tonight was the night of 1000 yukata. ok, not that many. i bought a yukata, which is like a light kimono japanese traditionally wear in the summer and around the house. it's summer so i want to wear a yukata. i want to wear one during nisei week specifically. i also bought geta (wooden sandals) but i have big feet so i had to get boy geta which doesn't exactly go with the femme yukata look i'm aiming for but shouganai! (it can't be helped) i already wrote about buying geta and it breaking but i bought the same thing again. if one geta breaks then i have one as a backup. it really doesn't matter which foot it goes on. i could decorate the geta i suppose and somehow make them look more femme but that's too much trouble for a lazy person.

summer yukata

i went to my mom's help so she could help me put it on and teach me how to do the obi (belt). this is my first time having japanese clothes as an adult. as a kid a couple of times i had a yukata but of course i didn't put it on or think about making sure i was wearing it correctly. if you don't put on these clothes often, you forget how to do it and that's what happened to my mom. she had a large plastic container full of yukata, kimono, and obi. it was one of those "i'm saving this for my daughter" things and i had no idea about it. i thought she had a few of her own which would be way too small for me. anyway, so we tried the one i bought and then she had me try on several more. perhaps on the 4th or 5th yukata, my mom started getting the obi right or close enough. it just takes practice. to put on the yukata correctly so that everything is tight, i don't think i could do this by myself.

after we had put on the first one and were examining it in the mirror, my mom's boyfriend came home and he was shocked to see my dressed up. i said in japanese, "i'm pretending to be japanese" and they laughed. my mom said i'm not pretending, i am japanese. that was a special moment because usually she treats me like i'm some adopted kid who's not japanese, that because i am half and grew up in america, i'm american so i can't call myself japanese. (the phrase japanese-american doesn't exist to her i guess.)

winter kimono

after that, i put on a yukata that i recognized from old photos, one my mom wore when she was young. my grandmother made it, i didn't know. it kinda fit better than the one i bought but overall i need to lose weight for these fucking clothes. i thought it would be awkward to wear traditional clothes but in some ways it was very natural. i guess it's because it's half my heritage. it just felt right. it did feel nice to wear something my mom wore when she was young. it was special. another outfit we tried on was a regular kimono, but not the full thing. it didn't look right, the color doesn't match my skin tones. but then they put on me a winter coat for kimonos and it looked alright. this could be my new year's outfit.

tomorrow my mom's friend is gonna teach my mom more about wearing traditional clothes because she does it more often than my mom. and i'm going to go back and we're going to try this again. i have plenty of time until nisei week to practice putting this on to get it right.