Sanja Matsuri
Yesterday was a really fun day! Leslie, Anna, Kaille, and I met up at Leslie's apartment in the morning. We spent about two hours doing make-up, hair, and getting all of us into our yukata (which involved conversations that unintentionally sounded like they should be in BDSM porn). Between tying the obi and making sure the seams on the yukata are lined up, it can take a bit of time to actually put the yukata on. It was worth all the time we spent getting ready though.
Me and Kaille in our yukata.~
(Someone else in the group has the pic of all four of us, but I don't have it yet.)
After taking some pictures, we walked from Leslie's apartment to Asakusa, where Sanja Matsuri (the biggest festival in Tokyo) was being held. Let me tell you, the four of us were quite popular, especially with the old men and old ladies. (I guess seeing a group of young foreign girls properly wearing yukata isn't too common. XD) Numerous people took pictures of us as we walked by. We were stopped a few times for pictures and one person taking a picture of us would suddenly turn into a whole group of people taking pictures of us. A couple people even asked for pictures with us, and after getting her picture taken with us, one little old lady gave all of us candy. We got a lot of nice compliments, too. People told us, in English and Japanese, how cute and pretty we looked. And only a few people commented on the fact that most of our group (except me) didn't have the proper footwear.
One of my favorite moments of the day was when we came back through Ueno Station. We had stopped to fix Leslie's obi and a couple of obaasans (old ladies) stopped to help us. The lines of Leslie's yukata were also pretty uneven, so one of the obaasans took it upon herself to help Leslie fix it, which involved reaching under the top flap of the yukata, near Leslie's thighs. As she's doing it, she says, "It's not weird, I'm an old lady". XD There was also another nice obaasan who fixed Kaille's obi for her when we stopped to get ice cream in Ueno Park.
When we got back to Leslie's place, we changed out of our yukata. Then, we sat around and talked about ~feelings~ for a long time. Some of us really needed to vent about some things, so I think it was good to get it out. We then went to Johnathan's for dinner and proceeded to talk more about feelings. I didn't end up getting home until after midnight, which was okay, but combined with the fact that I didn't sleep well last night made me pretty tired today.
I had the day off today to make up for working on Saturday. I missed trying to see the solar eclipse this morning because I was so tired. I went to bed late and was woken up a few hours later by a really creepy dream. I was finally able to get myself back to sleep, but then my alarm went off because I had forgotten that I didn't need to set it today. I fell back to sleep because I was so tired, but then by the time I actually woke up the eclipse was over. I did however meet up for lunch with Anna at our usual Himalayan restaurant. Then I did some grocery shopping and a bit of cleaning. Now I've just been relaxing because I'm tired and have a bit of a headache. I think I'm going to try to watch a movie and then go to bed early.
Me and Kaille in our yukata.~
(Someone else in the group has the pic of all four of us, but I don't have it yet.)
After taking some pictures, we walked from Leslie's apartment to Asakusa, where Sanja Matsuri (the biggest festival in Tokyo) was being held. Let me tell you, the four of us were quite popular, especially with the old men and old ladies. (I guess seeing a group of young foreign girls properly wearing yukata isn't too common. XD) Numerous people took pictures of us as we walked by. We were stopped a few times for pictures and one person taking a picture of us would suddenly turn into a whole group of people taking pictures of us. A couple people even asked for pictures with us, and after getting her picture taken with us, one little old lady gave all of us candy. We got a lot of nice compliments, too. People told us, in English and Japanese, how cute and pretty we looked. And only a few people commented on the fact that most of our group (except me) didn't have the proper footwear.
One of my favorite moments of the day was when we came back through Ueno Station. We had stopped to fix Leslie's obi and a couple of obaasans (old ladies) stopped to help us. The lines of Leslie's yukata were also pretty uneven, so one of the obaasans took it upon herself to help Leslie fix it, which involved reaching under the top flap of the yukata, near Leslie's thighs. As she's doing it, she says, "It's not weird, I'm an old lady". XD There was also another nice obaasan who fixed Kaille's obi for her when we stopped to get ice cream in Ueno Park.
When we got back to Leslie's place, we changed out of our yukata. Then, we sat around and talked about ~feelings~ for a long time. Some of us really needed to vent about some things, so I think it was good to get it out. We then went to Johnathan's for dinner and proceeded to talk more about feelings. I didn't end up getting home until after midnight, which was okay, but combined with the fact that I didn't sleep well last night made me pretty tired today.
I had the day off today to make up for working on Saturday. I missed trying to see the solar eclipse this morning because I was so tired. I went to bed late and was woken up a few hours later by a really creepy dream. I was finally able to get myself back to sleep, but then my alarm went off because I had forgotten that I didn't need to set it today. I fell back to sleep because I was so tired, but then by the time I actually woke up the eclipse was over. I did however meet up for lunch with Anna at our usual Himalayan restaurant. Then I did some grocery shopping and a bit of cleaning. Now I've just been relaxing because I'm tired and have a bit of a headache. I think I'm going to try to watch a movie and then go to bed early.