Last Friday and Saturday night was the Himeji Yukata Matsuri. It is a festival which consists of many food and game stalls lining the main street and filling the park and nearly everyone wears yukata (summer cotton kimono). We all decided to join in the festivities and buy a yukata of our own! Women wear a kimono style outfit which consists of the yukata and an obi (a beautiful piece of fabric which is tied into a bow) while the men can wear a similar yukata but with a smaller obi or an outfit which consists of shorts and a top which wraps around and ties up. Some younger girls also wear this style with cute prints of Hello Kitty and other characters.
First time in my yukata!
On Friday night some of Tina’s students came around to help dress us and then we all headed into town for the festival. We got our bus fare half price as we were wearing yukata! We looked around the stalls and then all went to have Okonomiyaki for dinner. As we were looking around the stalls afterwards we saw a gang that is sometimes seen around Himeji and all the members wear black, red or white outfits with Japanese embroidery and badges on them. Someone pointed them out and I said don’t look at them as they cause trouble and well the next thing you knew there was a huge commotion which we luckily escaped! (Tina thought I had been trampled as I disappeared so quickly!) The police had arrested one or two of them and immediately there were video cameras there! This is the first time I have seen anything like this in Japan!
On Saturday we had a party at our residence to help dress each other in our yukata! I was determined to be able to tie an obi so I had bought a book which came with a dvd on various ways to tie an obi! I worked it out and tried doing my own (which you do at the front and then turn around!). it worked really well and I was so proud I went up to Tina’s so she could take a photo! I managed to tie 4 obi’s and help to tie 2 others!
Trial run!
My work!
Nearly everyone from my apartment block in Yukata!
Marie, Tina and I.
Jono, Steve and Liam.
Jodi, Tina, Taube and I.
Julian and Steve.
Me and my new favourite drink! (I got this at the vending machine across the road for about $3.50 – that’s too convenient!)
Cute girl and boy waiting at the bus stop!
Yoko’s shoes! Tina and I couldn’t fit into women’s geta (thongs) so we had to get flat men’s ones!
When we were ready we went into town and took many photos at the castle! What a fantastic backdrop!
We then wandered some more looking at stalls and doing a lot of people watching before deciding where to eat dinner. I had a kebab (hmm not so Japanese but it was delicious!) and I had a chicken skewer and of course a beer!
The guys looked so cool!
We think she is someone famous as many people were taking her photo!
This stall had toys floating in water that you had to catch to win something.
There was this interesting stall also which had a tank with eels in it! You had to try and catch them with a fishing line! I’m not sure what you do with them then!
We then wandered some more before going to an American style bar called Mr B’s. Most people there were in Yukata which was great to see!
Kyosuke, Makoto and I at Mr B’s.
After a great night Tina, Marie, Chelsea and I decided to walk home as it was such a nice night. On the way home we saw members of the gang from the previous night heading towards us – about 20 of them! It wasn’t possible to cross the road so we sort of got off the footpath and hoped for the best only to be amazed that all they did was say “Hello!” to us! It could only be in Japan that a gang which causes trouble just wants to speak English to foreigners!!
3 comments:
You rock at tying obi's Lauren!! How much fun was it dressing up. Everyone looked awesome. :-)
Thank you so much for tying my obi! It was so hot and you were so patient. It was so much fun! We all looked like beautifully gift wrapped presents!
I was so scared of that big gang of guys and then when all they said was, "hello" I thought it was so funny. They were all tough and mean and when they saw us all they said was hello!!!
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