photo's and more at the blog of the Kimono Club or on Linda's weblog.

We had lot's of fun and it was so nice to see other kimono fanatics!
Kimono de Jack Holland is here to stay :-)

Oh, almost forgot... When I was deciding what to wear to KdJ, I got to the conclusion that I need more obi and lots more accessoires like obijime and obiage. Luckily for me I'm going to Japanday in Düsseldorf! Any tips for that event (where to buy etc) are most welcome!

Yamato!

 It's been a very, very, very long time since I did some kitsuke, with a big renovation-project, but yesterday I had a good reason for wearing a kimono again. We went to see the taiko-group Yamato.

I can never get enough of hearing and feeling those big taiko drums, and I thought this show was very nice. Especially hearing 2 koto, I've never heard those 'live'.

After the show my bf made a photo (indoors and cellphone, so sorry for the not so good quality!) of me and a member of Yamato, Marika Nito.

It was the first time I wore this pink kimono and black-with-rose obi, but it was a very good match, and a very nice evening!

Happy Holidays!

And be careful in the snow (if you have any)!

Christmas shopping???

Last week I was looking on eBay again since a very long time, and I saw some very beautiful kimono listed... And I couldn't resist to do some bidding :-) Unfortunately some of the kimono I bid on slipped right through my fingers, but I did win 3 pretty kimono and 1 obi.

Hopefully they will arrive soon...

(the pictures link to my flickr-page where you can find more pictures of these kimono and obi)