Stonehenge - my last time wearing kimono in the UK

On July 22 we will be leaving UK for good. It's finally starting to hit me (because this move is turning out such a pain in a butt that I'm ready to pull my hair out) that in less than a week I will be living in the USA once again. Goodbye frequent trips to London, Europe and my UK friends. From now on, it will be lots of Facebook chatting and once again following each other on the internet.

One of the things I absolutely wanted to do before leaving England was to visit the Stonehenge, but as usual, I just never got around to doing it. Finally, I said to myself that I'm doing it and booked a trip there on July 4th. We were supposed to get there right at sunrise, but with the "great" British weather we had that day, we didn't even see the sun until much later in the day! Either way, I got to see the Stonehenge and walk around inside the circle.

When I was picking out a kimono to wear, I knew that I wanted something that would match my cowboy hat. That hat had traveled with me to Ukraine couple of weeks before, and I felt like it needed to go with me to the Stonehenge too. Plus, July 4th is the Independence Day in the USA, so I figured it wouldn't hurt to project a bit of my American spirit.

I think that Stonehenge makes a great backdrop for the kimono! I wonder if I'm going to start a trend now? ;P The photo above is my absolute favorite out of all the ones my husband took that day, and I think it might even make it as one of my business cards or even a postcard.

Goodbye, England! I'm glad that my last time wearing kimono here ended up mega epic and memorable!

~ Lyuba

Packing, packing, packing... and decluttering.

I hate moving. Absolutely, positively, completely and utterly HATE moving! We even have the worst part (packing up our stuff) done for us, but I still hate it. I still have to go through my stuff and throw out/donate/give away things I don't need... let's just say Kimono Room of DOOM makes me cry right now :(.

I could be wearing kimono, but I really don't feel like doing anything at the moment. I know that I'll will pack up maybe 3 kimono and obi and mail them to myself, so I'll have some stuff to wear while we wait for our household stuff to arrive - which can take anywhere from 60-90 days. Can you imagine life without kimono for 2-3 months? Me neither!

Well, I'm going back to decluttering. Wish me luck!

~ Lyuba

Lets kitsuke like it's 1935!

 Linda at Oranda Kitsuke used my photos for Go Hime Friday update. I absolutely love the way it turned out! She makes me look so good! :D :D

In other news, it's less than a month before our big move back to the USA and I'm slowly going crazy. I absolutely loathe moving. Because of that my updates might even get even more scarce than they already are. 

I can do it!

~ Lyuba

Team Fabulous!

On Saturday Hong and I went to London EXPO.

I haven't had the greatest past few days, so I don't feel like talking about my coordination and why I chose what. Instead, I'll just show you the photos.

Ryu-bu dance practice

Every Monday, Wednesday and Thursday for the past month I've been doing an Okinawan dance practice. It's not anything serious, since this dance is for performance at the end of May, but at the same time we are taking it pretty seriously. I don't want to look like a fool in front of many people, hence 3 days a week practice. If it was up to me, I would practice every day, but that's my obsessive compulsive control freak talking.

Anyway, one day we had an extra person at the practice and I asked her to film it :) Filming it was a good idea, as I already see some things I was doing that I was able to watch for at the last practice. Come next week, we'll start practicing with our costumes and hopefully I'll have an actual performance video to show you too!

Kimono Photo Shoot Fundraiser

This year I got involved with the APAH again, and a lot more than in any year before. On May 4th Hong came over to help me with a big photo shoot fundraiser on base. We started around 9am on the day, and didn't finish until after 6pm. I don't really want to talk about the day as much, because it didn't start that well. Those who know me closely already heard all about it, so I don't want to repeat the whole things here. At the end everything worked out, and we raised almost exactly $450. We also learned many things for the next time, IF I ever decide to do anything like that again.

I'm especially thankful for the Japanese ladies that came and stayed the whole day, helping with undressing people, putting away kimono and promoting the fundraiser. Of course, the whole thing wouldn't have happened without Hong either, who switched her shift at work just so she can come and help me.

You can see some more photos in my Facebook album.

Won't Miss #7: road and TV tax

I didn't even know that TV tax existed until I came to the UK and was suddenly required to pay it. Yes, you're reading it right - in order to watch TV in the UK, you have to pay a special TV tax. You can't even dodge it by saying that you don't watch TV, because if you watch any TV programs on your computer, it counts too. 

In addition to the TV tax, there is also a road tax that everyone has to pay. We have two cars, so we have to pay the road tax on both cars. That's in addition to insurance and yearly MOTs (inspections). The amount you pay based on the engine size and CO2 emissions or whatever else, so my husband pays less for his since his is a compact car. Mine is not, meaning that you can actually sit comfortably in the backseat for extended periods of time (just ask Hong), so I pay more. 

All together we pay about £500 extra a year for all these taxes. Of course now I should say "paid" as we will be leaving in July, but I still will not miss the extra expense of paying for these taxes. 

P.S. An no, having one car was not an option. As I've talked before, I live in the middle of nowhere with no public transport. I also can't just drop off my husband at his work, as I'm not even allowed to drive where he works. 

Lyuba in Akira style

Yesterday I wrote about our KDJ event at Carnaby Street, but I didn't include too many photos of Akira style. The reason is because Akira Times is so fabulous, that these photos deserve their very own post! 

As many of you might know, I was inspired by someone in Spain who dressed in Akira style. Once I've seen the photo, I wanted to do the same thing, without caring that I am a woman... haha :) Akira wears all kinds of hats, but most often he can be seen in a bowler type hat, so I started looking on ebay for something similar. I came across this bright pink straw hat, which gave me an idea to do the whole outfit around color pink. 

 I used my handmade hanhaba obi as a kaku obi. Since I can't really tie kaku obi well I just went with an easy bow in the back. Unfortunately, the damn bow sat at a very uncomfortable place, so it made the drive in the car and then the ride on the tube fairly uncomfortable for me. But lesson learned, if I ever do men kitsuke style again, don't tie a bow and learn some of the flat obi knots! To add some decoration to obi I used one of my obijime. Actually, it was the one laying around from the last time I wore kimono, but it match, so all was good. Few days before I got a care package from my friends and in it I got a two cherries keychain. I attached it to the obijime, and then jingled for the whole trip since the keychain also has a small bell.

One of my friends remarked that she thought I had a small pudge going, but was too polite to remark on it HAHA. She said that after I remarked about how I was very proud of my padding skills, which created a nice belly effect :D. I strapped my breasts as usual, and then added one extra datejime to my waist versus two that I normally use.

It didn't feel THAT weird wearing kimono in men's style, at least not as weird as I was expecting. I still felt very strapped down, but that was because of all the binding and padding I used. At the same time, it was easier to move, and aside from the uncomfortable bow in the back, it was very nice not to worry about collars (since they are loose anyway). I kept thinking that my collar was open too much, but then I remember the casual men's style, and was able to relax.

Here is how I looked without the beard and hat. As Diane said, I still managed to look very girly, which honestly was the look I was going for anyway. I wanted to create a very "romantic" Akira style, for laughs, but once the beard and hat were off, I was left with MY style. After goofing off with the beard, I simply couldn't take non-silly photos even in my "normal" kimono. So here you go, more goofy photos of me :).

Kimono de Jack at Carnaby Street, London

Yesterday I went to London for our first KDJ of the year. This time the theme was Akira style, chocolate and tea rooms.

I left the house at 9:30 am and this is when the whole trip started to get downhill. When got to Epping tube station, I found out that part of the Central line was closed so I had to take a replacement bus service. I had to do it once before, and I absolutely hate bus replacement services! Of course, I could have just looked up to see if there were engineering works before leaving my house, but since I know where I was going, I didn't even think of doing that. Then, once I got to the tube station again, I ended up waiting for around 20 minutes on the tube just to move, because of the broken train. After that it was a very slooooooooow journey to my destination, with 3-5 minutes waiting at each station. So yeah... I was pretty much an hour late to the event that I myself organized lol.

Once I got to Carnaby Street all was well again, since the annoying tube was behind me, and all my friends were already waiting for me. I hit up Choccywoccydoodah first to see if they were still there by any chance, but they had already left, so I went to Camellia's Tea House where I've made an afternoon tea reservation.

When I arrived at Camellia's, no one was there yet! Turned out they made a detour to Liberty's haberdashery department, so I just walked around and looked at all the various teas that Camellia's had to offer.

We got to try the greatest chocolate tea ever! I'm not a fan of black tea at all, but this one was NICE! I think  most of us bought that tea before leaving too :) I know I will be requesting that particular tea in care packages after I leave UK (in exchange for American goodies of course!)

After we were full of tea, scones and cakes, we went back to Choccywoccydoodah area to take more photos. This is where some serious hilarity ensured, because I pulled out my Akira style beard and started posing for photos. I can't tell you how many people were stopping to look, laugh with us, and just be entertained in general. I could even see chocolate shop employees looking at us though the window, so I made sure to wink at especially cute guy ;P Don't worry, I had my beard off by then haha!

I had a blast and this KDJ was exactly what I needed! The great time IN London definitely made up for the not-so-great time spent getting there and back. I will definitely be going back to Camellia's to buy more tea too!

~ Lyuba