Whilst the Thai students were visiting, we were given the opportunity to try the traditional Japanese art of Kimono dressing. There are men’s kimonos as well as the famous flowery pink and blue ones, and yes - we both opted for the men’s ones. Something tells me having both your foreign volunteer teachers crossdressing might cause the school some media problems. Not that I wanted to crossdress anyway. No really. Hey, stop looking at me like that.
Both male and female kimonos have approximately thirty thousand layers each, which means they take quite a long time to put on, and if you’ve never done it before it’s impossible. Which is why it’s lucky I had two lovely ladies to help me. They did it at a shocking speed which rivals me getting up in the morning and chucking on a shirt and tie. If they had done it any quicker I’d just dump my whole suit in the bin and wear a kimono every day. As long as I lived in a perfectly flat place. Ah, gradual slopes, the mightiest of Japan’s enemies.
It took about twenty minutes for us to get kitted out fully, which includes carrying a little fan and wearing these wooden flip-flops that fall off every two steps. But simply getting dressed in them was not enough! We had to walk outside to take photos, which was a poor excuse for “possibly bump into students whilst wearing hilareous costume that doesn’t fit”. The joke was eventually on them, as the only people who saw us were the office staff, and nobody believes them anyway. Working near fax machines sends you crazy!
Having been sufficiently embarrased, and filled with a new hatred for stairs and wooden slippers, it was time for us to remove our kit and let the Thai students have a go. I have to admit, it was kind of fun wandering around dressed like that, although I’d be interested to see anyone run for a bus in one of these. Sadly we had to go, so we didn’t get to see the results of the dressing, but I was send this photo, which suggests everyone had a great time. Hurrah!
