Kitsuke June 2014 Part 2 - Watching Transformers 4 + Hard Makura = Insufferable Back Pain

Firstly, I forgot to pack up my makeup, so all my pictures in this post has washed up face =)). Secondly, as the titled implied, I watched Transformers 4: Age of Extinction with running time 165 minutes which caused a really aching back pain since I wore a hard makura ToT. Lesson taken, I should get a soft makura for my taiko in long running movies. Thirdly, I had a habit of taking kitsuke pictures after I had the whole event for the day, so we should expected a disheveled ensemble and dim pictures due to inadequate lighting (:hammer:). Plus I was already sleepy actually.

Rundown:
Kimono; white cotton kimono with colourful flowers and bees motif
Obi; hiraki nagoya obi with abstract motif (I think it has leaves and geometric pattern)
Juban with red haneri with white polkadot
Obiage; red shawl
Obijime; white with black border (woven)
Socks; white tabi
Footwear; I forgot but I think it was my black maryjane shoes

I wasn't too sure about the weather, but I think it was raining. Make sure you take care of your health, Minna-san~

Kitsuke June 2014 Part 1: Nila's Wedding Reception

Cunil is one of my close friend. Cunil is an abbreviaton for Cute Nila (her self proclaimed abbreviation name :P). She was going to have a wedding reception in Solo and I thought I would dress myself in kimono. I received the invitation via text message and the team was ensembled. My newest buy was a ro purple komon, which actually wasn't proper enough for wedding reception but I made it fancier pairing it with white woven peony nagoya obi. The kimono actually is rather short for me, so I opted out wearing a pair of zouri and instead chose my trusty heels. It was all purpose heels with white main colours and black heels.

I found out that we went to Solo from Jogja with two cars. One day before the reception, Elichan, Sansan, Noichan and Yayas had been there in Solo. I went to Solo with Asih and her husband, Edi (I hitchhiked their car). I woke up really early and dressed as fast as I can. I needed to walk into our rally point. Thankfully it was still early morning (around 0600) and Sunday so only few gazes and stares came to me. It wasn't awkward, but somehow I needed to build up courage first to walk non-chalantly with all people in normal clothes :P. I met one of my lecturer from Oral Surgery Department accidentally. He was cycling and asked where I was going to this early morning and all dressed up. When I said I was going to attend my friend wedding reception to Solo, he was surprised :D. Anyway,

I finally arrived at the rally point and Asih and his husband was just arrived too. Asih wore a really beautiful kebaya. It was gold and cream. Later, in the gas station near airport (Adi Sutjipto Airport), we had a rendezvous with the other car (Wenang, Sahib and Bang Vincent were inside the car). Together we marched to Solo that morning. The traffic was not really congested, it was still morning.

Detail of my eri part. Decided to include a lace

In the parking lot. We arrived a little bit earlier. My komon is short so I wore heels :D.

We hogged the entry. Oh well it wasn't any guests anyway. Not yet. 

OB team. My paper's team when I was still a graduate student.

Left-right: Wenang, me, Noichan, Sansan

Random group photo. We were so loud.

Bigger group photo with Dr. Supri included in the frame.

After about two hours ride, we reached Solo at last. We found the venue and registered. Oh, Sahib get dressed in the parking lot, not bothered with us and just kept getting dressed. I thought we came there pretty early since there were only several guests. We took a lot of pictures just like camera whore did. Really, we were bunch of loud guys with mild commotion, almost forgot why we were there. What will bunch of peoples do when they meet after not meeting for a long time? They became camera whore and that what was happened to us :D. I believe the SD card was congested with our pictures and not the bride's pictures. Oh and yeah, a lot of people wondering about me, whether I am an Indonesian or not.

And the bride and groom arrived. The procession took forever I guess :P. After an akad nikah was carried out, we had a light meal (I thought it was soto if I not mistaken). After the akad nikah, the procession was continued. There is an abbreviation of the Solo wedding reception, it called USDEK (unjukan, sup, dhaharan, es, kondur), which meant welcome drink, soup, main course, dessert - which usually ice cream and jelly and go home. The procession was held without us get up from our seat, which meant we sat down all the time and some waiters and waitresses served us.

We met Bunga and her family, Mbak Budi and her team, girls from Kos Biru and Akina. Funny thing was that Akina wore batik and I wore kimono. Many of them joked that I should change my nationality since I wore kimono set to the event. Hhalah :D. To tell you the truth, I had more kimono that I had a kebaya set.

After we said goodbye to the bride and groom, we went to Selat Solo (I forgot the name of the restaurant). In there I change my kimono into a regular set of clothes in their tiny bathroom :P. Anyway, I ordered a galantin Selat Solo. Noichan wrote something on the restaurant plate with some Hangeul I couldn't read at that moment XD. During the return trip, I hitchhiked Wenang's car, together with Sansan, Elichan, Noichan, and Sahib. Asih and Edi had a personal agenda. We dropped Noichan at a hospital somewhere in Klaten (her sister was there). We arrived at Jogja after 2000. Thank you for today's trip and experience. I hope I can do more kitsuke in the future.

Rundown:
Blue Purple Ro Komon
Juban with white polkadot red haneri and lace
White nagoya obi with peony motif
Red scarf obiage
Black polkadot socks
Pink obijime
Purple obidome
White heels
Red kanzashi

New Page on Facebook: Himeji Kimono House

When I browsed and surfed through kimono world, I saved many pictures related to kitsuke and kimono, including inspirations, illustrations and ensembles. One day I came into a revelation I believe will come eventually sooner or later that my notebook or hard disk will obsolete and they won't started again after I push the start button. So when the day will come, I have to be prepared.

That's the main reason why I made a page in Facebook - to pool all of my saved pictures. Mostly, I put them there from my own personal references. I don't take credit from those pictures unless stated otherwise. So here I present you my new Page on Facebook, Himeji Kimono House. My other Page is Himeji Kimono, mostly for my yukata and kimono rental and shopping. You can visit and take a peek them both.

Himeji Kimono | Himeji Kimono House

Anmitsu Hime Part 4 of 4

I got this movie reccomendation from certain kimono enthusiast group. This movie starred Inoue Maou as Princess Anmitsu, who are in her teenage years. This movie is really jolly, colourful and heart-warming. It has a lot of traditional and modern components and their combinations are somewhat fun and entertaining to watch. For example, all the blings, glitters and colourful ensemble of her kimono oddly matched with the era in the set. She also got her nails decorated, her practicing lance pinked and heyy she wore a funky wheely shoes inside her house which resulting her getting scolded XD.

The story was light and fun to watch if we're looking for family and comedy drama. Since the story took place in the rugou jidai (old era), we could expect to find many kimono ensembles. The common people's kimonos might be plain but the kimono of Anmitsu's mother and grandmother were great. The servants' kimono had tateya musubi, this kind of musubi was worn as a protection addition as the servants sometimes protected her master. The musubi had a shape in such a way so that the servants could hide a small or slim knife - just for defense.

Anmitsu wore komon for her day adventure and she wore her furisode and uchikake in her day in the castle. And her protectors, oh wow, you get to watch it yourself. I meant it with the WOW. I will put others picture of her wearing kimono and also the setting in the movie itself.




Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

New Blog on Tumblr

I made a new blog on Tumblr. It's himejikimono.tumblr.com.
Tumblr is a nifty platform for showcasing everything I guess. So this tumblr of mine will cover some kimono stuffs, from kitsuke, ensemble, other kimono inspirations and also other daily thingies. Be sure to check himejikimono.tumblr.com for (I hope) regular posts about kimono and nichijou.

Anmitsu Hime Part 3 of 4

I got this movie reccomendation from certain kimono enthusiast group. This movie starred Inoue Maou as Princess Anmitsu, who are in her teenage years. This movie is really jolly, colourful and heart-warming. It has a lot of traditional and modern components and their combinations are somewhat fun and entertaining to watch. For example, all the blings, glitters and colourful ensemble of her kimono oddly matched with the era in the set. She also got her nails decorated, her practicing lance pinked and heyy she wore a funky wheely shoes inside her house which resulting her getting scolded XD.

The story was light and fun to watch if we're looking for family and comedy drama. Since the story took place in the rugou jidai (old era), we could expect to find many kimono ensembles. The common people's kimonos might be plain but the kimono of Anmitsu's mother and grandmother were great. The servants' kimono had tateya musubi, this kind of musubi was worn as a protection addition as the servants sometimes protected her master. The musubi had a shape in such a way so that the servants could hide a small or slim knife - just for defense.

Anmitsu wore komon for her day adventure and she wore her furisode and uchikake in her day in the castle. And her protectors, oh wow, you get to watch it yourself. I meant it with the WOW. I will put others picture of her wearing kimono and also the setting in the movie itself.

Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4

Review Event: dai 9 Nihongo no Hi UGM + Kimono Demo

Finally the day had come. The day before the D-day I dropped the luggages containing yukata and the demo items. I already made sure that nothing was forgotten. Nihongo no Hi was identic with Japanese speech competition and other Japanese education-nuance competition. The participants were junior high school students and senior high school students. Some others were college students but I thought it was just few of them. After the competition took place, the participants would roam the event ground and took a look to some booths and the main stage. Only few of the participants were attracted to my yukata rental since we have competitor which I considered this as a bad omen. Next time, as a reminder, I need to check to the committee whether there is any similar or same yukata rental booth. But I've prepared myself to this kind of outcome.

About the kimono demo, it was carried out smoothly without any major  disruption or intrusion. The spectators were eager to watch the kitsuke demo. I only had a small annoyance with the microphone, as I need to show the komon items and demonstrate the way to put the kimono and the microphone was not clip-on. Thanks to Novi she helped me hold the microphone. I dressed Movi first then moved to Akina.

After the kitsuke demonstration, there was question and discussion time. Not much saying about the discussion session because this kind of kitsuke thing was a REAL NEW experience for the spectators I believe.

PS: Sorry, the pictures aren't in the correct order.