Strutting my stuff in Suizenji.

Suizenji Park holds a special place in my heart, so when I was offered the chance to be in a kimono fashion show there, it was an instant yes. Once a year they hold a kimono month, where people can learn how to dress themselves amongst other things. The penultimate event being the fashion show wanted a few foreigners involved, to which I happily obliged.

There were a variety of people there, ranging from adorable little grandma's wearing Kumamon obis (the part wrapped around the waist), to the sweetest 2 year old who had no idea what was happening,  but was happily dragged across stage by her older sister. Of course the bunch of foreigners were a novelty,  and our picture made it into a local newspaper reporting the event.

Despite being petrified that my clumsy self would be my downfall, thankfully I paraded around the stage with no problems and delivered my required speech to an okay-ish level. I do own my own furisode (kimono with long draping sleeves) but I'm saving that for some sort of special occasion. 

It was actually really nice to wear a different pattern to what I own, and we were super lucky to have a few hours to enjoy Suizenji Park wearing our kimono before and after the event.
If nothing else, I got paid about a tenner and gained a new profile picture out of it. A win win situation.