London Japan Matsuri 2010

I was looking forward to this event since last September, and once again I was not disappointed. This year it was bigger and better, and like I said once before, the 30K people that came last year came again and brought friends. :)

This year Japan Matsuri occupied the whole Spitafields Market, which definitely helped with the breathing space. It got very crowded towards the end of the day, but we were leaving anyways so it didn't affect us that much. My favorite part was the kimono stalls, and a fairly decent prices. Still out of my price range, but being unemployed makes pretty much everything out of my price range right now lol. I still got myself a cute cellphone holder, as well as bought 2 other ones as a souvenirs for friends in Florida :) I will probably save them as either Christmas presents, or if I can't wait till Christmas, I'll send them out in the next care package.

We met up at the Liverpool Station, of course I didn't notice anyone and had Hong calling me from few yards away lol. :) She wore the most gorgeous green ro kimono that I wanted to steal (or at leas to borrow) from her :) :) :)



I wore my kokeshi dolls kimono again. I love that one! I think right now it is easily my favorite. :) I paired it up with ugly-by-itself-yellow-and-lavender-rose nagoya obi, which of course looked great :) Love that obi too! It is such an ugly shade of yellow when looking at it by itself, but paired up with kimono it turns gorgeous. It was pretty chilly that day, so I was hoping my layers of padding will keep me warm. Sure enough, I got hot in the crowd. But the moment we left all the crowds, I felt great again :)



We had fun looking for festival banners and taking pictures with each of them :) There were 4: spring, summer, autumn and winter. Sadly we didn't take any pictures with spring, because it was right next to a huuuuuuuge trashcan! Epic fail! Oh well, we did get the other three :)



















Overall, it was a great event and I can't wait till Japan Matsuri 2011. :)

Kimono de Jack London

No... sadly it hadn't happened yet, but that is not to say it will not happen soon :) I was very inspired by Ichiroya's recent post about Kimono de Jack events held in Japan, and I want to be able to experience the same thing where I live. Who said we had to live in Japan in order to have Kimono de Jack? :)

Kimono de Jack

Kimono de Jack was started by 11 kimono enthusiasts from Kyoto, who were concerned that there were not enough occasions to wear kimono anymore. So in order to combat the problem, they decided to create their own event or Kimono de Jack. The first event was held on May 7, 2010 in Kyoto and was advertised by Twitter. Since then, Kimono de Jack spread across Japan and is now held in several regions.

So far I've created KimonodeJackUK twitter account, so that I can also advertise it through Twitter. Later in the week I'm hoping to get a new blog up, specifically for the Kimono de Jack London. Ideally I would love to have it once a month, which I think is pretty realistic.

Plan on, Lyuba! :)

Yumi Yamamoto at Japanese Art Festival

I ended up going to the Japanese Art Festival, even if I had my doubts about it. But couple days ago April told me that Akemi Solloway sent her an email looking for non-Asian kimono models. Me being myself, I jumped in at the idea especially because there was a pretty good chance I would be wearing one of Yumi Yamamoto kimono :)

Sadly I was almost 30 mins late :( I left on time, but halfway to Eppings I remembered that I only have 1£ on me in coins, and I didn't remember how much they charge for parking. So I had to stop and get change, and that took up time that I could have used on being super hot and uncomfortable in the tube lol. Then when I finally got to Holborn, I had no idea where to go! Thankfully I was able to ask directions from people who were giving out festival's fliers, but even with those 'directions' I was wondering if I was going in the right direction lol. When I finally got there, everyone were still there...not sure if they were waiting for me, or just sitting around for nothing?

The day before the festival, Akemi told me that I should bring kimono undergarments, tabi and zori. I brought 4 pairs of zori, 3 pairs of tabi, obiita, korin belt and the butt padding thing because I was being me and bringing stuff just in case. Turned out I didn't need any tabi or zori for myself as Yamamoto-san had her own for me. I am glad that I brought all the extra stuff, because she ended up using it all on me :) And as a result, if I may say so myself, my obi looked all nice and non-wrinkled :) :) :) ;P

I was also told that I will be wearing a pink kimono, but I ended up with blue one. Can't say I was complaining! I liked blue kimono much more than I liked the pink one, but my favorite one was the black and lace one :) :) My kimono was done with 'cutting embroidery'? Not sure what's the technical term for it, but I bet it took a VERY LONG time to cut out and then embroider all those little holes, and make it look like flowers. I especially loved the zori. You know when you look at the kimono designers' websites, and see their zori.... but you can't order them cuz 1. they are super expensive, and 2. they don't ship overseas. Well I felt like that except I was able to wear them! And I must say they are as cute as they are comfy, or as comfy as they are cute ;) There is just something about modern zori that just draws me to them. :)



Yumi Yamamoto also had a small booth with her stuff, but sadly it was all Japanese priced. She had some rain zori that I just LOVED, but I couldn't afford £170 zori :( :( Instead I settled on her book, which came with a kimono pattern and illustrated instructions. She also signed it for me :) So overall my shopping was pretty successful... other than out-of-my-price-range stuff of course. :)


Overall the festival was.... actually have no idea. It seemed better than the one in February, and there was food (cuz I could smell it haha), and more stuff to do. But I spent my whole time either backstage, or taking photos so I'm not sure. :) I did however had a LOT OF FUN! I'm really glad I went there, especially because I got to meet a real kimono designer and wear kimono 'couture'.