Kimono in Zaporozhye, Ukraine

Before leaving UK for good I was determined to go back to Ukraine one more time, and, if I could fit it in my suitcase, take a kimono with me. Well, on Tuesday I got back from Ukraine and I'm proud to say that I managed to have one kimono day there! Truthfully, I could have wore kimono couple more times, but it was so hot! Plus, I only brought one kimono with me.

The kimono I choose was a last minute decision because up until the morning of, I had no idea if it will fit in the suitcase. I weighted my suitcase, and I still had 11Lb until the max, so I went on a crazy running around spree around my house, looking for kimono to take. I settled on this summer weight hitoe, with a ro obi I got from Bangasa Kimono. In true Lyuba fashion, I wasn't even sure that they will go together but at that point I was willing to take a chance. I piled up accessories I thought would go well together and figured I'll deal with it in Ukraine.

Turned out everything went together very well, and I'm extremely happy with the coordination. I thought the obi might get lost since both kimono and obi are white based, but the obi ended up showing up just fine. This also was the first time I wore this grey ro obiage. Gosh, I love it! Such a change from all the other pale ro obiage I own and have to wear all the time.

My friend tried to talk me out of wearing kimono at first. I mean, it IS Ukraine after all and people are not exactly known for being very accepted to those who are different. I was mentally preparing myself for lots of negative and ignorant comments, but I'm happy to report that I got no negativity of any kind at all! I got exactly the same thing as I get when wearing kimono in US or UK. Couple people asked for photos, some called me "geisha girl", others just did double takes and smiled. Since I'm used to all of that, I was able to be happily oblivious to everything.

The highlight of my day was when I saw two Ukrainian Cossacks reenactors walking around, and I've made a very fast beeline for them! I wasn't missing a chance to take pictures with them! In case some of you don't know, Ukrainian Cossacks is one of my other passions. I ABSOLUTELY FREAKING LOVE THEM! Turned out there was a special event earlier that day, but of course we missed it :( These two guys were just hanging out in the area afterwords. I'm a little bummed, because I missed all the cossack amazingness, but at least I have photos with some of them to make me feel better. They didn't believe me when I told them I LUV cossacks though... HAHA.

I would have taken more photos with them, but my Ukrainian friend is not used to my ways, so she got very embarrassed and the next thing I knew, was walking away very fast with my camera! While I was still talking to the guys! I told her that next time I see cossacks, she is staying the whole time LOL!

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!